Completing a Configuration for Chrome and a Server

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In this fourth article in a four-part series on configuring Firefox for Chrome and a server, you will learn how to create a XUL file, how to make login changes, and more. This article is excerpted from chapter four of Programming Firefox, written by Kenneth C. Feldt (O'Reilly, 2007; ISBN: 0596102437). Copyright © 2007 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission from the publisher. Available from booksellers or direct from O'Reilly Media.

Creating a XUL File to Be Served

The XUL source to be served will actually be sent by a PHP script—but a good first step is to develop a XUL file that we will convert into PHP.

We copy the newssearch.js and NewsSearchStyle.css files into the Apache root directory.

We will copy the newssearch.xul file but rename it to startupScreen.xul. We also change the source file to remove the login areas, replacing them with the graphics that render a successful login screen:

  <hbox id="contentArea"
    style="borderColor:gray;
     border-style:ridge;background-color:LightSeaGreen;
     border-color:gray;" flex="3" >

   <spacer flex="1"/>
   <vbox > <!-- stack message and login controls vertically -->
     <spacer flex="1"/>
       <description id="msgDescription">
        Welcome.
       </description>
       <spacer flex="1"/>
   </vbox>
   <spacer flex="1"/>

  </hbox>

Configuring the Server

Without “understanding” what to do with a XUL file, the Apache web server would deliver a XUL file to a browser as an XML text file. A browser receiving such a file most often just presents the source to the user of the browser.

We must add an entry to either the mime.types or the httpd.conf file for Apache:

  application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml      xul

After making this change, restarting the web server will allow us to enter the XUL file reference URL:

  http://localhost/startupScreen.xul

The browser will now render the XUL interface shown earlier in our client/server implementation.

Next: PHP Serving XUL >>
 

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