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Making it into a dynamic overlay and packaging it up for distribution

Warning: The content of this article may be out of date. This method of packaging applies to older applications, like Mozilla Suite, Firefox 1.0. See Building an Extension for updated instructions.

Now that we have a static overlay we're in good shape to create a XPI package that installs our extension as a dynamic overlay. XPIs have a complex structure designed to separate UI layers from each other. To make our XPI we'll start out by creating a directory to hold the files we're going to add to the XPI. Then we'll modify URLs in our files so they point to the right place. After that we'll create a contents.rdf file describing the tinderstatus component for the chrome registry and an install.js script to perform the installation. Finally we'll zip the files into an archive.

Start out by creating a directory called tinderstatus-installer. Create a tinderstatus subdirectory in it and a content sub-subdirectory in that subdirectory. Copy the following files into the content sub-subdirectory:

  • tinderstatusOverlay.xul
  • tinderstatus.js
  • tinderstatus.css
  • tb-busted.png
  • tb-nostatus.png
  • tb-success.png
  • tb-testfailed.png

These are the files we're going to put into the XPI. We need to change some URLs in the copy of tinderstatusOverlay.xul to point to the new locations the files will be in when they get installed via the XPI:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<?xml-stylesheet
      href="chrome://tinderstatus/content/tinderstatus.css"
      type="text/css"?> 

<overlay id="tinderstatusOverlay" 
      xmlns="https://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul">

<script type="application/javascript"
        src="chrome://tinderstatus/content/tinderstatus.js" />

<statusbar id="status-bar">
  <statusbarpanel class="statusbarpanel-iconic"
          id="tinderbox-status"
          insertbefore="offline-status"
          status="none"/>
</statusbar> 

</overlay>

We also need to change the URLs in the copy of tinderstatus.css:

statusbarpanel#tinderbox-status {
  list-style-image: url("chrome://tinderstatus/content/tb-nostatus.png");
}

statusbarpanel#tinderbox-status[status="success"] {
  list-style-image: url("chrome://tinderstatus/content/tb-success.png");
}

statusbarpanel#tinderbox-status[status="testfailed"] {
  list-style-image: url("chrome://tinderstatus/content/tb-testfailed.png");
}

statusbarpanel#tinderbox-status[status="busted"] {
  list-style-image: url("chrome://tinderstatus/content/tb-busted.png");
}

Then we need to create two files in the directory, one called contents.rdf which contains information for the chrome registry about the component being installed and one called install.js that contains the code to install the component. contents.rdf goes in the content sub-subdirectory:

<?xml version="1.0"?> 
<RDF:RDF xmlns:RDF="https://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" 
          xmlns:chrome="https://www.mozilla.org/rdf/chrome#"> 

<RDF:Seq about="urn:mozilla:package:root"> 
  <RDF:li resource="urn:mozilla:package:tinderstatus"/> 
</RDF:Seq> 

<RDF:Description about="urn:mozilla:package:tinderstatus" 
      chrome:displayName="Mozilla Tinderstatus Extension" 
      chrome:author="Myk Melez" 
      chrome:name="tinderstatus"
      chrome:extension="true"
      chrome:description="Displays tinderbox status for the Mozilla codebase."> 
</RDF:Description>

<RDF:Seq about="urn:mozilla:overlays">
  <RDF:li resource="chrome://navigator/content/navigator.xul"/>
</RDF:Seq>

<RDF:Seq about="chrome://navigator/content/navigator.xul">
  <RDF:li>chrome://tinderstatus/content/tinderstatusOverlay.xul</RDF:li>
</RDF:Seq>

</RDF:RDF>

install.js, on the other hand, goes into the tinderstatus-installer directory:

initInstall(
      "Mozilla Tinderstatus Extension",
      "/mozdev/tinderstatus",
      "0.1");
var installDir = getFolder("Chrome","tinderstatus"); 
setPackageFolder(installDir);

addDirectory("tinderstatus");
registerChrome(
      CONTENT | DELAYED_CHROME,
      getFolder(installDir, "content"));
var result = performInstall();

if ( result != SUCCESS ) cancelInstall(result);

Once all the files are in place, use your zip utility from within the tinderstatus-installer directory to create a ZIP archive called tinderstatus.xpi with install.js and the entire contents of the tinderstatus/ directory. Make sure that file and directory are on the top level of the archive.

Document Tags and Contributors

 Contributors to this page: Sheppy, fscholz, trevorh, Nickolay, Kohei, kohei.yoshino
 Last updated by: Sheppy,