overview.rst (3546B)
1 Firefox for Desktop 2 =================== 3 4 Desktop architecture 5 -------------------- 6 7 One of the keys to understanding how Firefox is architected is to know that Gecko is used to render 8 both web content as well as the UI of the browser. This means that, to a large extent, the UI of 9 Firefox is made using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. For example, the document 10 ``chrome://browser/content/browser.xhtml`` is the markup for a single Firefox browser window. You 11 can think of it almost like index.html for a webpage. 12 13 The decision to use Gecko for rendering the UI was made during an era when HTML was not yet 14 expressive enough or sufficient to build desktop UIs. A different markup language, 15 `XUL <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XUL>`_, was developed for that purpose instead, which Gecko also 16 knows how to interpret. Since that time, HTML and CSS has evolved to the point where XUL is not 17 strictly necessary for most use-cases. Where possible, we have been gradually migrating our UI to 18 use less XUL and more standard HTML and CSS. 19 20 Reusable UI Widgets 21 ------------------- 22 23 Many of the UI widgets in use in the user interface are built as web components that can be reused. 24 25 :ref:`Read more <Reusable UI widgets>` 26 27 Tabbrowser 28 ---------- 29 30 The tabbrowser component manages the tabs in a browser window. 31 32 :ref:`Read more <tabbrowser>` 33 34 Address Bar 35 ----------- 36 37 The address bar (varyingly also referred to as the Awesome Bar, or Quantum Bar) handles users 38 entering web addresses including a popup with suggestions from various sources including history, 39 bookmarks and search engines. 40 41 :ref:`Read more <Address Bar>` 42 43 Search 44 ------ 45 46 The search service manages the list of search engines available in the address bar. 47 48 :ref:`Read more <Search>` 49 50 Places 51 ------ 52 53 The places component includes the database that stores history and bookmarks as well as a set of UI 54 components that present those to the user. 55 56 :ref:`Read more <Places>` 57 58 Firefox Sync and Application Services 59 ------------------------------------- 60 61 Application services includes the sync engines and Firefox Accounts integration. 62 63 :ref:`Read more <Services>` 64 65 Developer Tools 66 --------------- 67 68 The developer tools support web developers when building webpages but as the Firefox UI is itself 69 built using web technologies it is also possible to use the developer tools to debug the Firefox UI. 70 71 :ref:`Read more <Firefox DevTools Contributor Docs>` 72 73 Browser Toolbox 74 ############### 75 76 The Browser Toolbox is a way to launch the developer tools in a separate process so that they can be 77 used to debug the main browser UI. 78 79 :ref:`Read more <Browser Toolbox>` 80 81 Profiler 82 ######## 83 84 The Firefox Profiler is the way to measure the performance of your code. Go to 85 `profiler.firefox.com <https://profiler.firefox.com>`__ to enable the button in Firefox and record a 86 performance profile. These profiles can be uploaded and shared. It can identify slow parts of the 87 code, and reveal the underlying behavior of how code runs. 88 89 Installer 90 --------- 91 92 The Windows installer for Firefox is built with NSIS. There are currently no installers for other 93 operating systems. 94 95 :ref:`Read more <Installer>` 96 97 Application Update 98 ------------------ 99 100 Application Update is responsible for requesting available updates from the update servers, 101 downloading them, verifying their integrity and then ultimately installing them. A binary patch tool 102 (bsdiff) is used to reduce the size of update files and update files are delivered in the 103 bespoke mar (Mozilla ARchive) format. 104 105 :ref:`Read more <Application Update>`