UPDATE AGAIN! 080611
I’ve made a new post on this subject cause it’s easier to update by adding new posts instead of updating this one. Enjoy!
Update!!
Had to add a comment to the replacement code below in order for this to work.
080404 Update!!
Yet again, code changes for new versions and what not.
Looks like Mozilla has added WebRunner to it’s Mozilla Labs line up and changed the name to Prism. From what they say, it’s going to be a cross between an open version of Adobe Air and Microsoft Silverlight and a localized lancher for web applications. Which, by my definition, is what utility computing is supposed to be like. Prism is currently for Windows only (they’d better hurry up with a Linux version), but it runs the same webapp files and also has added style sheet support – among other things – so you can style your webapps your way.
Anyway, I’ve been kind of discouraged by the lack of extension availability for WebRunner (and XulRunner for that matter). You’ll find in another of my posts a webapp for accessing the WebRunner extensions panel. Using this webapp, you can add new extensions (by installing or dropping them onto the panel), but at this point, adding extensions will fail because the version checking mechanism for WebRunner/XulRunner. To get around that, you need to change the extension’s compatibility information. These instructions will not work for every extension and your results will vary…
I recommend you find a smaller extension, download it and make the following changes:
- Open the extension package (you can open it with 7-zip, ALzip, Winzip or any other archive program that works with zip files.
- Extract and open the install.rdf with a text editor, I’d recommend Wordpad if your using windows.
- Locate and change the following or something that looks like the following (this will vary by extension, but look for the Firefox description section – and you may find that you have to remove all references to all other Mozilla programs that the extension is compatible with for this to work):
<!--Firefox-->
<RDF:Description RDF:about="rdf:#$djS7s"
em:id="{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}"
em:minVersion="0.8"
em:maxVersion="2.0.0.*" />
To:
<!--Webrunner-->
<RDF:Description RDF:about="webrunner"
em:id="webrunner@webapps.org"
em:minVersion="0.1"
em:maxVersion="10.0" />
or (again it will depend on which way the developer implemented the Firefox description):
<em:targetApplication>
<!--Webrunner-->
<Description>
<em:id>webrunner@webapps.org</em:id>
<em:minVersion>0.1</em:minVersion>
<em:maxVersion>10.0</em:maxVersion>
</Description>
</em:targetApplication>
If you’re using Prism, change to the following:
<RDF:Description RDF:about="prism"
em:id="prism@developer.mozilla.org"
em:minVersion="0.1"
em:maxVersion="10.0" />
or
<em:targetApplication>
<Description>
<!--Prism-->
<em:id>prism@developer.mozilla.org</em:id>
<em:minVersion>0.1</em:minVersion>
<em:maxVersion>10.0</em:maxVersion>
</Description>
</em:targetApplication>
4. Then save the rdf file and add it back into the xpi archive.
5. You should be ready to install the extension using the Extensions.webapp
I found this parts of this bit of magic on Alex Sirota’s website along with the tip to check in the applicaiton.ini file for any XulRunner application’s ID. If you run into errors, then something is probably malformed in the rdf file so check that first. I won’t be much help in trouble shooting, and I’m not about to offer support for other peoples extensions on an unsupported application, but if you have problems, post a comment and I’ll give editing the rdf a go myself.
I’ve been checking out the phenomenal NIN remix site and I thought to myself, wow how nice that a site that empowers you with the ability to take part in the musical experience – free of charge – is also a perfect candidate for a WebApp!