XUL Explorer is a XULRunner application that provides an easy way to experiment with XUL. It’s a simple editor that can preview XUL inline or in a separate popup window. It has a list of code snippets (small fragments of XUL or JavaScript) that can be quickly inserted into the editor. The XUL can be loaded from and saved to files. A XUL validator and the Error Console are both available to help debug problems. The help menu provides access to XUL information on MDC. There is even simple “keyword” help lookup for XUL elements.

Roadmap

Features:

• The preview pane can be toggled with the editor. Previewing in a popup window is still available.
• Option to automatically update the preview as the editor changes.
• Indicator in the statusbar shows errors. Double-click to display Error Console.
• Option to specify the snippet used to load the editor on startup.
• Option to include a user snippet file. The snippets are merged with the built-in snippets at startup.
• Double-click or drag-and-drop to insert a snippet
• File > New allows user to pick any “Template” snippet, as well as blank.
• Simple XUL Checker can be used to ‘validate’ the XUL snippet. It checks for legal element and attribute names, including allowed attributes for a given element.
• Support attribute value checking where appropriate (boolean and enumerated values) - XUL Checker
• Support “best practice” checks such as: using of commands and keys, strings in DTDs and so on - XUL Checker
• Multi-tabbed editor support
• Support wizards to generate common projects - extensions
• Support extension testing using Firefox extension Test mode
• Venkman support
• DOM Inspector support

Future:

• Support more “best practice” checks such as: more A11y checks, strings in DTDs and so on - XUL Checker
• Allow users to add snippets on the fly
• Add sidebars for more functionality - Property Sidebar and Project Sidebar
• Support wizards to generate common projects - XUL files, JS XPCOM, and XULRunner applications

For more detailed information, see the XUL_Explorer:Planning#Feature_Planning_for_XUL_Explorer.

Installs

Latest Version:

• Install (Windows): xulexplorer-1.0a1pre.en-US.win32.exe 6.6MB
• Install (Mac): xulexplorer-1.0a1pre.en-US.mac.dmg 9.3MB
• Install (Linux): xulexplorer-1.0a1pre.en-US.linux-i686.tar.bz2 8.4MB

Contributing

• Source code in SVN
• Bugzilla (for bugs and suggestions) open bugs, enter new bug

Blog Posts

XUL Explorer - Updated (1.0a1pre)
XUL Explorer 0.4
XUL Explorer 0.3
XUL Explorer 0.2
Exploring XUL