XPCOM - Getting Started

Links

Sample

The sample code for this project is in my repository: http://toybox/hg/sample/file/tip/mozilla/xpcom/xpcom-test/

Setup

Following the above blog:

Download and install Visual C++ Express Edition.
Download xulrunner-1.9.1.3.en-US.win32.sdk.zip from http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/xulrunner/releases/1.9.1.3/sdk/
Extract to a folder. I extracted to:
```
C:\src\xulrunner-1.9.1.3\
```
Download wintools.zip from http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mozilla/source/
Open wintools.zip and copy:
- buildtools/windows/bin/x86/glib-1.2.dll
- buildtools/windows/bin/x86/libIDL-0.6.dll
…to the sdk/bin/ folder of your xulrunner project e.g:
```
C:\src\xulrunner-1.9.1.3\sdk\bin\
```
Download xpcom-test.zip from http://starkravingfinkle.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/
Extract xpcom-test.zip into your xulrunner project folder e.g:
```
C:\development\sample\mozilla\xpcom\xpcom-test\
```

Build

We need to regenerate the comp.h and comp.xpt files in the root of the xpcom-test project:

Change into the xpcom-test project folder:

cd C:\development\sample\mozilla\xpcom\xpcom-test\

Edit the xpidl-build.bat file and update the sdk paths:

C:\src\xulrunner-1.9.1.3\sdk\bin\xpidl.exe -m header -IC:\src\xulrunner-1.9.1.3\sdk\idl %1
C:\src\xulrunner-1.9.1.3\sdk\bin\xpidl.exe -m typelib -IC:\src\xulrunner-1.9.1.3\sdk\idl %1

Regenerate the comp.h and comp.xpt files:
```
xpidl-build.bat comp.idl
```

Start Visual C++ Express Edition and open the solution file:
```
C:\development\sample\mozilla\xpcom\xpcom-test\test.sln
```
Edit the project properties changing the location of the header and library files from ..\gecko-sdk\ to ..\\sdk\.
```
C:\src\xulrunner-1.9.1.3\sdk\include
C:\src\xulrunner-1.9.1.3\sdk\lib
```

Build the project. The build will create a dll file:

C:\development\sample\mozilla\xpcom\xpcom-test\Debug\test.dll

Deploy

Note: You might need to open a command prompt with Administrator permissions before performing the next few steps.

Create a Firefox development profile, Profile…

Create a folder inside your Firefox profile for your component. I created the component__xpcom-test folder:

C:\Users\Patrick\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\h33vgw96.dev-xpcom-test\component__xpcom-test\

Copy the comp.xpt and Debug/test.dll files to your component folder:

cd c:\development\sample\mozilla\xpcom\xpcom-test\
copy comp.xpt C:\Users\Patrick\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\h33vgw96.dev-xpcom-test\component__xpcom-test\
copy Debug\test.dll C:\Users\Patrick\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\h33vgw96.dev-xpcom-test\component__xpcom-test\

To register the component, run regxpcom:
```
cd C:\src\xulrunner-1.9.1.3\bin\
..\sdk\bin\regxpcom.exe -x "C:\Users\Patrick\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\h33vgw96.dev-xpcom-test\component__xpcom-test\"
```
Note: It is important to run regxpcom.exe** from the ``bin folder (not sdk/bin) because the command needs some of the dll files in the bin folder.

Test

Re-start Firefox:

"%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -no-remote -P dev-xpcom-test

Download this test page: http://wanderingstan.com/files/xpcom/xpcom-test.html. A copy of this page is in the root of the sample project: xpcom-test.html

Note: Copy this page to your workstation before opening it. If you don’t, Firefox will throw an exception:
```
``Error: A script from "http://toybox" was denied UniversalXPConnect privileges``.
```
This page from forums.mozillazine.org might be helpful…
Load the test page in Firefox and click the test button. With any luck, you’ll see that 3+4=7.

You can now start modifying the component.

Be sure to go back and read the pages from Alex Sirota and Mark Finkle for more details.