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Javascript File Generation
Varada Parthasarathi
Date created: Jan 26, 1999
Last updated: Jan 27, 1999

Table of Contents

Summary

The Configuration Editor creates the Javascript file containing the user preferences as well as the configuration preferences and then hashes it and obscures it to create a netscape.cfg file.

Description

The JS file is created after all the values have been input by the user. The two different kinds of representation in the JS file are

  • Defaultpref - these are user prefs that the ISP can lock by using the defaultpref option and then hashing it to prevent tampering with the files
  • Config - These are the configuration items that cannot be edited thru any UI for the browser and can only be changed by including it in the config.js file they include - User agent strings, Animated logo, guide button, help menu and other additional customizations.
The Javascript file that is created by the config editor is not to be edited by the user and the user can create their own javascript file with extra preferences and or updated preference values. There are two problems associated with this.
  • There can be a duplicate pref - in which case the wizard notifies the user about it andt here could be wrong values input into them and there is no current solution for that.
  • If they user decides to input a totally new pref in the file it is being done at their own risk!.
The config editor creates the final hashed netscape.cfg by appending the user javascript file to the one created by the CE.

QA

The current testing model given to the QA is as follows
There are two files that is neccessary for the creation of the CE javascript file.
1- A name value pair file for inputing the values into the array
2- A file for specifying the defaultpref and config preferences.(sample file will be provided for both)
For the testing of the final JS file - there needs to be appended any other preferences file of similar format to either the one produced by the CE or any common communicator pref file.(test sample provided )

The output in the first case would be a javascript file with defaultpref and config preferences and in the second case would be a js file with the user file appended to the CE produced JS file. There would also be errors thrown up if there is an existing preference or if there is not one.