Portable DXR

Name of Project

Portable Dehydra Cross Referene (PDXR)

Description

This project aims to turn the DXR into an extension that can be installed in Firefox or distributed as a XUL/Prism application. This will allow developers with limited or no internet connection to access the Mozilla source code and documentation in an offline environment. The extension will also provide a low-bandwidth solution for applying updates on a timed interval or at the user's command.

The DXR is a compilation of Mozilla developer documentation. The plan is for this material to be distributed on a Fedora Live DVD that will allow the user to access these materials offline or, alternatively, install them for use on a Windows machine.

Currently the Local MXR and MDRK exist as web applications that run only on Fedora and require the installation of MySQL, Perl and apache. These projects have to be setup manually and are not installable. Our part in this project would be to convert these projects so that they can be installed cross-platform as a Mozilla Firefox extension.

Leaders

James Boston

Samer Ziadeh

Jerry Pau

Details

Related Projects

• Mozilla Developer Resource Kit: This is the over-arching project of which the PDXR is but one piece.
• Creating an MDRK spin: This is how this project will eventually be distributed.
• Create a local mxr: It is hoped that by solving the more difficult problem of packaging the dxr, the problem of packaging other materials such as an mxr or developer documentation will also be solved.

Technical Overview

Business Rules

• Must not sell project for profit
• Commit to lowest file size bandwidth

Source

• Backend: Perl
• Database: SQLite
• Interface: XUL

Perl Interpreter

We are still researching a Perl parser to fit our description. The section will be updated regularly

The Perl parser will be needed by the files in charge of talking to the internet and the database. It should be able to connect to the update server and download the update log, then apply the updates to the database accordingly.

List of Perl interpreters and resources:

• perlembed
• PerlMonks
• use Perl
• Wikipedia Perl

Web Server

We are still researching for a light-weight webserver. This section be updated regularly.

Our picks (so far):

• SHTTPD
• dlib C++
• Cheetah Server
• Pure Perl CGId
• nginx (Embedding example code)

List of web servers:

• Wikipedia's List
• IBM's List

Features

• Running server side Mozilla code on the local machine. The extension will have an embedded server that will handle the server-side scripting.
• Notify the user that their database may be out-of-date 30 days after last update.
• Option to allow compression of data download.

Users

• Developers with limited or slow internet connection

Architecture

The architecture is still undergoing development and this section will be updated regularly.

High level conceptualization

Mozilla-Central

Mozilla-Central is the main repository for Mozilla source code. This is the raw fodder out of which documentation will be created. How it is created doesn't really appear on our diagram unless you count the "How does this happen?" note.

Well, how it happens is through a static analysis tool called Dehydra. In layman's terms, Dehydra reads the Mozilla source code and annotates it in a way that can be turned into documentation in an automated fashion. This part is another project entirely and as it relates to our project, the relevant work is being done by David Humphrey. However, our team will need to setup the Dehyra tool to feed our update server.

Update Server

Although this project is all about building a tool for browsing documentation off-line, that documentation is in a constant state of flux. It would be useful to be able to refresh it when need be. The update server needn't be terribly complex. A simple Apache server and some CGI work should suffice.

However, it needs to be worked out exactly what kind of update is being pushed. Is it a binary diff of the sqlite database? And if so, will it need to keep a collection of diffs based on a original dataset in order to service users who haven't sync'd for some time. There's also the question of whether the update mechanism build into Mozilla for extensions is useful to us. We need to do some research on how extension updates work.

Application

Web Browser

The application front-end holder. It provides a way for the application to be accessed. It is not limited to Firefox web browser only, it can also be run as a Prism application.

Extention

The front-end application. It's CGI tools are responsible for communicating with the core application and fetching the data to the application. The application then parses the data and populates the UI as neccessary.

DXR

The core application has the following functionalities:

• Database querying
• Update services
• Data transaction

News & Updates

Meetings (Chronological)

Sept 26, 2008: Discussion with David Humphrey about project scope.

Oct 2, 2008: Discussion with David Humphrey about technical details of DXR.

Oct 8, 2008: Team meeting to discuss Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Oct 16, 2008: Team meeting to discuss technical details of project

Oct 29, 2008: Further discussions with David Humphrey about documenting the project.

Oct 30, 2008: Group meeting to map out high level design.

Nov 5, 2008: Team meeting with David Humphrey about progress.

Team Blogs

• James Boston: All relevant posts are tagged 'pdxr'.
• Samer Ziadeh
• Jerry Pau

IRC

• #PDXR
• #seneca

TODO

• Need to get a perl (and python?) interpreter into the extension or into an installer so it lives locally as well (Samer Ziadeh).
  • Must work within the extension
  • Doesn't need to be ligthweight.
  • Needs to work with the extension on Windows, Mac, and Linux

• Someone has to figure out how to mash a web server into an extension.
  There is research to be done there on all the options, compare them (which platform, license, complexity, etc.).

• Have to figure out how to:
  • Get updates from David's dxr or mozilla-central.
  • Push updates to the extension.