O'Reilly Network: Mozilla DevCenter

Next week I plan on looking over the error logs of the latest log replay and continuing to write a program to create new projects that can be run periodically (from cron) with reduced privileges.

After reading ViewAbout post written by Gary Kwong I was curious to see what Komodo should have shown.

Komodo doesn’t require to write an extension to implement a similar feature, it is sufficient to write a macro

So I’ve written the code that adds a popup menu inside Help menu and amazing it worked immediately

The macro can be triggered at startup but it is added only on first window open because Komodo doesn’t have a “on open new window” trigger but it can be easily simulated adding a listener.

The code shown below is the complete Komodo Javascript macro, nothing else is necessary.

var abouts = ["about:buildconfig",
"about:config",
"about:crashes",
"about:credits",
"about:license",
"about:mozilla",
"about:plugins"];
var menuAbouts = document.createElement(“menu”);
menuAbouts.setAttribute(“label”, “All�abouts:”);
var menuAboutsPopup = document.createElement(“menupopup”);
menuAbouts.appendChild(menuAboutsPopup);
var helpMenuSeparator = document.getElementById(“menu_helpShowKeybindings”).nextSibling;
var helpMenu = helpMenuSeparator.parentNode;
helpMenu.insertBefore(menuAbouts, helpMenuSeparator);
for (i in abouts) {
var menuitem = document.createElement(“menuitem”);
menuitem.id = abouts[i];
menuitem.openAbout = openAbout;
menuitem.setAttribute(“label”, abouts[i]);
menuitem.setAttribute(“oncommand”, “this.openAbout(’” + abouts[i] + “‘)”);
menuAboutsPopup.appendChild(menuitem);
}
function openAbout(about) {
var docSvc = Components.classes['@activestate.com/koDocumentService;1']
.getService(Components.interfaces.koIDocumentService);
var doc = docSvc.createDocumentFromURI(about);
ko.views.manager.topView.createViewFromDocument(doc, “browser”);
}

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For those of you who do not know, Songbird does not come with Google as a listed search engine in the integrated search. This is something Firefox users have had for a long time. Google-search for Songbird adds that same functionality.

This version brings a couple of minor incremental changes. Firstly, and most importantly, it now supports the 1.0 branch. Secondly, it now displays a Google 'G' favicon in the add-ons manager.

I started working at Mozilla Corporation as a platform evangelist and was able to get up to speed fairly quickly, in a large part because of help from various community members. In my evangelism role, I really enjoyed getting to travel around and talk about Mozilla technology to anybody who wanted to listen. The Developer Day meet-ups were especially fun. I’m on the Mozilla Mobile team now, but still like to do evangelism work when I can.

One problem we had with Developer Days was trying to figure out where “concentrations” of Mozilla developers, or people interested in Mozilla development, were located. It made it hard to plan locations for Developer Day events. Recently, someone on IRC asked about Mozilla User Groups and if there was anyone located near him (Rayleigh/Durham area in this case). I couldn’t give him any definitive answer, but it did get us talking about how we could start collection information about where Mozilla developers are located and if they meet periodically. The only such group I know of is the NorthWestMozDev group.

What other groups are out there? Perhaps using Meetup might be a good way to can track of various Mozilla groups. There are already Mozilla and XUL categories on Meetup. Hopefully, this could help other interested developers meet people and get involved with Mozilla. It can also help Mozilla find great locations to have Developer Day events.

You don’t need to be a hard core Mozilla developer. Developer Days are focused on anybody with an interest in Mozilla projects, products or technologies.

I wrote a Thunderbird extension (and my first one too!) that allows the display of all available about: windows in Thunderbird. Shredder Alpha 3 and above is required though. It is called ViewAbout and can be downloaded from Mozilla Add-ons.

Enables access to various about: dialogs from the View menu.
Every available about: dialog can be viewed - about:buildconfig, about:config, about:crashes, about:credits, about:license, about:mozilla, about:neterror (seemingly useless) and about:plugins.
These windows can be closed using Ctrl(or cmd)-w.

In just 15 minutes, the European session of our Support Firefox Day starts, where we’ll introduce people to SUMO localization and discuss Mozillas goals for 2010. For the full schedule, see the previous announcement on the Mozilla Blog.

Head over to the Support Firefox Day page, tune in to the video channel to see my Scandinavian face, log in to the chat, and engage in the discussions!

As some mozillians may have noticed, since the recent Barcelona event, I'm spending some of my time helping Mark Surman (recently appointed Executive Director for Mozilla Foundation) with regards to the 2010 goals.

I have encouraged Mozilla contributors to discuss goals by email, and now I'm trying another format.

Since I was in Mountain View (California) last week, I had a quick video interview with Mitchell Baker about the Mozilla 2010 goals:

Tiffney has done a transcript of the video so that it's more accessible. Here is an excerpt, as Mitchell explains why Mozilla needs these 2010 goals:

I encourage the broad Mozilla community to participate to the goals discussion. It's simple:

Now there is another way to participate today. As some of you may have seen, today is the Support Firefox Day, 4th edition. During this event, discussions related to the 2010 goals will take place on IRC at 14:30 (Central European time, that is GMT+1), with Mozilla's Swedish rock star, David Tenser (the event starts at 13:00, but the Goals part is at 14:30). More details on David's post and on the Support Firefox Day 4 page. Later in the day at 12:30 (Pacific time, GMT-8), a similar discussion will happen with Mitchell herself. Be there or be square!

Notes

[1] Don't let the FR form intimidate you. Use a nickname and fake email address or if you want. Click on Pr�visualiser (preview), proofread your comment, then click again on Envoyer (Send). It's easy! Comments are moderated, so don't freak out if you don't see it right away.

I’m excited about the upcoming ADD-on-CON happening in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View on December 11. There are some great talks planned, and representatives will be there from most of the major browser vendors including Mozilla, Microsoft, and Google.

It is a 1-day event and the registration fee is reasonable. There is a Technical track, and a Business Marketing track. If you have any sort of vested interest in extending the Web browser, and are interested in participating in discussions on the future of the Web browser, come along!

There are plans for a Mozilla open-house event focusing on Add-ons the night before, on December 10th. I’ll post more about that once the details have been finalised.

There has been a lot going on for the Mozilla crash reporting system. Here are some quick links for project activity:

If you’re living in Asia or Australia, or if you live in Europe and just got up, or if you live in the Americas and you’re a night owl — the action is just about to start.

What are you waiting for? Head over to the Support Firefox Day page, tune in to the video channel, log in to the chat, and engage in the discussions!

Couldn’t resist. If you feel compelled to supply an alternate caption feel free to leave a comment.

According to the Firefox in your country survey tabbed browsing is still viewed as the most compelling Firefox feature!

Here’s the exact question: What do you think would be the most compelling product feature for people who you know?

Note: The data below highlights some of the statistically significant differences between groups. Remember that in each care we’re comparing a group with its peers. For example, people who have been using Firefox for more than 2 years are compared to people who have been using Firefox for other amounts of time or aren’t using it. In all cases, having a group more or less likely to have picked an option does not mean it’s their top choice, just that people in the group were more likely than in other groups to choose the option. Also, the overall numbers include all responses, including those coming from countries not targeted in the pilot.

Tabbed browsing (28.9%)

Overall, tabbed browsing is the most frequently selected feature, ahead of the add-ons manager and the phishing and malware protections. It is more likely to be chosen by people who have been using Firefox for a long time, which might indicate that these users know how to make the most of tabs on Firefox (since there are many clever tricks with tabs, even more if you have add-ons). It could also indicate that these users still remember the time when only Firefox had tabs (you can see that people who use another browser as their primary are less likely to have selected tabs).

Smart location bar (9.8%)

The smart location bar (“awesome bar”) is less likely to be chosen by Firefox 2 users (5.8%), which makes sense since the feature was not available until Firefox 3. What the surprising was that there was no difference between the people who have been using Firefox for a long time and new users, or depending on how much time people spend on the Internet. The awesomeness of the awesomebar increases as you use the browser more, so I would have expected a different result here.

Session restore (8.7%)

The hypothesis here is that session restore is more popular with more recent and “light” Firefox users: people who have used Firefox for 2–6 months were the most likely to choose this feature (I would guess that the less than 1 month group has not discovered the feature yet), people who have not installed add-ons, or aren’t sure what version of Firefox they use also were more likely to choose this one. Maybe people who have been using Firefox for 2 years or more are so used to the feature they don’t notice it anymore?

Don’t know/No opinion (7.5%)

This one shouldn’t be very interesting, except that it’s more likely for people using Firefox for less than 1 month (15.6%) and people who don’t use it (21.9%) to have selected this option. It’s also more likely for people who have not installed add-ons (14.6%).
This indicates that features are discovered and adopted over time. So how can we help Firefox users learn about all its cool features sooner?

Other (5.4%)

We’re still processing the results for the open-ended questions, more on what “other” are later…

One-click bookmarks (3.1%)

Much like session restore, this feature is more likely to be chosen by newer Firefox users, people who spend less time on the web, and don’t have add-ons. A very puzzling stat is that they are more likely to report using Firefox 1, which does not have 1-click bookmarks… maybe there was confusion and people thought of bookmarks in general, or maybe they’re not really using Firefox 1.

Password Manager (1.7%)

Just like session restore and one-click bookmarks, password manager is chosen as the most compelling feature most often by newer Firefox users. One troubling stat below is the fact that people who use Firefox in cybercafes are more likely to choose password manager.

Country-specific data

The number match the overall numbers, except for one small exception: people in Australia were more likely to pick “other” (9.8%) as their top feature.

We launched the pilot Firefox in your country survey last September and received 9,506 responses, which is amazing given the length of the survey (20 questions). Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond and to spread the word about the survey.

Since this is the first time we ran the survey, we wanted to do a test run first and targeted 7 countries: Brazil, India, Germany, Poland, Indonesia, Spain, and Australia. However, answers came in from all over the world! Given the enthusiasm, we’re definitely planning to extend the survey to more countries.

The next round should happen in mid-December with revised questions and a new list of countries. If you’re interested in helping to localize the survey or to promote it in your country, let us know!

Many thanks to Stas for his help in setting up the survey and analyzing the results.

We will have a scheduled maintenance window tonight from 10:00pm to 12:00pm PST. The following changes will take place:

Please let me know if you have any reason why we should not proceed with this planned maintenance. As always, we aim to keep downtime to as little as possible, but unexpected complications can arise causing longer downtime periods than expected. All systems should be operational by the end of the maintenance window.

Feel free to comment directly in that bug (or this blog) if you see issues past the planned downtime.