Essential XUL Programming (Paperback)

~ (Author), Kevin T. Smith (Author), Michael C. Daconta (Author) "What is XUL?..." (more)
Key Phrases: xul document, xul file, rdf data source, Netscape Navigator, Relevant Chapters, Properties Used (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"this is the only book I have seen, at the time of writing, dealing entirely with XUL" -- The Computer Bulletin - BCS, March 2002

**** Rating
"this is the only book I have seen, at the time of writing, dealing entirely with XUL" (The Computer Bulletin - BCS, March 2002)

Product Description

A revolutionary new technology for the rapidly expanding world of e-commerce, XUL (XML User Interface Language) is an XML-based user interface language that gives Web developers control over all aspects of the
Web interface. Featuring two tutorials on programming with XUL, this book shows developers how to use basic XUL elements to build a sample interface for an e-commerce site, then goes on to explore more sophisticated applications by creating an information portal inside an application. Readers will find expert tips and advice on how to get started writing XUL code as well as how to extend it into Java and other non-Netscape interfaces.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471415804
• ISBN-13: 978-0471415800
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #403,876 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars weak, somewhat deprecated, March 6, 2007

By	Eitan C. Suez "eitan" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

xul appears to have changed a lot since this book was printed.
many of the xul tags discussed and used, the xul templates used,
have changed. thus, most of the xul examples in the book are
not going to work in firefox.

e.g. the xul css skin url is no longer the same. lots of tags
such as "titledbox" have been renamed.

i'd say this content is deprecated.

also, in my opinion, these chapters add no value
to the book and in general weakens the
existing content:

an xml primer
css
the jxul project

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! Very little BS, October 23, 2001

By	Nathaniel Weeks (San Joaquin, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Bought this book about a month ago, so I think I've had a pretty good chance to review it. It's very good, despite the fact that Mozilla hasn't got up off their keesters yet! I'm an XML developer with limited Java experience, but the JXUL project they put in there as their open source project is very, very cool! That I think was worth the price of the book.

I personally thought the RDF chapter was a monster (scary to me!) but very well covered! I'm sure when I progress as a programmer I'll be doing a lot of the RDF.

I think the book is very well written, especially considering I am still a beginner/intermediate web developer.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, But Gets Complex!, August 4, 2001

By	"ashokjus" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

I just picked up a copy of this book a few days ago, and I was impressed with the in-depth sections on the book (XBL, RDF & XUL Templates, for example). I feel that the book is layed out in a very good way - the first section has overview of 'the basics' (CSS, XML, XUL), the second section has advanced features, and the third section had case studies. For people who are new to programming, and don't know XML, I would recommend another book before you start this one. The later chapters may be too complex and hard to digest for non-programmers.

For me, I am familiar with XML and some of the Mozilla technologies, so I could skip over the intro section of the book. I am finding a lot of benefit out of the XUL Programmer's Reference section, as well as the advanced section. This book, used in combination with xulplanet.com, can be a good resource.