Firefox/Get Involved

This page is the place to learn how to start contributing to the Firefox front-end. The Firefox front-end is the name for the user interface for Firefox, and it includes various pieces such as:

• the default theme
• bookmarking
• history
• Social API
• downloads
• pages within the browser such as the New Tab page, home page, etc
• preferences
• and more!

The goal of the Firefox front-end team is to make a kickass product out of the Gecko rendering engine. People working on the Firefox front-end use HTML/XUL/JS/CSS.

Communication

• IRC Channel: #fx-team on irc.mozilla.org
• Twitter: @FirefoxNightly
• Mailing list: Firefox Dev
• Weekly meetings: Weekly Phone Calls

The best place to get in contact with people working on the front-end is by joining the #fx-team IRC channel at irc://irc.mozilla.org/fx-team

If you have questions about specific parts of the code, here are some good people to talk to:

• Theme: dao, jaws, mattn, gijs, shorlander
• Toolbars and Customization: Unfocused, jaws, mconley
• Social API: mixedpuppy, markh, jaws, felipe
• Downloads: paolo
• History/Bookmarks: mak
• Persona integration: mattn
• Panorama/Tab Groups: ttaubert
• New Tab page: ttaubert
• Installer/Updater: rstrong, bbondy
• Add-ons: Unfocused, mossop
• Find bar: mikedeboer
• Electrolysis: felipe

Get Involved - START HERE

Why thanks for coming by to look at ways you can contribute to the Mozilla project!

Here's a couple of links that might help you get started:

• For people who like to code What can you do for Mozilla?
• For people who would like to see the variety of possible contributions Contributions by Time Available

Older document

The rest of this page is rather out of date and in need of a refresh, keeping it here for posterity (for now).

Getting Started on the Firefox Front-end

• Overview
  • composed of c++, js, xul, css
  • dev process driven by bugzilla
  • code review and unit tests required
  • big features driven by feature pages
  • results measurements (perf, unit tests)

• How
  • Contributing to the core
  • Prototyping via add-ons

Resources

• Mozilla Developer Network
• Mozilla Developer's Cheatsheet by Brian Bondy
• MXR - Mozilla Source Code Cross-reference
• DXR - Newer Cross-reference
• Bugzilla
  • "Bugzilla for Humans" video, by Johnath Nightingale
  • Bugzilla Tweaks Add-on
  • BugzillaJS Add-on
• Presentations/Talks
  • From Web-dev to Firefox Hacker - slides from a David Dahl's talk at MozCamp Asia in Kuala Lumpur
  • Adding a Feature to Firefox, by Paolo Amadini
• Videos

Need Help?

• IRC (list appropriate channels, etc)
• News/Google groups for Firefox dev

Not a Programmer?

• Testing
• Documentation
• Support
• Communication

TODO

Need to include:

• who to talk to about what (ux, core features, toolkit stuff, platform specific, link to mobile gateway)
• build instructions
• firefox reviewers page
• firefox code review page
• module owners page
• where to report a bug
• which irc channels
• list main & related bugzilla components (linked)
• what needs help? (cleanup page)
• what's our highest priorities? features page
• links to good first bugs
• https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Cleanup
• hacking Firefox MDN page
• https://etherpad.mozilla.org/firefox-get-involved
• https://etherpad.mozilla.org/fx-tipsandtricks
• https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Dev_Cheatsheet
• bugs ahoy
• ohloh and any other social competition angles