New Prism Release Candidate Available
April 29, 2009 – 9:21 pmTo prepare for the major new Prism release that is currently in the works, I’ve created release candidates of both the standalone app and the Firefox extension. They can be downloaded using the links at the bottom of this post. We’d love it if people would download these builds and give them a spin. Let me know by commenting here or filing bugs in Bugzilla (in the Mozilla Labs/Prism component) if you run into any difficulties.
Some important notes:
- Existing Prism apps will not work with the latest version. (See, this one is so important I’ve bolded it.) I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but I decided that the advantage of fixing some of the more irksome architectural issues more than outweighs the pain of having to migrate existing apps. If you want to move an app over to the new version, simply back up webapp.ini, the app icon (if it wasn’t generated automatically), webapp.js (if you have one) and any other files you might have created manually. Then delete the app and create it again using the new Prism version. Finally, copy the backed up files back into the new web app directory. Hopefully this will never be necessary again.
- There is a bug on Linux related to the fact that Firefox runs on top of XULRunner on that platform. This prevents the Prism extension from working on Linux (the standalone version works fine), so I’m not posting a Linux XPI for now. Antonio Gomes, with guidance from Mark Finkle, has already written a patch for the problem, which is waiting for check-in approval, so hopefully the issue will be resolved soon.
- The developer documentation is still woefully inadequate. I did give it a quick once-over and fix any blatant lies and inaccuracies, but there could be a lot more information there. Hopefully we’ll find some resources to create great examples and improve the documentation. If you’re interested in volunteering, let me know.
- Speaking of examples, I’ve put a note on the bundle library page on MDC warning that the bundles probably won’t work anymore with the latest Prism version. It should be pretty easy to adapt them, and I’ve filed a bug in case anyone wants to give this a shot.
I’ll post a followup describing the new features since the last update. I use Prism right out of the box for a few of my most important web apps (Gmail, Facebook and SlimTimer), and it’s darn useful just to have the apps running in their own process with their own icons in the OS X dock. But where Prism really comes into its own is when the apps are customized to use all its fancy features. I’m hoping that some developers will overlook the sparse documentation and give this a shot. If you want to add tray icons, tray/dock menus, drag-and-drop support, popup notifications and the like to your favorite web app, let me know. I’ll be happy to provide some guidance.
Prism standalone version 0.9.9 RC for Mac, Windows and Linux
21 Responses to “New Prism Release Candidate Available”
thanks a lot !! waited for this long time
By riki on Apr 29, 2009
Thank you for this update
By Jean Henriot on Apr 29, 2009
Hi!!
I was blogging about Prism and Fluid for MacOS X and why I have choose Fluid (Safari 4 support, some webapps supported natively like gmail and google reader, better icons…) and why I have decided not to use Prism for now.
My question is, why is this version of Prism based on Firefox 3.0 (aka 1.9.0 gecko)?
I think it should be based on 1.9.1 as Tracemonkey has landed on it and it’s awesome faster than 3.0 and most of prism users will use it as heavy javascript pages (gmail, google docs, reader, facebook…) and it could be better for end users.
And a question for MacOS X, Fluid supports icns files, (from this page, for example: http://csi.nfshost.com/goodies/ ) and Prism only supports the favicon or a png/jpeg file…
Thanks and congrats for this fantastic release (it’s even faster than fluid based on safari 4 on loading gmail from the scratch)
By willyaranda on Apr 29, 2009
Our policy is to use the runtime in the current version of Firefox, so we’ll move to 1.9.1 as soon as 3.5 goes live.
I agree about icns files. We should add that support (if you have a change to file a bug in Bugzilla that would be great).
By Matthew Gertner on Apr 30, 2009
Yeah, I have filled bug 490719 last night about that.
By willyaranda on Apr 30, 2009
GREAT news. Thanks
By Wired Earp on May 1, 2009
Just recently, the NoScript/Adblock Plus controversy serves to highlight some fundamental problems with the questionable security model of the Firefox add-ons mechanism. Why are add-ons able to mess around with each other? Why must I trust that my Firefox browser will do the right thing now?
An AMO policy is all well and good, but it is only as strong as its weakest adherent. What Mozilla needs to do is technologically enforce its AMO policy. Suggestions:
1. A strong Javascript sandbox. (A built-in NoScript, if you will.)
2. Why on earth do add-ons have such raw power in Firefox? We need a strong add-ons sandbox too.
Seriously, Google Chrome at least has a very strong security model. That is far more important to establish before an add-ons mechanism, I think. If Mozilla can spend a significant amount of time competing with other browsers to copy the idea of Javascript JIT compilation, I think it should spend its time copying other virtues such as a rock-solid sandbox.
Thank you.
By Pseudonymous Coward on May 2, 2009
Is there any way to have the icons show up without being pixelated? I’m using Windows Vista, and the default icon for Gmail is a small icon but blown up, so it looks pixelated. Also, when I change the icon when generating a web app, Prism still uses the default icon. This seems to be a bug.
I’m using this new build of Prism for Firefox in 3.0.10.
By Other Chris on May 3, 2009
Thanks! the new features are helpful. What I have noticed so far:
1. I can have my profile located outside of the default Windows profile directory
2. Firefox’s Find utility is now active, very helpful for larger pages
3. Javascript seems slightly faster, although I’ve not quantified this – I look forward to the FF 3.5 JS engine (1.9.1) being used in future builds as this should further improve speed
4. Clicking on a link now opens in a new Firefox tab
One minor annoyance is that there seems to be three cascaded windows that open very quickly and then close before opening the prism app – it’s more noticeable on (larger) slower loading pages (e.g. google.com is barely noticeable)
By ian on May 3, 2009
I added this to the Tiddlywiki wiki too but thought it might be helpful for anyone using file based resources in Prism. With FF3 one annoyance is a (bug?) in the security model as described here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=435254
if using Prism these settings are stored in prism\defaults\preferences\preferences.js – since the fileuri setting will likely not be in here already, you will need to add it under the security settings section, the syntax is slightly different from the Firefox prefs.js, the line I added looked like:
pref(”security.fileuri.strict_origin_policy”, false);
By ian on May 3, 2009
I was wrong on one point above:
“1. I can have my profile located outside of the default Windows profile directory”
Although I had the Shortcut string pointed to a new directory and had my profile located there, it seems once I deleted the directory under the windows profile, the Prism app ceased to function
For anyone working from a USB key, this is a must have feature – and it means I’m back to a Firefox only application. Will this bug be fixed for 1.0?
By ian on May 3, 2009
Chris,
You need to have a higher resolution icon on your disk and specify it when you create the app.
By Matthew Gertner on May 4, 2009
Ian,
Are you using the -profile command line option?
By Matthew Gertner on May 4, 2009
Matt,
No, I did not know a -profile option was now available. I did see this query about such a feature on the mailing list a few months ago though, so I’m sure it will be a welcome addition by many:
https://labs.mozilla.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=4958
I just tried redirecting the -override path created by refractor.
Actually, I just noticed when I remove the -override portion of the command line, I no longer get the phantom 3 window popups prior to launching the Prism app. Since my override.ini only has these lines:
Vendor=Prism
Name=notebook
I questioned whether I needed the override.ini flag in the command line. However, I noticed I now get a one time popup requesting the fileuri permission again, despite already adding this approval into the preferences.ini.
The new refractor also includes the “-app application.ini” flag too, but I wasn’t sure if this is really needed either (?).
I tried some different permutations using the -profile flag, but did not have any luck. All of my attempts resulted in Prism requesting that I shut down an already running Prism process, however, Task Manager does not show any active Prism processes, so this error does not appear correct.
The command line permutations I have tried look similar to:
L:\prism\prism.exe -app application.ini -profile “L:\prism\profiles” -webapp notebook@prism.app
Could you suggest an ideal command line for my use? I wasn’t able to find any documentation on -profile.
Thanks, Ian
By ian on May 4, 2009
Just wanted to add that several files (*.MFL) and directories (e.g. extensions) are created in the directory I specify in -profile when launching the application the first time.
e.g. with:
L:\prism\prism.exe -app application.ini -profile “L:\prism\profiles\notebook@prism.app” -webapp notebook@prism.app
It will still launch the application with the command line sequence above if I leave the profile under the Windows “Documents and Setting” directory, but if I delete the profile under WebApps I get the default Prism app window for creating a new Prism application, and not my application.
By ian on May 4, 2009
Ian,
I’m not sure, but you might need a valid profile at the location you specify with -profile (maybe that’s why it says the app is already running). So I would first start it with the default profile location. Then move the profile to where you want it and use the -profile flag to specify the location.
By Matthew Gertner on May 5, 2009
Matt,
Yes, that is exactly what I tried.
To keep things simple I just created an application from google.com
With all Prism processes killed, I launched Prism so that it prompts for a new application to be created (did not use refractor this time)
I created the application and copied the profile created under “Documents and Settings” to my new directory
I then launched the application using this command line string:
L:\prism\prism.exe -profile “L:\prism\profiles\google@prism.app” -webapp google@prism.app
but, I get the same result as before – it simply opens the default Prism window prompting for the inputs to create a new application
If I change the command line string to include a slash at the end of the directory string, as seen here:
L:\prism\prism.exe -profile “L:\prism\profiles\” -webapp google@prism.app
I get a prompt saying there is a Prism process already running (but there is not).
I am at a loss on what else to try – perhaps you can provide a worked example? I’d be happy to document it on the wiki for others
By ian on May 5, 2009
I’m just following up with the solution to my problem with getting prism apps to load without a dependence on the Windows profile directory. The problem was solved by using a full path reference for “-webapp”, so instead of:
-webapp google@prism.app
use
-webapp L:\prism\google@prism.app
this did the trick
I also found creating a .bat file to be easier than stuffing everything into a windows shortcut link – since there is a character limit for windows shortcuts.
By ian on May 23, 2009