XUL:Improvements

A list of enhancements to XUL that could be made.

General

• rework widgets and clean up based on XBL2
• rework flexible box model
• remove box objects by implementing frame, scroll, list and tree apis as XUL element subclasses
• move box object positioning apis onto XUL element class
• animation apis for XUL elements
• remove as many hardcoded tag checks as possible, switch to interfaces
• events firing on script change, or during constructor, versus user change
• mouse capturing
• clipboard using DataTransfer
• scroll apis
• remove mutation listener usage
• better command updating mechanism
• better editor mechanism (editortype/controllers/etc)
• remove need to import global stylesheet
• base theme so custom themes are minimal
• parsing from DOMParser and others should be able to xul documents
• better interworking with xul in generic xml documents
• ability to retrieve mouse and key state
• OS taskbar/dock/titlebar icons/menus
• printing
• panning over area and between 'panes'
• control over click raises window versus raise and fire mouseclick behaviour
• means to know if an image applies to an element (css pseudoclass)
• allowevents / mousethrough consolidation
• accesskey / RegUnregAccessKey cleanup
• accessibility events should just be direct function calls
• list drag and drop and clipboard operations (onitemadded, onitemremoved, onitemmoved events; onitemadded called when item is created but before it is inserted. Cancelling the event will prevent the item from being added)
• clean up scrollbar mediator
• generic spellchecking apis
• custom drag images using popups

Enhancements to Specific Elements

window / dialog / page

ensure all window features work, some may be more useful on window itself

window icons

preferences

switch to tabs from radiogroup

alternate preference storage

browser

investigate changing default to type="content"

titlebar

display native titlebar

size="normal|thin"

label

buttons: close, dock, minimize

attribute to indictate what element gets moved

resizer

support all directions

attribute to indictate what element gets resized

available as a scrollcorner easily

handle being in a popup

statusbar

update statustext for menus and other elements

remove special classes for images

menu

remove menu box object

remove special classes for images

menupopup

margins when flipped

menus with mixed content

sharing menu button menus and top level menus

scrolling menus positioning (bug 342619)

panel

setting width or height shouldn't affect layout when not open

custom popup events, with popupNode and the node the popup/content/tooltip attribute is on

popupshowing event should have a popupScreenRect property to flush layout and get the eventual screen rectangle of the popup

maintain position relative to anchor (like dependent popups)

no flipping

level="top|parent|independent"

dockable toolbars

popup movement

tooltip

modify default tooltip

tooltips in browser content supported by default, but overridable; tooltip type="content" with FillInHTMLTooltip implementation

toolbar

toolbars on other sides of the window

toolbarpalette

better way to adjust defaultset

tabbox

tabs along other sides

button

fix up or add button types: menu, menu-button, checkbox (toggle buttons)

cleanup frame and binding code

native theming work needed for other button display styles

image buttons / buttons that fit to text/image

checkbox

three states

colorpicker

reimplement a better colorpicker

allow native colorpicker to be used

datepicker

min and max values

selection of date ranges

allow certain fields such as year to be left blank

allow null values

menulist

better editable menulist appearance

radiogroup

toggle button groups (type="button")

scale

tick marks

multiple thumbs for setting ranges

splitter

better handling for trees

textbox

better editor capability (tags/keyword editing for example)

better spellchecking code

autocomplete textbox

handling of results from a preset list (non-component usage)

make autocomplete more general so it can be used from arbitrary text and non-UI use

timepicker

allow certain fields to be left blank

allow null values

image

add natural width and height properties

cross theme and platform stock icons

listbox

clean up odd frame construction usage

tree

arbitrary content

menulist value cells

custom editors for particular cells or columns

multiple cell selection?

events when starting and stopping editing

bbox

ensure baseline alignment works

deck

remove view usage

grid

allow multicolumns (column hiding, rearranging, resizing, sorting)

multiple cell selection?

rowspan/colspan

scrollbox

scrollbar visible attributes

template

logging

improved sorting flags

improved recursion

use ref instead of id attributes

script

scoped script evaluation: <script src="..." scope="id" share="none|document|application"/>

application level scripts

New Elements/Turn into Real Elements

• link, create a proper element
• filepicker, with browse button
• mediacontrols, for video and audio
• text style elements
• expand/collapser
• rubberband selector
• resizer handles
• fontpicker