Firefox Hacks By Nigel McFarlane Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: March 2005 ISBN: 0-596-00928-3 Pages: 398 Table of • Contents • Index • Reviews Reader Firefox Hacks is ideal for power users who want to maximize the • Reviews effectiveness of Firefox, the next-generation web browser that is quickly • Errata gaining in popularity. This highly-focused book offers all the valuable tips • Academic and tools you need to enjoy a superior and safer browsing experience. Learn how to customize its deployment, appearance, features, and functionality. Firefox Hacks By Nigel McFarlane Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: March 2005 ISBN: 0-596-00928-3 Pages: 398 Table of • Contents • Index • Reviews Reader • Reviews • Errata • Academic Copyright Credits About the Author Contributors Acknowledgments Preface Why Firefox Hacks? How to Use This Book How This Book Is Organized Conventions Used in This Book Using Code Examples Safari® Enabled How to Contact Us Got a Hack? Chapter 1. Firefox Basics Section 1.1. Hacks 1-10 Section 1.2. Get Oriented Hack 1. Ten Ways to Display a Web Page Hack 2. Ten Ways to Navigate to a Web Page Hack 3. Find Stuff Hack 4. Identify and Use Toolbar Icons Hack 5. Use Keyboard Shortcuts Hack 6. Make Firefox Look Different Hack 7. Stop Once-Only Dialogs Safely Hack 8. Flush and Clear Absolutely Everything Hack 9. Make Firefox Go Fast Hack 10. Start Up from the Command Line Chapter 2. Security Section 2.1. Hacks 11-21 Hack 11. Drop Miscellaneous Security Blocks Hack 12. Raise Security to Protect Dummies Hack 13. Stop All Secret Network Activity Hack 14. Work with Single Sign-On Servers Hack 15. Work with Web Proxies Hack 16. Fine-Tune Ports and Sockets Hack 17. Manage Digital Certificates Hack 18. Digitally Sign Content Hack 19. Grant Trust with Master Certificates Hack 20. Restrict Script Behavior with Policies Hack 21. Make Yourself Anonymous Chapter 3. Installation Section 3.1. Hacks 22-32 Hack 22. Edit Configuration Files Hack 23. Play With the Preference System Hack 24. Install Complementary Tools Hack 25. Migrate Firefox Profiles Hack 26. Dial Up Automatically on Startup Hack 27. Fix Web Servers to Support Firefox Content Hack 28. Prepare Firefox for Wide Deployment Hack 29. Remotely Manage User Configurations Hack 30. Install Fonts and Character Support Hack 31. Take Firefox with You Hack 32. Work with Filtering Systems Chapter 4. Web Surfing Enhancements Section 4.1. Hacks 33-43 Hack 33. Use Fancy Bookmarks Hack 34. Modify Tabbed Browsing Hack 35. Govern Image and Ad Display Hack 36. Get More Search Tools Hack 37. Get More Feeds and News Hack 38. Add Stuff to Your Toolbars Hack 39. Upgrade Firefox Feature Managers Hack 40. Integrate Firefox with Other Tools Hack 41. Create Your Own Search Plug-in Hack 42. Spider the Web with Firefox Hack 43. Waste Time with Toys and Games Chapter 5. Power Tools for Web Developers Section 5.1. Hacks 44-57 Hack 44. Tweak and Troubleshoot CSS Designs Hack 45. Use Gecko CSS Style Magic Hack 46. Write Compatible CSS Hack 47. Update Browser Detection Scripts Hack 48. Submit Background Form Data Hack 49. Script Plug-ins Hack 50. Quality-Assure Your Web Pages Hack 51. Display HTTP Headers Hack 52. Stomp on Cookies Hack 53. Probe HTML with the DOM Inspector Hack 54. Turn Off Absolutely All Caching Hack 55. Web Document Debugging Tricks Hack 56. Debug JavaScript with Venkman Hack 57. Handle Hangs and Other Bad Juju Chapter 6. Power XML for Web Pages Section 6.1. Hacks 58-74 Hack 58. Pick Display Modes for HTML and XML Hack 59. Get Tools for XML Validation Hack 60. Mix Content with XML Namespaces Hack 61. Make MathML Content Hack 62. Make SVG Content Hack 63. Use Client-Side XPath Hack 64. Use Client-Side XSL Hack 65. Work with Mozilla SOAP Services Hack 66. Work with Mozilla XML-RPC Services Hack 67. Work with Mozilla WSDL Services Hack 68. Make Applications and Extensions with XUL Hack 69. Make New Tags and Widgets with XBL Hack 70. Work with RDF Facts Hack 71. Work with RSS Feeds Hack 72. Connect SQL to XUL Hack 73. Generate XUL Using PHP Libraries Hack 74. Get a Taste of E4X Scripting Chapter 7. Hack the Chrome Ugly Section 7.1. Hacks 75-83 Hack 75. Do Groundwork for Ugly Chrome Hacks Hack 76. Spy on Chrome with the DOM Inspector Hack 77. Customize Firefox's Interface Hack 78. Rebadge Firefox Hack 79. Make Firefox Match the Desktop Hack 80. Make a Toolbar That Can't Be Hidden Hack 81. Content Filter Without Your Smart Friend Noticing Hack 82. Add a New XPCOM Component Hack 83. Add a New Command-Line Option Chapter 8. Hack the Chrome Cleanly Section 8.1. Hacks 84-90 Hack 84. Do Groundwork for Extension Development Hack 85. Study Packages with the Chrome Manager Hack 86. Create a Chrome Package Hack 87. Make a Bottom-Up Overlay Hack 88. Make, Bundle, and Publish an XPI Hack 89. Build an Installable Theme Hack 90. Identify Reusable Toolkits Chapter 9. Work More Closely with Firefox Section 9.1. Hacks 91-100 Hack 91. Handle Cross-Platform Differences Hack 92. Get a Custom, Prebuilt Version Hack 93. Make Firefox Software Hack 94. Run Multiple Mozilla Browsers Hack 95. Make Extensions Work Outside Firefox Hack 96. Turn on Firefox Diagnostics Hack 97. Find the Right Forum for Your Issues Hack 98. Survive Bugzilla Hack 99. Find Out What Has Been Fixed Hack 100. Help with the Future of Firefox Colophon Index Copyright © 2005 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O'Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safari.oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or [email protected]. Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O'Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc. The Hacks series designations, Firefox Hacks, the image of a flashlight, and related trade dress are trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O'Reilly Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. Small print: The technologies discussed in this publication, the limitations on these technologies that technology and content owners seek to impose, and the laws actually limiting the use of these technologies are constantly changing. Thus, some of the hacks described in this publication may not work, may cause unintended harm to systems on which they are used, or may not be consistent with applicable user agreements. Your use of these hacks is at your own risk, and O'Reilly Media, Inc. disclaims responsibility for any damage or expense resulting from their use. In any event, you should take care that your use of these hacks does not violate any applicable laws, including copyright laws. Credits About the Author Contributors Acknowledgments About the Author Nigel McFarlane (http://www.nigelmcfarlane.com) is the Mozilla community's regular technical commentator, focused on education, analysis, and a few narrowly scoped bugs. He works full-time on Mozilla matters, except when interrupted by other things. The core Mozilla hackers are slowly getting used to him. Nigel writes extensively on Mozilla, Firefox, and open source, including the columnsSearching for Substance at InformIT and Mozilla Meanderings for TUX . He contributes to a number of journals, including Inside Web Development and Linux Journal, numerous online publications, and to the W3C's sXBL specification. In addition to writing, Nigel messes around with programming and waves his arms about. He sometimes consults to industry and government. He holds science degrees from the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University. He is the author of several JavaScript Web books (WROX Press) and the authoritative Rapid Application Development with Mozilla (Prentice Hall)the Mozilla community's favorite text in print. Other strong points are telecommunications, data systems, and the Web. On the human side, he spends a lot of time studying the forces and processes behind open source, invention, and online communities in general. When not welded to the computer, Nigel enjoys Melbourne, Australia, his home city. It's often named the world's most livable city, and not without reason. Outdoors there are no computers, so bushwalking, swimming, music, and city rambles are great ways to relax. Contributors The following people contributed their hacks, writing, and inspiration to this book: John Allsopp and Maxine Sherrin are Western Civilisation Pty Ltd (http://www.westciv.com). They are the developers of the leading cross-platform CSS editor Style Master and a series of highly influential web development courses. Their web site is one of the longest-standing web developer resources for CSS and web standards. Maxine and John are co-conveners of the annual Web Essentials conference. They are both longtime web standards evangelists. Seth Dillingham is president and lead programmer of Macrobyte Resources (http://www.macrobyte.net). He and his company specialize in custom development of web applications, such as the popular Conversant (http://www.free-conversant.com) groupware and content management system.