• Thursday August 28th 2008
• Do you want fries with that project?

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xulapp

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Installation

Download XulApp Original Version

At this time XulApp is available mainly for developers.
Feel free to download XulApp - but it is not ready for production use.

Changes can be viewed here.

First download Firefox

For the time being XulApp will not run under Mozilla browser. It is necessary to download and install the Firefox browser. The latest release is available from www.mozilla.org. Some bugs in Firefox impact Xul App. When fixes for these bugs become available, you may require the latest nightly build for your platform. I will try to keep you informed.

You should opt for the Customized Install and select the Development Tools option.

Then switch to the Firefox Browser

The following steps will not work in any other browser.

Then install the Venkman Javascript Debugger

This can be obtained and installed from Mozilla.org:Venkman.

Allow XulApp.mozdev.org to install extensions

If you have previously installed XulApp you may skip this step.
Otherwise, you will need to add xulapp.mozdev.org to the whitelist of sites allowed to install extensions:

• Enter about:config in the Firefox URL box.
• Scroll down to the entry for xpinstall.whitelist.add and double click on the value column. Enter xulapp.mozdev.org in the dialog box and click OK.

Then install XulApp

The latest version is 0.2 Build 13. Install Now
If the Download Manager is displayed instead of the Install Manager please save the xulapp0.2.13.xpi file to disk. You may then install XulApp by opening this file in Firefox from menu File>Open File.

I have not yet attempted to add Start Menu or Desktop shortcuts as part of the install.
You should set up a batch file to invoke XulApp as follows:

firefox.exe -chrome chrome://xulapp/content/xulapp.xul

It is a good idea to add the directory where you have installed firefox to your path environment variable.

Notes:

1. If you previously installed an earlier version than 0.2.11 you may need to perform the install twice. This first install should remove the Zombie entry which said it was going to be uninstalled next restart (but never was). The second install should then do the trick.
2. I can install correctly and run on Windows 2000, Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP SP2. I have no reports of Linux or Mac installs.
3. If Firefox hangs when you launch XulApp please check that Venkman (Downloadable Extension) and DOM Inspector (Installation option) are installed. I will remove these requirements in an upcomming version.

Caveats

XulApp is in the early stages of development.

• You should not use it to edit files you value.
• You should create a backup of the installed-chrome.txt file from the FirefoxDIR/chrome directory.
  , where FirefoxDIR is the directory where you installed the Firefox program. XulApp writes to this file when creating a new project, so caution is justified.

  Using XulApp

  1. Create a new project. Project>New>New Project.
  2. Create a new XUL form Project>New>XUL file.
  3. Click on the toolbox icon to display available widgets.
  4. Drag a widget from the toolbox onto the widget tree display.
  5. Have fun. [Traditional injunction for software which is short on documentation.]