From: Jaap H. <ja...@ha...> - 2004-08-21 10:13:42
|
Hi, Have you ever thought about making a XUL version of squirrelmail. IMHO such a version would blow away all other webmail. XUL is an XML language for making user interfaces which is supported by all mozilla browsers. It's very similar to XAML which M$ will introduce in longhorn. The nice thing with is that you are able to very easily build user interfaces which resemble a desktop app. If you have a mozilla based browser you can visit http://www.faser.net/mab/remote.cfm to see how such an app looks like. Here's a tutorial about how it works: http://www.moztips.com/index.php?id=261 Regards, Jaap |
From: Chris H. <ta...@sq...> - 2004-08-21 14:51:38
|
> Have you ever thought about making a XUL version of squirrelmail. > XUL is an XML language for making user interfaces which is supported by > all mozilla browsers. It's very similar to XAML which M$ will introduce= in > longhorn. Not going to happen until we have templating, and even then you'll most l= ikely have to do this one yourself. Building a browser-specific technolo= gy into a webmail application is bad news. --=20 Chris Hilts ta...@sq... |
From: Matthijs W. <mr...@wa...> - 2004-08-23 09:02:26
|
Jaap Haitsma wrote: > Hi, > > Have you ever thought about making a XUL version of squirrelmail. > IMHO such a version would blow away all other webmail. > XUL is an XML language for making user interfaces which is supported > by all mozilla browsers. It's very similar to XAML which M$ will > introduce in longhorn. > > The nice thing with is that you are able to very easily build user > interfaces which resemble a desktop app. > > If you have a mozilla based browser you can visit > > http://www.faser.net/mab/remote.cfm > > to see how such an app looks like. Here's a tutorial about how it works: > > http://www.moztips.com/index.php?id=261 > > > Regards, > > Jaap I think it looks great! I'd be willing to spend time developing such a great tool. If given the time by my company, maybe even in the boss' time :) I do agree with Chris that this shouldn't be a SquirrelMail standard, not until XUL rules the entire world at least. I am wondering what Mozilla's plugin system (XUL overlays) can do in combination with Squirrelmail's plugin system. For example, I am working on a plugin that does some SOAP calls by PHP to render a dropdown. Those calls could now be done on the client's side by Mozilla's SOAP implementation, although this is not a 'view' aspect of the plugin, this is architectually incorrect, but you get the idea :) And since I was also developing the same plugin for Thunderbird/MozillaMail, it could have some shared source. Regards, Matthijs. |
From: Jaap H. <ja...@ha...> - 2004-08-24 19:01:14
|
Matthijs Wensveen wrote: > Jaap Haitsma wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> Have you ever thought about making a XUL version of squirrelmail. >> IMHO such a version would blow away all other webmail. >> XUL is an XML language for making user interfaces which is supported >> by all mozilla browsers. It's very similar to XAML which M$ will >> introduce in longhorn. >> >> The nice thing with is that you are able to very easily build user >> interfaces which resemble a desktop app. >> >> If you have a mozilla based browser you can visit >> >> http://www.faser.net/mab/remote.cfm >> >> to see how such an app looks like. Here's a tutorial about how it works: >> >> http://www.moztips.com/index.php?id=261 >> >> >> Regards, >> >> Jaap > > > > I think it looks great! I'd be willing to spend time developing such a > great tool. If given the time by my company, maybe even in the boss' > time :) > I do agree with Chris that this shouldn't be a SquirrelMail standard, > not until XUL rules the entire world at least. I agree, that it shouldn't be the standard, but for people using a mozilla browser it is a super experience. I can imagine that a XUL web mail client can be very useful on intranets of companies. Maybe another nice app to look at is: http://www.discoverdesk.com/products/index.php I personally hope that XUL webapps will catch on before the release of Windows Longhorn with XAML (the MS equivalent of XUL). Because if XAML will be the standard, people using a non MS OS will severely hampered on the web. The incompatibilities of today are already a mess which is big enough. > I am wondering what Mozilla's plugin system (XUL overlays) can do in > combination with Squirrelmail's plugin system. For example, I am working > on a plugin that does some SOAP calls by PHP to render a dropdown. Those > calls could now be done on the client's side by Mozilla's SOAP > implementation, although this is not a 'view' aspect of the plugin, this > is architectually incorrect, but you get the idea :) And since I was > also developing the same plugin for Thunderbird/MozillaMail, it could > have some shared source. > XUL is actually only the language to describe the user interface, you need it together with javascript to do something on the clientside. On the server you run PHP. The javascript on the client side can execute the PHP functions on the server side by instantiating a webservices object. If you are speaking about a dropdown box, with XUL you can do this completely on the client side. The nice thing of XUL is that you don't have to do all kind of nifty tricks to get a decent user interface and can just concentrate on the actual code Regards, Jaap |