Create dynamic Firefox user interfaces

Build an RSS reader that downloads data using Ajax and then creates XUL elements dynamically using XSLT

Adam Pilkington, Software Engineer, IBM Japan

Adam Pilkington is a Java™ Performance Analyst within the IBM Java Technology Centre, focusing on WebSphere® Application Server performance with Java Version 6. Prior to joining IBM in 2006, he was a Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technical architect for a large U.K. financial services organization. He holds a degree in mathematics and computer science.

Summary: When you create browser-based applications that display XML data feeds, you often need to code the data-retrieval mechanism and the user interface. Mozilla Firefox provides an infrastructure that frees you from these tasks, so you can concentrate on your application's functionality. Learn how to use Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) to download XML data from a Web server, and discover how you can use Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) to transform it dynamically into Firefox user-interface elements expressed in XML User Interface Language (XUL). You can apply these techniques to any application that uses XML data sources.

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Date: 08 Jan 2008
Level: Intermediate
PDF: A4 and Letter (185 KB)Get Adobe® Reader®

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Before you start

Learn what to expect from this tutorial and how to get the most out of it.

About this tutorial

This tutorial walks you through a sample application as it illustrates how you can combine XUL, XSLT, and Ajax to produce dynamic user interfaces. By the end of the tutorial, you'll be able to apply the techniques to any XML-based data source used to drive a Firefox application.

Objectives

Define a skeleton user interface that populates dynamically.
Use Ajax to download XML data into Firefox.
Use XSLT to create XUL elements that you then add to the application.

Prerequisites

You need to have a basic understanding of XML and XSLT, and you should be comfortable applying simple transformations to XML data. You also need to be familiar with XUL, the language you'll use to define Firefox user interfaces. Finally, you should be able to write or understand JavaScript, as it's the glue that binds all these technologies together.

System requirements

You'll need Firefox Version 2 and a PHP-capable Web server to run the sample application developed in this tutorial.

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TutorialTitle=Create dynamic Firefox user interfaces

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