Mozilla Prism - The Best of Both Worlds

Mozilla is launching a series of experiments to bridging the divide in the User Experience of Web Apps and Desktop Apps. Here Mozilla uses open platform to facilitate the development enhancements of desktop apps to the web platform. Through this blog post you will discover Prism and how we as developers can better contribute to this Project...

The first of these experiments is based on Webrunner, which we’ve moved into the Mozilla Labs code repository and renamed to Prism.

Prism

Prism is an application that lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop.

Prism lets users add their favorite web apps to their desktop environment:

When invoked, these applications run in their own window:

They are accessible with Control-Tab, Command-Tab, and Exposé, just like desktop apps. And users can still access these same applications from any web browser when they are away from their own computers.

The Best of Both Worlds

Prism isn’t a new platform, it’s simply the web platform integrated into the desktop experience. Web developers don’t have to target it separately, because any application that can run in a modern standards-compliant web browser can run in Prism. Prism is built on Firefox, so it supports rich internet technologies like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and and runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

And while Prism focuses on how web apps can integrate into the desktop experience, we’re also working to increase the capabilities of those apps by adding functionality to the Web itself, such as providing support for offline data storage and access to 3D graphics hardware.

The User Experience

We’re also thinking about how to better integrate Prism with Firefox, enabling one-click “make this a desktop app” functionality that preserves a user’s preferences, saved passwords, cookies, add-ons, and customizations. Ideally you shouldn’t even have to download Prism, it should just be built into your browser.

We’re working on an extension for Firefox that provides some of this functionality. For more information about the user experience we hope to achieve in Prism, see Alex Faaborg’s blog post. For some of the technical details and new features found in Prism, see Mark Finkle’s blog post.

Getting Started with Prism

We have an early prototype for this working today on Windows, with work continuing on Mac and Linux (for which we should have builds available soon).

To try out the prototype, download and install it: Download Prism for Windows.

Then start Prism. It will display an Install Web Application dialog.

Enter the URL of the application you want to use in Prism (e.g. mail.google.com), a name for the application (e.g. Gmail), and pick where you’d like to create shortcuts to the application.

Then press the OK button. Prism will create shortcuts to the application in the locations you specified and then start the application.

How to Get Involved

Prism is just the first of many experiments we hope to conduct around improving the usability of web applications. It’s open source, like everything we do, and we’re interested in hearing from and working with anyone interested in further developing this concept.

• Discuss, debate and add to the design in the forum. Report bugs in Bugzilla.
• Get the source code, extend it, fix bugs and/or submit patches.

  
  

JavaFX Technology at a Glance

In this post, I attempt to make a clear note on what is Java FX and the future of Client Java. After reading this, I believe you will come away with a better understanding of What is Java FX and why Sun created it.

Sun has their answer for Flex/Flash with their new Java FX technology, which designs smart applications focusing on UI's. After Adobe releasing products for creating Rich internet Application such as Adobe flex, Sun has unleashed the power of their Java runtime in building their solution for Rich User Experience called Java FX. The marketing definition of JavaFX is a set of products and technologies for creating rich user experiences.



In a non marketing speak, Java FX is a bunch of tools that focuses on the client side: the user. Sun has been into developing enterprise applications and now they realize their need in developing consumer application. And the answer is Java FX.

Let me brief the components of JavaFX Stack;

JavaFX Script

Sun has built this new scripting language which encompasses all the features as the Flash ActionScript has. This new scripting language is primarily for developing animation and UI components for rich user experience and the Business logic is written using any language(primarily Java). Since 90% of all desktops are powered with java SE, it is used to implement the Business logic. JavaFX script and its compiler are open source and Sun is thriving to enhance its features and make the most out in developing the next generation killer apps.

Designer Tools

Sun is working on a suite of tools for content creators and creative professionals. The tools will resemble to flash designer and will be not just netbeans plug-ins.

Developer Tools

Collabration between Designers and Developers is the key feature of the tools. They are working on the compiler and other debugging tools which today's developers demand.

JavaFX Mobile
This powers the next generation mobile devices ( Not just cellphones). The entire stack is built on Java (except the OS kernel). This establishes the convergence between mobile devices and computer.the OS is derived from Java SE and it is full compatible to all Java applications and JavaFX Scripts.

Consumer JRE

I believe this is the most exciting release all you developers out there. Sun has planned to release these bunch of features as updates with Java 6.

And that JavaFX for building the next generation killer app. New stuffs to take on the future. We as software developers must make the most out of JavaFX to explore next generation User Experience.If you have any queries on JavaFX or training on JavaFX, you can feel free to contact me at santosh_madhavan@yahoo.co.in