XUL Explorer:UseCases/Extension Testing

XUL Explorer:Planning

Extension Test mode

Brief Description

Allows a user to test their extension on Mozilla Firefox without having to package it up.

Precondition

User selects 'test extension' from a menuitem/button

Basic Flow

1. Locate firefox executable
   1. Attempt to read the pref.js file for firefox directory (explorer_browser_path)
   2. Attempt to auto-locate the firefox directory. Save the browser path to prefs.js(?)
   3. Launch a file picker for a file. Save the browser path to prefs.js(?)
2. Locate the profile
   1. Attempt to read the pref.js file for the profile directory (explorer_browser_profile_path)
   2. Gather all the profiles from ~/.mozilla/firefox/ or ~/Application Data/Mozilla/profile
      1. allow the user to select a profile, or pick the first one if there is only one
      2. save the profile path to prefs.js (?)
   3. Launch the file picker for a directory. Save the profile path to prefs.js (?)
3. Locate the root directory of the extension
   1. This should probably be two directories up
4. Locate the extension's id
   1. In the extension's root directory. Either in install.rdf or application.ini
   2. If we cannot find, throw a neat error
5. Create firefox extension text file
   1. Check if the profile/extensions folder exists. if not, create it.
   2. Add a new plain text file to extensions/extension_id
   3. Add root directory to file (using trailing slash, if needed)
6. Launch firefox with options -no-remote and -profile
   1. Pass profile directory
7. Wait for firefox to be closed
8. delete extensions/extension_id

Timeline

This is a timeline of what is left to do and when I should have that done

What is left to do?

Task	Priority	Status
Auto-locate Firefox profiles and Firefox executable	Low	This is probably a more difficult and time consuming feature to do, since it depends on the platform and where to check. Nice to have feature, but I will leave it to the end if I have time
Read values from prefs.js	Done / Medium	Save information so app doesn't have to auto-locate executable/ask user each time
Pick files (firefox executable)/directories (profile directory)	Done / High	Done
Locate root directory of extension	Done / High	Needed to write in text file. This is tricky because it should point to the same directory as application.ini, but where that file is isn't always relative to the current file. So we have a few options Go through each tab for a file named application.ini, and take it's document.title Have the user locate by hand (but this shouldn't be saved to prefs.js I am leaning towards option #1 Mark Finkle and shaver suggest option #2, but have also suggested defaulting to the last picked directory. Which seems fair
locate extension id	High	Read application.ini/install.rdf, but how? I have managed to finish application.ini, since it only relies on undocumented interfaces. I have no clue right now on RDF, but Mark Finkle pointed to possible help.
create text file/directory	Medium	Create a directory/text file. I don't think this will be difficult at all resource : File I/O
Launch Firefox	Medium	Not sure how to do this yet resource : Running applications
Wait for Firefox to close and delete file/directory	High	Important, but not sure how to do this either. If I figure out how to launch Firefox, there will probably be an easy way to catch when it is closed.

Estimated Time of Delivery

• I have had a hell of a time finding the title of another tab (when I did a “Save All” functionality), and I gave up. So finding the root directory will probably take half a day. Locating the extension id will probably take the other half.
• Creating a text file and directory, I don't suspect will take very long. Maybe 2 hours at most.
• Launching firefox and waiting for it will probably take a full day.

So two days? Meh, I'll make it Wednesday.