Harry Fuecks has posted two Mozilla related articles at phpPatterns() relating XUL to PHP:
Both are great articles in case you're interested in building something like XUL Channels.
You can suppress new windows generated by target="new" (or in the case of Zeldman, target="eljefe") by using about:config or adding user_pref("browser.block.target_new_window", true); in user.js.
To do this in with about:config, type about:config in the address box; right click anywhere in the browser; select New > String; paste in browser.block.target_new_window for the preference name, and then true for the string value.)
The upside of this is that it gives you, the user, control over what goes in a new window, tab, or not. The downside is that it requires modifying your behaviour in certain contexts, eg. having to right-click for a new window after the Rebuild popup in Movable Type (unless you like viewing your site in a tiny window). Windows generated by clicking a Javascript link, commonly used for weblog comments forms, will still pop-up as new windows with this pref set. [via comment at diveintomark]
Now that Thunderbird is "a go" as a project, I was thinking that it would be nice if someone made a Mac OSX specific version, just like Camino.
Does anyone know if this has been attempted? Started? Thought about?
Hopefully someone takes this project up, Camino is (in my opinion) back on top as the premier OS X browser and I'd love the same team to tackle an OS X Thunderbird implementation.
There's a great article on mozilla.org entitled Reasons to switch to Mozilla Firebird. All the graphics and icons are really well done.
I'd love to send it to people I'd like to convert to Mozilla. But when they ask where to download it, I'd have to say something like "Oh, you can get Phoenix 0.5 for now, but there's been a lot of changes since then so maybe you should download the Mar 20th nightly build instead." But then I'd probably be asked "Why am I downloading Phoenix when this says Firebird?" or "What's a nightly build?"
So really, it's easier just to wait for Mozilla Firebird 0.6 and send the article then.
In case you haven't heard, new Mozilla names have been "clarified". According to the article Mozilla Branding, the official name for pre Mozilla 1.4 is Mozilla Application Suite. After 1.4, focus will shift to the Firebird/Thunderbird "codename" projects, which will eventually be named Mozilla Browser and Mozilla Mail.
Phew! I hope they make profile migration easier cause creating all these new profiles is making me batty.
In case you're keeping track at home the Phoenix/Firebird name has changed from mozilla/browser (m/b) to Phoenix to Firebird to Mozilla Firebird to Mozilla Browser.
We've come round full circle. Nothing can possiblie go wrong.
There's a new Thunderbird nightly build. If you created a new profile during the last build when Minotaur got it's own profile directory, you'll have to create a new one again since Thunderbird has it's own profile directory. Oh the hoops you must jump through to play with nightly builds.
Anyways, the new build is about 2MB smaller due to recent DLL consolidation. There's also a newly designed default start page. The biggest change is that the Message Views feature seems to be gone. Not sure if this is a permanent thing or not, but I had just gotten used to it.
Update: Looks like the missing Message Views is either just me, or a packaging error and will return in next build.
After a long, long wait, the Firebird 0.6 milestone should be released any day now. You can follow the progress on the remaining few issues here
XUL Channels is an on-line RSS aggregator written in XUL and PHP/MySQL.
At this moment all XUL Channels do is display RSS feeds.
Later on you'll be able to create your own account etc.
Looks like a great project to keep an eye on.
PNH Developer Toolbar v0.5 is indeed a must have for any web developer. The Layout Tools menu has some very useful features like the ability to outline block and table elements, or ability to manually set or display the current window size. The View Source button also opens the current page's source in a new tab instead of a new window! You can also easily submit any page to any number of HTML or CSS validators.
It only works on Mozilla and Netscape though. Anyone know how to hack the xpi to make it work in Firebird? It could also use a shortcut key so that you can easily show/hide it.
[link via A Whole Lotta Nothing]
From MozillaZine: Phoenix and Minotaur to be renamed Firebird and Thunderbird
I really thought they would rename Phoenix to Mozilla Navigator. well, at least its not called Phallus.
Looking for an old version of Mozilla? evolt.org's Browser Archive has an archive of Mozilla releases dating back to m4, as well as mirrors for just about every other web browser ever released by any company
Michael Hendy of plugindoc has posted a FAQ about using plugins in Phoenix. I didn't know some plugins use Windows Registry to locate Mozilla based plugins.
Henrik Gemal has written another in-depth article entitled Using Mozilla in testing and debugging web sites where he describes some often over-looked features in Mozilla that allow you to quickly find and debug errors in your code.
Reader Byron Jones writes,
With Bug 162960 fixed, you can install extensions into your user profile directory. however for this to work, the xpi needs to be modified in the following way :
- download and extract the xpi
- edit install.js
- replace
getFolder("Chrome");withgetFolder("Profile", "chrome");- replace
registerChrome(.. | DELAYED_CHROME, ..withregisterChrome(.. | PROFILE_CHROME, ..- recreate xpi with updated install.js, and install
Remember, xpi files are just zip files. I just renamed extension.xpi to extension.xpi.zip, extracted it, edited the install.js as noted above, then rezipped the files to extension.xpi.zip, then renamed it back to extension.xpi, then opened the file in Mozilla/Phoenix. Simple right? :)
Get your extensions at mozdev.org, or get your Phoenix extensions from the Phoenix Help site.
Today's big Mozilla news is that mozilla.org has announced a new development roadmap. The major changes:
MozillaZine has all the details. The main reason for the change is to "address criticisms that the monolithic Mozilla suite is too bloated" and that "Phoenix is simply smaller, faster, and better". I think this is great news. I haven't used Mozilla as my default browser since Phoenix 0.1, and I haven't been using Mozilla at all since the Minotaur build was released. Setting the future 1.4 milestone as the stable branch should also give all the stability and performance fixes made since 1.0 to those users/companies who prefer upgrading only for stable milestones. Each app sharing a common GRE should also make each app even faster. The changes in CVS module ownership and such should mean that bug fixes and newer features get added faster.
I wonder what Netscape/AOL thinks of all this?