Dev : Tips : Disable XUL cache: Difference between revisions
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===The overlay problem=== | ===The overlay problem=== | ||
There is still another issue to be solved: a javascript that's called from the overlay. | There is still another issue to be solved: a javascript that's called from the overlay. | ||
The steps above help you test scripts that are not part of the overlay, like your settings dialog. But they can't help you test the overlay scripts because Firefox | The steps above help you test scripts that are not part of the overlay, like your settings dialog. But they can't help you test the overlay scripts because Firefox caches those. | ||
The solution is to have the overlay script load its code from an external [[Dev : | The solution is to have the overlay script load its code from an external [[Dev : Extensions : Example Code : File IO|file]], which is reloaded and re-evaluated constantly. | ||
Here's an example: | Here's an example: | ||
<pre> | <pre> | ||
var TheExt = { | var TheExt = { | ||
//aFuncCall is a string to be evaluated as a function call | //aFuncCall is a string to be evaluated as a function call | ||
inject : function (aFuncCall) { | inject : function (aFuncCall) { | ||
var codeFileName = "injected.js"; | |||
// Get profile directory | // Get profile directory | ||
var file = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/file/directory_service;1"]. | var file = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/file/directory_service;1"]. | ||
Line 53: | Line 53: | ||
// Get the file with the code | // Get the file with the code | ||
file.append( | file.append(codeFileName); | ||
if (!file.exists()) { | if (!file.exists()) { | ||
dump ("Error: " + file.path + "does not exist.\n"); | dump ("Error: " + file.path + "does not exist.\n"); |
Revision as of 20:49, 22 November 2004
nglayout.debug.disable_xul_cache
nglayout.debug.disable_xul_cache is a Mozilla preference useful for extension developers. Basically when it is set to false (which is default), Mozilla caches chrome XUL and JavaScript (and more) in a file named XUL.mfl or similarly. Therefore, when making changes to your extension, you have to restart Mozilla in order to get new version used. As it is very inconvenient, many extension developers set this pref to true.
However even when nglayout.debug.disable_xul_cache is set to false, Mozilla forbids rewriting *.jar files that contain installed extensions. To overcome this, and to avoid having to repack every change you make, you can unpack the JAR file you want to edit and make it permanent by updating chrome.rdf to point to the unpacked files instead of the JAR:
Using chrome.rdf
We assume that the extension is installed in profile in this section. For global installation see next section.
Important!! Backup your profile before editing chrome.rdf!
- Unpack the JAR file you have, say Profiles\default\extensions\{YOUR-EXTENSION'S-GUID}\my-ext.jar to the same directory. You will get (at least) Profiles\default\extensions\{YOUR-EXTENSION'S-GUID}\content directory.
- In Profiles\default\chrome\chrome.rdf look for my-ext.jar! and delete it. For example replace this line
c:baseURL="jar:file:///D:/Firefox/Profiles/default/extensions/{GUID}/chrome/my-ext.jar!/content/my-ext/"
with this:
c:baseURL="file:///D:/Firefox/Profiles/default/extensions/{GUID}/chrome/content/my-ext/"
Note, that you should also delete jar: at the beginning of the path.
Changing install.rdf
Perhaps you would like to package your extension as a series of directories, rather than a jar file. This would allow, for example, an XPI that could be easily edited and perhaps checked back into a repository (e.g. a developer version).
Change the install.rdf from:
<Description about="urn:mozilla:extension:file:myextension.jar">
to:
<Description about="urn:mozilla:extension:file:myextension">
An example of this technique is available. Also, myk is planning to update his tinderstatus extension to demonstrate this technique.
The overlay problem
There is still another issue to be solved: a javascript that's called from the overlay. The steps above help you test scripts that are not part of the overlay, like your settings dialog. But they can't help you test the overlay scripts because Firefox caches those.
The solution is to have the overlay script load its code from an external file, which is reloaded and re-evaluated constantly. Here's an example:
var TheExt = { //aFuncCall is a string to be evaluated as a function call inject : function (aFuncCall) { var codeFileName = "injected.js"; // Get profile directory var file = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/file/directory_service;1"]. createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsIProperties). get("ProfD", Components.interfaces.nsIFile); // Get the file with the code file.append(codeFileName); if (!file.exists()) { dump ("Error: " + file.path + "does not exist.\n"); reutrn; } // Read the file into code var code = ""; var fstream = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/network/file-input-stream;1"] .createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsIFileInputStream); var sstream = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/scriptableinputstream;1"] .createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsIScriptableInputStream); fstream.init(file, 1, 0, false); sstream.init(fstream); code += sstream.read(-1); sstream.close(); fstream.close(); // Run the code eval(code); eval(aFuncCall); }, doAction : function() { this.inject("doAction()"); } } dump ("Testing the extension.\n"); TheExt.doAction();
The file injected.js simply looks like this:
function doAction() { dump ("Action!\n") }
You can add as many functions as you want. inject() evaluates all the functions in the file, but only executes the aFuncCall parameter.
Using installed-chrome.txt
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