20721 - Javascript API to add Sidebar panels

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Sidebar, defect, P1)

Description

[Steve Lamm]

Third parties should be able to add panels via javascript,

window.sidebar.addPanel("title","http://content_url","http://customize_url")

Comment 1

[don]

Re-summarized.

Comment 2

[Steve Lamm]

Sweep M13 bugs to M14.

Comment 3

[don]

So did Brendan ever check his stuff in?

Comment 4

[don]

This is part of the Beta 1 requirements so I'm nominating this as a "beta 1"
blocker.

Steve, did Brendan hose us and go off on sabbatical without checking his stuff
into the tree?

Comment 5

[Steve Lamm]

We are hosed. Time for plan 'B': ugly hack. 

Comment 6

[chriss]

my vote is that this needs to be in for beta 1

Comment 7

[Phil Peterson]

Clayton, can you help here? PDT+

Comment 8

[johng]

Clayton - this is what we talked about this morning.  This is a beta1 stopper 
approved by the PDT team and we hope that your team can take care of it working 
with slamm.

Comment 9

[johng]

Clayton says that rginda will do the back end work that Brendan was supposed to 
do.  Reassigning to rginda, then will later re-assign back to slamm when back 
end is ready.

Comment 10

[clayton]

No so much that Brendan was supposed to do.  He was intending to finish this up 
even while on sabbatical.  He deserves the time off.  Rob offered to fill in.
= C =

Comment 11

[Robert Ginda]

I havn't seen how brendan planned on solving this, but I'd like to propose that
we broadcast when a new js environment has been created before
nsJSContext::InitContext exits.  The browser chrome could observe this, and
modify the DOM of the content window as it sees fit.  It would open up even more
neat additions that automatically appear in each page, like IE DOM emulation,
for example, and, in theory is a simple change.

I've tested it with the current Browser:LoadingProgress broadcaster, and have
been able to create new DOM elements with access to XPConnect.  The only catch
with the current observers is that the DOM changes dont appear until *after* the
onLoad handler for the page has fired, so the page is restricted to accessing
the new properties from events or timers.

Comment 12

[Robert Ginda]

These attachments should illustrate the basic idea.
When loading the sample html page, the console displays:

during load: sidebar is undefined
after load: sidebar is undefined
Document file:///home/rginda/src/moztests/random.html loaded successfully
Document: Done (0.49 secs)
sidebar_onLoadProgressChange: adding dom hook.
after click: sidebar is [object Object]
after click: calling addPanel:
sidebar_addPanel: arguments were (arg 1, arg 2)
sidebar_addPanel: sample XPCOM component is [xpconnect wrapped nsISample]

Comment 13

[Robert Ginda]

Attachment: navigator.(xul|js) patches to add dom hook

Comment 14

[Robert Ginda]

Attachment: sample HTML file calling the dummied up addPanel

Comment 15

[Robert Ginda]

This idea has some unfortunate limitations, I'll be going with brendan's plan
described in bug 21953.  Hope to have code ready for review tomorrow, 2/10.

Comment 16

[Robert Ginda]

26725 is getting in the way, although there is a pref based workaround that will
let me keep going for now.

Comment 17

[Robert Ginda]

Attachment: sidebar diffs

Comment 18

[Robert Ginda]

Attachment: dom diffs

Comment 19

[Robert Ginda]

dom changes sent to vidur for review, sidebar to slamm.
These changes represent a hack to Get It Done for beta1.  The real solution is
to fix the nsIScriptNameSpaceManager interface to work with IID (and be
scriptable.)  Bug 21953 should be used to track the progress of the correct fix.

Bug 26725 currently gets in the way of seeing this work in the tip. 
Adding pref("security.checkxpconnect", false); to all.js, and
Applying appropriate comments to nsGlobalWindow.cpp:3239
(To prevent the following line from failing:
if (NS_FAILED(secMan->GetSubjectPrincipal(getter_AddRefs(principal))))
         return NS_ERROR_FAILURE;
)

Should get you to the point where the attached test page can add content to your
sidebar.

Comment 20

[Robert Ginda]

Attachment: sidebar addPanel/isPanel testcase

Comment 21

[John Bandhauer]

Attachment: patch to js loader to use system principals

Comment 22

[John Bandhauer]

Attachment: jsloader patch to show failure due to codebase principals

Comment 23

[John Bandhauer]

I just added a patch THAT SHOULD NOT BE CHECKED IN to show failure due to 
insufficent principals in jsloader. It gets the codebase principals for JS 
components (with url of http://www.mozilla.org/index.html).

This patch will cause rginda's sidebar stuff to fail for me. While my previous 
patch with system principals causes it to work for me.

Comment 24

[Robert Ginda]

This patch doesn't seem to work on Linux.  I'm going to apply the patches from
the ground up on a fresh tree, just to be sure.

647         rv = secman->GetSystemPrincipal(getter_AddRefs(iPrincipals));
648         if(NS_FAILED(rv) || !iPrincipals)
652         rv = iPrincipals->GetJSPrincipals(&jsPrincipals);
653         if(NS_FAILED(rv) || !jsPrincipals)
(gdb) p jsPrincipals
$1 = (JSPrincipals *) 0x8197b3c
(gdb) p *jsPrincipals
$2 = {codebase = 0x0, getPrincipalArray = 0x405f2d70, 
  globalPrivilegesEnabled = 0x405f2d7c, refcount = 16, destroy = 0x405f2d90}
656         obj = JS_NewObject(mContext, &gGlobalClass, mSuperGlobal, NULL);
<...>
685         if (NS_FAILED(rv))
688         JSScript *script = 
        JS_CompileFileHandleForPrincipals(mContext, obj,
                                          (const char *)displayPath, 
                                          fileHandle, jsPrincipals);
695         if (!script) {
708         if (!JS_ExecuteScript(mContext, obj, script, &retval)) {
JS Component Loader: ERROR (null):0
                     uncaught exception: Access denied to XPConnect service.
712             obj = nsnull;

Comment 25

[John Bandhauer]

Rob, I think you should drag norris into this. I can't see why this would not be 
working. Perhaps he will.

Comment 26

[Robert Ginda]

sidebar, dom, and jsloader changes checked in, the attached sidebar testcase
should work (ie, it should add www.mozilla.org to your sidebar), sans isPanel,
which was taken out due to security concerns.

Comment 27

[Robert Ginda]

Removing dependency on 21953.  21953 should be used to track a more 'correct'
solution to the problem.

Comment 28

[Paul MacQuiddy]

Verified on mac/linux/windows 2/16 using attached test case. However, your new
panel is not seen in the current browser window (or any other open windows). To
see the new panel, you must open a new window.

Re-opening, because this is not how the customize dialogue works, so I'm
guessing it can be done. Using the customize dialogue, all open windows are
auto-magically updated once you save changes.

Comment 29

[Paul MacQuiddy]

i'm going to mark this fixed, bug 28073 covers the remaining problem

Comment 30

[Paul MacQuiddy]

marking verified