This is not enabled by default, for obvious security reasons, but when enabled, clients can connect to it and take advantage of its various functionalities, such as installing apps, accessing the console, etc. So the obvious question would be: can we do whatever WebIDE is doing to deploy, but programmatically? Servers and actorsĮvery Firefox runtime has something called the remote debugger server. Since we already have a build script, the only step that is left in order to get our apps onto the runtime is deploying, and that’s what we are using WebIDE for. It is inefficient, we are engineers, and if there one thing that engineers like more than building new things it is probably optimising and streamlining processes. People didn’t like this because it implied changing contexts. And they most unanimously answered: “But we don’t like to click! We like the terminal!” How can we make this more efficient? They often also use tools such as Browserify, and perhaps they don’t even write JavaScript, favouring alternatives such as CoffeeScript instead, but all these goodies require you to build the app or website before you push it again to your device or reload the browser.Įssentially, we were telling these developers to leave their beloved command line (or editor shortcuts!) to go to WebIDE and click a button to deploy the app, and then go back to their editor of choice. This tool simplifies many actions that were slow and tedious before, such as creating a new app, downloading and installing simulators or running and debugging apps.īut there was still a segment of developers that felt left out: power users! They already have their node.js-based build toolchains, with tasks such as asset optimisation, code hinting, or test running. When aspiring app developers told us that it was cumbersome to get started writing Open Web Apps, we worked on turning App Manager into a more beginner friendly environment, which in turn gave way to WebIDE.
NOTE: we presented this project last Sunday at FOSDEM, but not everyone could make it to Brussels, so here’s a post explaining what node-firefox is and how can it help you superturbocharge your Firefox OS app development!Īt Mozilla we’re always looking for ways in which we can make developers’ lives easier.
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