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Mozilla Developer Documentation

This page provides links to some of the more important documents for people developing for the Mozilla project. The Mozilla Documentation Project page also provides information about the mozilla documentation effort.

Introductory Material
Building Mozilla
Core Mozilla Architecture
Core Modules and Libraries
Modularity and Development Issues
Performance
Security
Miscellaneous

Introductory Material

Our Mission
Unity Of Interface
Mozilla Jargon File
Source Code Directories Overview - An explanation of each of the main directories in the source tree.
SeaMonkey Brownbag Training Videos - Video introductions to Mozilla technologies.
Mozilla Roadmap
FAQ
Hacker's Getting Started Guide
Code Review FAQ (what is r= and sr=?)
Super-review Guide (who are the srs?)

Building Mozilla

Win32
Mac OS X (Mach-O)
Unix/Linux
BeOS
Build a Mozilla Distribution - How to build and package Mozilla for distribution to end-users.
Understanding the Macintosh Build System
Tree Verification Processes
How to add files without breaking the build
Jar Packaging
Tree sheriffs
Embedding Mozilla

Core Mozilla Architecture

XPCOM Our Cross-Platform scheme for turning objects into discrete components.
- Modularization Techniques (What XPCOM is and how to use it)
- Reference implementation of QueryInterface
- COM Ownership Guidelines
- nsCOMPtr
- The latest String Guide
- an incomplete guide to mozilla/string
- Mozilla Registry
- Console Service - logging user-visible errors and messages
  - Using Console Service - a simple document with code source examples
- IBM developerWorks - XPCOM Overview
  - Part 1: An Introduction to XPCOM - Component architecture by Mozilla
  - Part 2: XPCOM Component Basics - Introduction to XPCOM Programming
  - Part 3: Setting up XPCOM - Building the XPCOM Development Environment
  - Part 4: Component Development
  - Part 5: Implementation - Coding, installing, and testing XPCOM components
- PyXPCOM is ActiveState's bindings between Python and XPCOM
XPConnect - Accessing XPCOM based classes through JavaScript
XPIDL - A cross-platform Interface Description Language used to specify XPCOM interface classes
XBL - Extensible Binding Language, a markup language for describing bindings that can be attached to elements in other documents.
- XBL 1.0 Specification
- The XML Binding Language, by Marcell Ortutay
XUL - XML User interface Language, the basis of Mozilla's cross platform UI.
- XUL 1.0 Specification
- Essential XUL Programming by Bullard, Smith and Daconta. This book is a primer on building custom user interfaces using XUL, Mozilla's cross-platform user interface language. See the official XUL book site for corrections.
- XUL Planet
  - XUL Tutorial
  - XUL 1.0 Guide Everything you need to know to update your existing XUL code to be compatible with XUL 1.0
- XUL Programmer's Reference (Zipped-up HTML and French version)
XPInstall - A technology for doing cross-platform installations, packaging, and software updates
NSPR - Cross Platform operating system facilities.