Rapid Application Development with Mozilla (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Mozilla (www.mozilla.org) is an Open Source toolset that programmers can use to rapidly develop user-oriented software applications without having to suffer restrictions of HTML-based Web development. It's an innovative interpretation of XML, JavaScript and component technologies, conveniently bundled together. Simply put, Mozilla is to Linux what Visual Basic is to Windows: an entry-level tool that can do simple jobs fast. This latest book in Bruce Perens' Open Source Series provides a clear, complete and easy-to-absorb introduction to Mozilla and its related technologies: XUL, XBL and XPCOM, and takes a competent programmer from zero to full understanding. Packed with screenshots, code fragments and shorter code listings, you'll learn a new, efficient development process and trend for UIs and how to create "thick client" UIs with Mozilla technology. Learn to translate basic HTML and programming skills into a new, simple system for software development and produce quick and portable user-oriented software systems. Note - there are one million users, thousands of mozilla.org contributors, and hundreds of Netscape engineers behind Mozilla.

From the Back Cover

A must-have read for anybody interested in learning to build sophisticated applications with the Mozilla application framework.—Mitchell Baker, President, The Mozilla Foundation

Mozilla has grown to become a powerful framework for building cutting-edge web applications. Rapid Application Development with Mozilla is an indispensable guide for developers of such applications.—Brendan Eich, Chief Architect, The Mozilla Foundation, and Creator of JavaScript

Far more than just a web browser, Mozilla is the platform of choice for today's application and web developer. An innovative blend of XML vocabularies, easy-to-use scripting languages, and pre-existing software objects, Mozilla is a powerful, standards-compliant platform whose functionality guarantees rapid application development (RAD).

In Rapid Application Development with Mozilla, web, XML, and Open Standards expert Nigel McFarlane explores Mozilla's revolutionary XML User interface Language (XUL) and its library of well over 1,000 pre-built objects. Using clear and concise instruction, McFarlane explains what companies such as AOL, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and others already know—that Mozilla and XUL are the keys to quickly and easily creating cross-platform, web-enabled applications. Coverage includes:

• A detailed introduction to the fundamentals and capabilities of Mozilla
• Full descriptions of Mozilla tools, including XUL, XBL, and XPCOM
• The RDF data format and its interactions with XUL, including Listboxes, Chrome, Overlays, Trees, and Templates
• Events, Forms, Menus, Navigation, and Commands using DOM, JavaScript™, and XUL
• Tips for integration into Windows® and Mac® systems
• A guide to deployment of finished applications
• Hundreds of examples, screenshots, and code listings

An additional feature of Rapid Application Development with Mozilla is the NoteTaker Web browser add-on—a sample Mozilla application that is developed throughout the book. When installed in a browser it allows you to add notes to web pages—even pages on other people's web sites! It is a memory and commentary tool that enhances repeat visits to a given site. This simple application provides a real-world example of all technologies used in the book.

If you're an application programmer or a web developer and you're looking for a productive, state-of-the-art, cross-platform programming tool, then Rapid Application Development with Mozilla is essential reading.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR (December 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131423436
• ISBN-13: 978-0131423435
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #771,726 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cluttered, but useful, May 4, 2004

By	C. Holloway "cLive ;-)" (Santa Monica, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Most good programming books have clear examples and good Appendices.

This book, unfortunately, decided to take the examples and the Appendix and shuffle them together.

Code examples for the 'Note Taker' application are hard to follow on first read through. Too much detail is given for tag options (that should have been in appendices), and the example app is never displayed in full.

It may just be me, but I learn quicker if I can see something practical and then have it explained. I can identify pieces of a puzzle much better if I know the context of each piece beforehand.

It may be "Rapid Application" Development, but I'm afraid it isn't Rapid "Application Development" in my opinion. It's obviously written by someone with a deep understanding of Mozilla application development - I just wished that they had tested it on some Mozilla newbies and taken on board feedback before publishing!

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Breaking New Ground: Mozilla Applications, January 27, 2004

By	Robert L. Cochran (Greenbelt, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is one of the most fascinating technical books I've read in some time. This book teaches something you want to know about, if you are a web programmer. Your education is not complete without it. You can definitely handle this, too. Discover why RAD on Mozilla is cool.

Nigel McFarlane's book offers an introduction to the vast of the capabilities of the Mozilla browser. Want to build an application? Download and install a copy of Mozilla (it's free), get this book, and start exploring Mozilla's vastly sophisticated application development framework. You don't need deep expertise in Mozilla internals to get applications started. I am working on a project for a client that will emphasize graphics. This book is helping me get started with it, even though I have no deep knowledge of Mozilla's workings. I'm now dabbling with XML User Interface Language (XUL), XML Binding Language (XBL), and Resource Description Framework (RDF), thanks to this book. I'm also getting indirect exposure to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), MathML, and Chemistry Markup Language (CML), as an unexpected side benefit. The Mozilla.org developers have implemented to some degree these interesting and deeply complex XML-related standards.

The book is easy to read. McFarlane is able to take extremely complex material and explain it in a way most people will understand. Go ahead, read the first few of Chapters 1 and 15: they will draw your interest and bring you into the next paragraph and the next. You can pick up this book, read the introductory material, and go right into Mozilla and start working. You will understand what McFarlane is talking about. The writing format should sustain your interest in experimenting and learning more and then going on to do your own applications.

I personally appreciate the choice of font, line spacing and font size. It seems easier on bifocal equipped older folks such as me. Each chapter begins with interesting diagrams referred to as "Not Perfectly Accurate (NPA) diagrams". They help you see how the chapter topic fits in to the application class object framework being discussed. There are all the things you come to expect of a good tech book: numerous screenshots, well-laid out tables, plenty of source code to dabble with. The publisher has done an excellent job of laying out and producing the book. There are very few typos compared to those littering many other technical books.

This book is going to give programmers using the Mozilla platform for applications a competitive edge. Mozilla, today, is available in many forms and is widely deployed. AOL deploys Mozilla in those stupid tin CD cans, and that gives Mozilla enormous critical mass. You can download Mozilla Firebird and Mozilla Thunderbird right now if you would like lighter-weight browser or email clients, respectively. Mozilla is catching on, and it is getting better every day. I highly recommend that you buy and read this book and then do some apps with Mozilla.

McFarlane suggests you visit his web site http://www.nigelmcfarlane.com/ , and it doesn't exist. Some readers might buy a book on the strength of the topic, the book examples, and the author's promise of downloadable source code. It can be disappointing not to see the promised web site and source code. But don't worry, the publisher offers downloadable source code through http://authors.phptr.com/mcfarlane. My other concern is that I wish this book were physically a bit larger in size. I like 8.5 inch X 11 inch page formats for books with a lot of screen shots and tabular data.

An overall must-have book.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Do not buy this book, October 2, 2004

A Kid's Review

I have amassed a large collection of guidebooks, learn-by-example books, and technical reference manuals over the years. I have a fairly short temper when it comes to poorly written books, so I tend to feel them out either at the book store, or if possible, online.

RAD w/Mozilla is no exception. I downloaded the free PDF version from the publisher's website, and have for the last 4 hours, been beating myself senseless trying to make heads/tails of the example code. In a word: Useless.

While the book itself is written in easy-to-read manner gramatically, it absolutely fails as a step-by-step guide for building an app with Mozilla.

Quite simply, the author has spent zero time, or so it seems, consolidating his examples. The slipshod manner in which he presents the examples, by scattering a piece here, a piece there, leaves the reader completely lost as to the continuity of the code. I find myself backtracking from chapter three to chapter two in order to make any sense of the NoteTaker code, and even then, nothing coalesces.

Don't buy this book, it's just awful. Instead, download the PDF available on the publisher's website. Either way, you, the reader, absolutely must follow each section of the book alongside the Errata on McFarlane's website. Without this, the book is nothing more than kindling.