Is it possible to decode a firefox addon from the XPI binding format to the native language XUL?
I am just trying to learn how to make a addon. So, I think if I can decode a Firefox addon then I can learn addon architecture!
Is it possible to decode a Firefox addon from XPI to XUL?
Asked Answered
You could look for an addon whose source is readily available. –
Subnormal
Or read the documentation. –
Consequence
Most of the code that you will want to look at is in the extension's chrome directory, usually in a jar file. All you need is a file extractor that can extract zip files. Once you extract the xpi (it's just a zip file with an xpi extension), open the chrome subfolder and see what's there. If it's a jar file, extract it's contents (.jar files are also just zip files with a different extension). From there, there's probably a content folder, which should have most of the xul, css, js, etc.
Ah, my bad; jar files are also just zip files. Just rename it to .zip and use an unzip app. –
Cicero
XPI is simply put a ZIP file, so you can just extract its contents and read the files...
Most of the code that you will want to look at is in the extension's chrome directory, usually in a jar file. All you need is a file extractor that can extract zip files. Once you extract the xpi (it's just a zip file with an xpi extension), open the chrome subfolder and see what's there. If it's a jar file, extract it's contents (.jar files are also just zip files with a different extension). From there, there's probably a content folder, which should have most of the xul, css, js, etc.
Ah, my bad; jar files are also just zip files. Just rename it to .zip and use an unzip app. –
Cicero
Just learned there is also xpi-unpack and corresponding xpi-pack in Ubuntu (via sudo apt-get install mozilla-devscripts); seems to take unpacking of both .xpi and included .jar files into account..
Cheers!
Edit: note however, you may have permission problems with xpi-unpack; here's an example command line log I had:
user@PC:Desktop$ xpi-unpack colt.xpi colt-dir
Unpacking colt.xpi
Unpacking ./chrome/colt.jar
Unpacked xpi file.
user@PC:Desktop$ ls -la colt-dir/chrome/colt.jar\!/
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 4 user user 4096 2011-07-05 09:52 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user 4096 2011-07-05 09:52 ..
d--------- 2 user user 4096 2010-09-12 05:15 content
d--------- 25 user user 4096 2011-01-08 17:08 locale
user@PC:Desktop$ stat -c '%n %a' colt-dir/chrome/colt.jar\!/
colt-dir/chrome/colt.jar!/ 755
user@PC:Desktop$ stat -c '%n %a' colt-dir/chrome/colt.jar\!/content/
colt-dir/chrome/colt.jar!/content/ 0
user@PC:Desktop$ sudo chmod -R 755 colt-dir/chrome/colt.jar\!/
user@PC:Desktop$ ls -la colt-dir/chrome/colt.jar\!/
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 4 user user 4096 2011-07-05 09:52 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user 4096 2011-07-05 09:52 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 user user 4096 2010-09-12 05:15 content
drwxr-xr-x 25 user user 4096 2011-01-08 17:08 locale
EDIT2: Actually, turns out other files may be lacking permissions too:
user@PC:Desktop$ ls -la colt-dir/
total 28
drwxr-xr-x 4 user user 4096 2011-07-05 09:52 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 user user 4096 2011-07-05 10:04 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user 4096 2011-07-05 10:04 chrome
---------- 1 user user 1337 2011-06-23 00:05 chrome.manifest
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user 4096 2011-07-05 09:52 defaults
---------- 1 user user 1969 2011-06-23 00:05 install.rdf
---------- 1 user user 1275 2010-09-12 05:04 LICENSE.txt
user@PC:Desktop$ stat -c '%n %a' colt-dir/install.rdf
colt-dir/install.rdf 0
... so best to chmod everything: sudo chmod -R 755 colt-dir/ before trying to make changes and pack (as in xpi-pack colt-dir colt-2.xpi)
Why not just use archive manager? It shows contents of the extensions. –
Aerophyte
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