Note 1: If you are using FireFox 1.0, select the download options for 1.0 The text of the tutorial was written for Firebird 0.7. I hope to have the text updated soon for FireFox.
Thanks to Phillip Knox of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library for his updates to the code to make the kiosk download compatible with FireFox 1.0. Great work!
Note 2: The FireFox browser was previously known as Firebird and before that, Phoenix. While the name has changed, the concepts remain the same!
The following tutorial will show you step-by-step how to create a secure version of the FireFox (Firebird/Phoenix) browser suitable for kiosk and other public Internet access uses. I've also made available for download copies of the browser.xul and browser.jar files that include all of the changes described in the tutorial. Use them for reference or to turn FireFox into a kiosk browser.
This tutorial was written and tested using Firebird 0.7 on Windows 2000. The concepts should apply to other operating systems but have not been tested with them.
1. Introduction
· Introduction
· Kiosk Philosophy
· Why Firebird?
2. Firebird Overview
· Understanding the Interface
· Working with XUL files
· XUL and JAR packages
· Our Toolbox
3. Basic Interface Changes
· Getting Started
· Changing the Interface using the Interface
· Defining Options (Preferences)
4. XUL and Firebird
· Working with browser.jar
· Introduction to browser.xul
· Structure of browser.xul
· Working with XUL
5. Updating browser.jar
· Command IDs
· Repackaging the JAR file
· Replacing the original JAR file
· Testing the changes
6. Global Editing
· Broadcaster IDs
· Keyset IDs
7. Modifying Context Menus
· Context Menus
· Disable the ability to Customize the toolbar
8. More Context Modifications
· Web page context menus
· Disabling image context menus
· Frame-specific context menus
9. Editing the Menubar
· Defining toolbar menus and buttons
· Menubar
10. Menubar Changes
· File Menu
· Edit Menu
· View Menu
· Go Menu
· Bookmarks, Tools and Help menus
11. Toolbar Changes
· Toolbar buttons
· Fixing the Throbber
· Other Toolbars
12. Summary
· Other kiosk options
· Summary
The following are issues which would affect using Firebird in a kiosk environment:
1. Need a method to prevent users from downloading files through the browser interface.
2. Need a method to start Firebird in a fullscreen mode.
3. Need to lock down additional interfaces that may launch while browsing like Cookie Manager, Form Manager, Passwords, Pop-ups and Security dialogs.
Thanks to Dan Raskostoff for the ideas on creating a kiosk browser using a XUL-based Mozilla browser.
Last updated: March 9, 2005
Created: November 30, 2002
If you are reading this, your browser probably doesn't support current HTML and CSS standards. While the site looks much better in a browser that supports web standards, you can still access all of the information that is here with any browser or Internet device.