How to do a Hello World application using XULRunner
Note: This page is still under construction
Contents
Setting up an application file structure
First set up the application file structure to the following:
/applicationName
/chrome
/applicationName
your app files
chrome.manifest
/defaults
/preferences
prefs.js
application.ini
This file structure is used on a Linux platform. If your using a different platform, please visit Deploying XULRunner 1.8 to find the file struture for your specific platform.
Notes:
Users can change the name of the italicized filename and folders
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
Setting up the chrome.manifest file
For this example, the chrome.manifest file contains the following:
content myapp file:content/
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.
Creating some XUL
For the similicity of this application, we're going to create a simple XUL window that says hello world.
<?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.
