Changes

You can get involved with any of the projects below. Please see [[Assignment 2]] for details. To join a project create a page for it, following the example of [[Sample Project]] below.

We worked with partners to create an [http://www.joga.com/jogacompanion.aspx extension] for delivering World Cup scoring updates as well as providing country-specific themes. We'd like someone to take it apart, remove or refactor the [http://www.joga.com/jogacompanion.aspx Joga]-specific pieces so that it can be used for other such data sources (hello, hockey?), and write some basic documentation for how to create your own notification-and-theme extension from the toolkit that results.

Related tech and skills: XUL, JavaScript, documentation, web services

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XULRunner XULRunner project] provides an "application runner" for building apps -- like Firefox, Thunderbird, and Sunbird -- atop the [http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Toolkit_API Mozilla toolkit] framework. It needs a guide outlined, high-priority parts written, and examples created to help people get started.

Reference: http://cs.senecac.on.ca/fsoss/2006/workshop.html#XULRunner

The current [http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Guide JavaScript guide] and [http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Reference reference ] are valuable, but in serious need of updating in both structure and content (new language features, more relevant compatibility information, improved examples).

Related tech and skills: documentation, JavaScript

It's common for a developer to want to "watch" all the bugs that are filed in a certain [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org Bugzilla] component. Mozilla uses a convoluted and painful system of synthetic accounts to simulate this capability, and we'd all really prefer to be able to do it more directly and with less opportunity for error.

Reference: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=76794 Bug 76794]

Lots of people would like to script Firefox from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleScript AppleScript] (or, more generally, from the [http://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppleScript/Conceptual/AppleScriptX/Concepts/osa.html OSA]), and extension authors would like to be able to call out to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleScript AppleScript]/[http://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppleScript/Conceptual/AppleScriptX/Concepts/osa.html OSA] from their code as well.

Reference: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=125419 Bug 125419]

The [http://code.google.com/p/airbag/ Airbag project] is developing an open source crash reporting and analysis system, analogous to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_reporter#Talkback Talkback]. There's lots of work to do on wiring it into the build system, operating servers for collecting and analyzing data, and extending Firefox's use of it to collect additional helpful information (like installed extensions, memory usage, etc.)

Reference: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216827 Bug 216827], [http://gemal.dk/blog/2006/09/13/talkback_to_be_replaced_by_airbag/?from=rss-category here], and [http://benjamin.smedbergs.us/blog/2006-09-12/deploying-the-airbag/ here]

The [http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/ Calendar project] has lots of stuff for people to do, from [http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/default.mspx Exchange] connectors to off-line caching to bug fixes and minor features galore. A good place to start is the #calendar IRC channel on moznet.

It would be great to store Firefox's saved passwords in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Keychain OS X keychain], for consistency and ease of use.

Reference: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=106400 Bug 106400]

The [http://developer.mozilla.org Mozilla Developer Center] would like to add a CSS guide to its set of major documents, covering at least the top 100 CSS properties in use on the web today. This data can be obtained through tools . It should include numerous examples, and a fair number of small tutorial/how-to sections for different common tasks or requests from web authors.

Reference: [http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/CSS_Reference CSS Reference]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Debugging Delta debugging] is an automated approach to debugging that isolates failures systematically. Given a failing test that can be mechanically verified (including a browser crash), [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Debugging delta debugging] is a way of automatically isolating the change that introduced the failure. Having a framework in place to pull builds from CVS, bisect by date and change set (using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonsai_CVS_code_management_system bonsai ] data -- remember, CVS doesn't have changesets!), and report results would let computers make developers more productive.

Various Linux distributors have patches in their Firefox packages that add bits and pieces of Linux integration, and we'd like to see even more available. One particular area of interest is controlling the browser via [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-BUS d-bus], and exposing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-BUS dbus] events to the application and extensions.

Create an extension to Firefox so that when a bookmark is clicked, and that site is already open in any tab in any window, that tab/window is brought to the front rather than loading the page again.

Related tech and skills: XUL, JavaScript

[[APNG]] stands for Animated PNG, an extension to the PNG specification to allow for animated PNG images. Similar to how Animated GIF is an extension of GIF. Create such a thing.

This wonderful wiki needs attention too! Already there are configuration issues that need to get fixed, extensions we could be using, etc. As we push further with this, we'll come up with more things too. This work will require knowledge of PHP, server administration, knowledge of [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki].

Mike Beltzner suggested this one after his talk. The idea is to make it trivial for testers to follow-through a bug's Steps To Reproduce (STR) so as to confirm it. A tester should be able to use this Extension to ask for a bug (i.e., one would be picked for him/her--no querying) and then a sidebar or similar would appear showing the steps to follow. Under that would need to be a way (e.g., buttons) to say that the bug is confirmed or not. Ideally the QA team could prioritize bugs so they appear in this list automatically, making it easier for testers to get the "right" bugs quickly.

Reference: talk to beltzner.

This project is a catch-all for Buildbot development done here. The Buildbot is an automated build system written in python. It is used on the Mozilla Seneca Cluster.

Related skills: Python

Speed up Mozilla's builds by letting them use MSVC with distcc on Windows.

Programmatic testing of software. The participant will take a section of code and write unit tests for it, fully testing all aspects of the code. This may require the creation of a unit testing framework and interfacing with other developers who know a particular module or service. The programmer will be adept at finding boundary cases and creating tests that deliberately break the software through code. These may lead to the creation of bugs in [http://bugzilla.mozilla.org bugzilla].

Reference: Work with Mozilla's Rob Campbell and Jay Patel from the QA Team.

Creating a Wrapper around OpenGL inside the core of Firefox for future developement of Canvas. The programmer of this project will have to work with the existing rendering code and create bindings to OpenGL calls that will be eventually used through Canvas and JavaScript. The completion of this code will eventually make its way into the firefox v3 trunk. (Subject to revision by Dave/Vlad)

Reference: Vlad.

Intergrate new features to MDC, work on existing bugs and fix compatibility issues for the upgrade of Mediawiki to 1.7. (Tentative description)

Building new tests, improving on existing ones, strengthening the framework itself and porting it to other OS's

'''Note: Not the typical mundane black box testing'''

Testing Firefox on the new Microsoft Vista operating system.

Administration of the Mozilla cluster at Seneca.

This is a sample project stub. You can use the template for [[Sample Project]] in order to create a project page for one of the stubs below. This is how you 'sign-up' for a project.

NOTE: if someone has already created the project page, speak to this person and see if you can join them. If so, simply add your name to the '''Project Leader(s)''' page. Otherwise, you can become a contributor later.

We have a tool called "[https://despot.mozilla.org/ Despot]" which gives us fine-grained control over access to the [http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Mozilla_Source_Code_Via_CVS Mozilla CVS repository]. As we start to have development hosted in [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/preed/2006/08/subversive_subversion_conversi.html Subversion] (SVN), with account information maintained in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP], we'd like to have a tool to enforce and manage such controls there as well.

The [http://developer.mozilla.org Mozilla Developer Center] has rights to a bunch of content that's still hosted on various strange corners of http://www.mozilla.org and the old [http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/DevEdge DevEdge] archives. There are some gems in there that need dusting off and updating to reflect the realities of the modern web.

We have a number of promising prototype or proof-of-concept test frameworks for exercising Mozilla code from different directions. They need varying amounts of work to make them more robust and general, document them, and integrate them into different kinds of automation.

Related tech and skills: Python, Perl, Makefiles, shell scripting, JavaScript

We would love to have a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinderbox_%28software%29 Tinderbox] image (e.g., VM) for testing and building on the Mac, based on the [http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/ freely-available OS X source]. Also, we'd like to get it wired into [[User:Bhearsum|Ben Hearsum's]] (bhearsum) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buildbot buildbot] system.

Related tech and skills: system configuration, scripting, light C/C++, Makefile

Literally every day, there are informal exchanges on IRC (e.g., #extdev, #developers, #firefox, #seneca, etc.) and newsgroups that are fantastic fodder for small, focused documents. Collect these exchanges and fleshing them out as recipes for extension authors that include sample code.

Testing performed from a user's perspective. Includes the running and writing of test cases in [http://litmus.mozilla.org Litmus], filing and tracking bugs through [bugzilla.mozilla.org bugzilla], stress-testing and exploratory debugging. This project requires a dedication to breaking software in an organized and repeatable fashion. There is no such thing as "the wrong way" to use software and the functional tester is adept at abusing a system in previously-unknown ways.

Reference: Work with Mozilla's Rob Campbell and Jay Patel from the QA Team.

Extending the performance tookit and tinderbox reporting system. The project begins with a framework for testing pageloads and startup times in Win32. The successful completion of this project will see this framework develop into a more robust system complete with processor-timing information and graphing. Memory analysis and samples during runs would also be beneficial. Further success or subprojects could include porting the system Linux and OS X platforms.

Reference: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=346785 Bug 346785]. Work with Mozilla's Rob Campbell and Jay Patel from the QA Team.

Programmatically driving the browser to perform human-like tasks repeatedly. The programmer will have to create a framework for driving browser components in JavaScript or other scripting language to repeatedly test various pieces of the application. Ideally, the successful completion of this task will see a test or suite of tests that can be invoked by command line to start the browser, run the test suites and then exit and record the results for display or analysis.

Reference: Work with Mozilla's Rob Campbell and Jay Patel from the QA Team.