How to do a Hello World application using XULRunner

Note: This page is still under construction

Setting up an application file structure

First set up the application file structure to the following:

 /xulapp
    /chrome
       /content
          main.xul
       chrome.manifest
    /defaults
       /preferences
          prefs.js
    application.ini

For more information about this section please visit the following link: File/Folder Structure

Setting up the application.ini file

The following is a sample application.ini file.

 [App]
 Vendor=Mylau
 Name=Hello World Application
 Version=1.0
 BuildID=20060101
 Copyright=Copyright (c) 2006 
 ID=xulTestApp@mylau.org
 
 [Gecko]
 MinVersion=1.8
 MaxVersion=1.8

To find more information about this file, click on the following link: application.ini File

Setting up the chrome.manifest file

For this example, the chrome.manifest file contains the following information:

 content myapp file:content/

To find more information about this file, click on the following link: chrome.manifest File

Setting up the prefs.js file

The following was used for this simple application.

pref("toolkit.defaultChromeURI", "chrome://myapp/content/main.xul");

The pref function needs to be passed in two arguements. In this scenario, this document provided an explaination on what those two arguements are:

• toolkit.defaultChromeURI is a preferences which allows a simple XULRunner-based application to open a new window
• chrome://myapp/content/main.xul is the location of the main XUL file.

To find more information about this file, click on the following link: prefs.js File

Creating some XUL

For the simplicity of this application, we're going to create a simple XUL window that says hello world. First create a file called "main.xul". This file will be located in the following directory:

 /myapp
   /content
     main.xul

This file will conatin the following code. This code will popup a XUL window with the words "hello word"

  <?xml version="1.0"?>
  <?xml-stylesheet href="chrome://global/skin/" type="text/css"?>

  <window id="main" title="My App" width="300" height="300"
    xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul">
    <caption label="Hello World"/>
  </window>
  

Running the application

To run the application, type the following:

If your on Windows:

 xulrunner.exe application.ini

If your on Linux:

xulrunner application.ini

If your on Mac:

 /Library/Frameworks/XUL.framework/xulrunner-bin application.ini

Make sure your in the application level of the XULRunner application.

References

• XULRunner Tutorial
• Getting started with XULRunner
• Deploying XULRunner
• XUL Application Packaging