Programming Firefox: Building Rich Internet Applications with XUL [Paperback]

Kenneth C. Feldt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0596102437 | ISBN-13: 978-0596102432 | Edition: 1

This is your guide to building Internet applications and user interfaces with the Mozilla component framework, which is best known for the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client. Programming Firefox demonstrates how to use the XML User Interface Language (XUL) with open source tools in the framework's Cross-Platform Component (XPCOM) library to develop a variety of projects, such as commercial web applications and Firefox extensions.

This book serves as both a programmer's reference and an in-depth tutorial, so not only do you get a comprehensive look at XUL's capabilities--from simple interface design to complex, multitier applications with real-time operations--but you also learn how to build a complete working application with XUL. If you're coming from a Java or .NET environment, you'll be amazed at how quickly large-scale applications can be constructed with XPCOM and XUL.

Topics in Programming Firefox include:

• An overview of Firefox technology
• An introduction to the graphical elements that compose a XUL application
• Firefox development tools and the process used to design and build applications
• Managing an application with multiple content areas
• Introduction to Resource Description Files, and how the Firefox interface renders RDF
• Manipulating XHTML with JavaScript
• Displaying documents using the Scalable Vector Graphics standard and HTML Canvas
• The XML Binding Language and interface overlays to extend Firefox
• Implementing the next-generation forms interface through XForms

Programming Firefox is ideal for the designer or developer charged with delivering innovative standards-based Internet applications, whether they're web server applications or Internet-enabled desktop applications. It's not just a how-to book, but a what-if exploration that encourages you to push the envelope of the Internet experience.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ken Feldt is a systems engineer and software developer with background in bit-slice raster image processor design, real-time process control, USB development, digital video workflow, and consumer-grade video authoring techniques. He holds undergraduate degrees in electronics engineering technology and an MBA in marketing from Canisius College in Buffalo, NY.

On the technical side, Ken work with various XML applications for science and engineering, currently building a business utilizing XUL and SVG to facilitate technical communications. His broader focus includes exploitation of various XML vocabularies to move the IT world more closely to the disciplines of science and the arts.

He enjoys public speaking (once competing in a humorous speech contest for Toastmasters International and actually winning a few rounds), and takes particular pleasure in the 'old world' skills of oratory, rhetoric, and creative writing.

Ken's writing objectives focus on topics that help experienced engineers and software developers ramp up on new technologies, always trying to look at things from the perspective of the subject matter novice.

Ken also takes an interest in following the trail of how new technologies affect the social and industrial fabric of communities, and he is fully engaged in studying how innovation and entrepreneurship are both required in order to drive successful new business models.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (May 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596102437
• ISBN-13: 978-0596102432
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #580,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad but not comprehensive either, June 24, 2007

By 

V. Sinitsyn (Urals, Russian Federation) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Programming Firefox: Building Rich Internet Applications with XUL (Paperback)

Back in 2005, I've read "Rapid Application Development with Mozilla" by Nigel McFarlane - pretty big and comprehensive (I think) book about Mozilla platform. I'm not a web developer but I always try to keep up with the latest developments in the industry, so I was looking for a book which covers Firefox peculiarities. That was my primary motivation for buying "Programming Firefox" by Kenneth C. Feldt.

The book itself was a bit disappointment: it was not as comprehensive as I expected it to be (honestly, I thought it would be both comprehensive and slim - probably I was just asking for too much). The author employ "learning by doing" approach - in the first half of the book he develops a XUL application and explains things required to build it. Although this approach works really well for the magazines where you are limited in space, when you read a book you expect more general discussion which is applied to the specific subject only at the very latest step. If you are trying to explain everything using only one (or very few) program(s) as a test base you will necessarily limit the discussion to topics relevant to that problem - which is again okay for the magazine but not for the textbook. The most notable omissions from the book in this sense are: whole XPCOM framework (several interfaces and the way to create the components via XPConnect are mentioned briefly but it does not go any further solving problems relevant for the example application); keys, keysets and commands (nothing was said about it), Mozilla-specific CSS attributes (-moz-appearance is mentioned briefly), complicated layouts (deck, stack and the friends). I would also prefer to see brief introduction to JavaScript.

A strong part of the book is that it's not limited to XUL/XBL - SVG, XForms and canvas tag are also mentioned. Unfortunately (and again), only XForms are covered throughly - when it comes to SVG you see small subset of features required to build bar diagram.

As mentioned in the previous review, code is formatted badly (and actually I can object some of the techniques employed therein) - but I don't think its a big drawback of the book. The worse thing is that there is too much code - not only snippets, but the whole programs. They take up precious place ans are hard to read from the paper anyway.

In the conclusion, it's not a brilliant book on the subject. Given the absence of the modern books on XUL programming and its relatively small size in terms of pages, I recommend you buy it if you want to get a taste of Firefox development, but if you need an old-school textbook, better opt for "Rapid development..." or whatever. I'm giving it four-stars anyway - there is no point for being too strict to the author and the publisher who are willing to promote good under-documented technology.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I expect quality from O'Reilly, July 25, 2007

By 

M. Golara (California, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Programming Firefox: Building Rich Internet Applications with XUL (Paperback)

Well well... I bought this book a month ago to develop a Firefox extension for work. I must say it's a terrible book. There's no pedagogy, and the content is VERY incomplete.

It deals mostly with XUL widget programming. it will teach you how to set the developer environment, how to interfere with the user, how to deploy THAT'S IT. poor examples, bad coding practices... I spent 60 box for this useless book...

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book is OK, but the code samples are terrible, June 20, 2007

By 

B. Summers (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Programming Firefox: Building Rich Internet Applications with XUL (Paperback)

This is another book in which the author (or the publisher) couldn't be bothered to format its code samples. This would be so easy to do and I am sick of seeing this twisted, unreadable mess in my programming books.

Nested code is not indented, braces commonly do not line up, and barely any care was taken to indicate scope at all. It is also littered with useless comments that do not indicate the purpose of the code it should be describing, but rather to mark that the end of a block of code has been reached. Having a try-block followed by the comment " // try" is nowhere near as useful to me as if the code would have been readable in the first place.

The book is fairly respectable as a reference, however, and does make a nice complement to Essential XUL Programming, which is a little old but still quite serviceable.

Overall I would not purchase this book again. Combining the above mentioned text with the xulplanet web site is quite enough. My summary of this book is that it has the potential to be useful, but is generally very irritating to read.