Components and Services

Sync refers to a family of related components and services which provide synchronization of data between Mozilla application instances. These components and services include:

Firefox Sync Client

The Sync client bundled with Mozilla products. It exists as a core JavaScript module providing generic functionality and UI components for each product.

Server

A server implementation of the Sync HTTP protocol. Clients communicate through it.

Firefox Home

An iOS application that functions as a Sync client.

Mozilla Server Instance

An instance of the server deployed and maintained by Mozilla. If you use Sync in your browser, this is what it talks to by default.

Specifications

There are numerous specifications concerning Sync. These include:

• An HTTP API for client-server interaction
• Storage formats used by the the clients
• Cryptographic model for encrypting client data

The definitive source for these specifications is http://docs.services.mozilla.com/.

Running a Server

It is possible to run your own Sync Server instance. Full instructions are available at http://docs.services.mozilla.com/howtos/run-sync.html.

Getting Involved and Status

For information on the current development status of Sync including how to get involved, see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/Sync.

Related Info

• JavaScript Client API (useful for interacting with Sync from Mozilla applications, including developing extensions against Sync)
• Syncing Custom Preferences (useful for extension developers)
• Code snippets (demonstrates common actions with the JavaScript API)