Firefox OS Boilerplate App

This is a demo app for Firefox OS, loosely based on fxosstub, meant to act as a simple boilerplate for getting started with apps for Firefox OS.

It will give you a button to install it in Firefox OS - on a device, in the Firefox OS Simulator (Simulator Introduction) and in certain Nightly versions of Firefox.

It is a showcase of:

Web Activities
WebAPI usage
Adding offline support and more in Firefox OS!

To add your own icon, I recommend using the Firefox OS app icons style guide.

Preview

To test/install this app, download the code and run it on a web server, or navigate to Firefox OS Boilerplate App in Firefox on a device or in the Firefox OS Simulator.

Alternatively, install it in the Firefox OS Simulator Dashboard by providing either of these URLs:

Note: If you use the Add Directory option in the Simulator, make sure to change "launch_path": "/Firefox-OS-Boilerplate-App/index.html" to "launch_path": "index.html" and the icon paths accordingly since it runs it as a packaged app directly from the root folder of the Firefox OS Boilerplate App.

Packaged Apps

You can test packaged apps in version 2 and higher in the Firefox OS Simulator, by using the Add Directory button. If you want to access privileged APIs - such as deviceStorage, cross-domain XMLHttpRequest etc - you need to set type and permissions in the manifest file. E.g.

{
    "version": "1",
    "name": "Firefox OS Boilerplate App",
    "type" : "privileged"
    …

And:

"permissions": {
    "device-storage:pictures": {
        "access": "readcreate"
    },
    "systemXHR":{}
}

installPackage: manual approach - your mileage may vary

It also supports installPackage to install a ZIP version of your app with all files packaged. This also gives you access to a few extra APIs, due to a higher security clearance. The repository contains two sample things to make this possible:

A mini manifest - the package.manifest file

A ZIP version of the app

To enable this, please go to the js/base.js file and change two lines, as described in the comments. Basically, these are the steps needed for packaged apps:

Alter the mini manifest (package.manifest) and make sure the "package_path" is absolute
ZIP all app content (not containing folder), including regular manifest
Developer name and info HAS to match between mini manifest and the regular one
Have an installPackage call in JavaScript pointing to the mini manifest
(Not available anymore: Turn on Developer Mode in the Firefox OS Simulator (Settings > Device Information > More Information > Developer > Developer mode))

vikingkarwur/Firefox-OS-Boilerplate-App

Firefox OS Boilerplate App

Preview

Packaged Apps

installPackage: manual approach - your mileage may vary