How to write app for Firefox OS

Question

I want to write my app for Firefox OS. What kind of languages (like Java for Android and Objective C++ for iOS) and tools (like Eclipse, Xcode) to use?

I created a basic, working Firefox OS app here: https://github.com/darkwing/html5apptut I'll also be writing blog posts about this very topic here: http://davidwalsh.name/tutorials/firefoxos — David Walsh, Feb 05 '13 at 16:17
The most important part is having a manifest file. This way you can distribute your html application to the user interface (Gaia) or any other OS since Firefox 16. More information on building a manifest file can be found at the [MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Apps/Manifest) — Martin de Keijzer, Oct 24 '12 at 22:09

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 26 '12 at 16:22

15

Apps for Firefox OS (previously known as Boot to Gecko) are developed using HTML 5 and Javascript.

References:

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/b2g/

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mozilla/Boot_to_Gecko/

You can use any web development tool you like. Firefox has a lot of built-in tools to check out: https://marketplace.mozilla.org/developers/docs/devtools The responsive mode tool is very useful for Firefox OS / mobile apps.

Besides tools, the most important skills to learn are techniques for building web apps: https://marketplace.mozilla.org/developers/docs/references

edited Oct 26 '12 at 16:22

kumar303

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answered Jul 26 '12 at 17:21

dmdrummond

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I also find these building blocks extremely useful: http://buildingfirefoxos.com/building-blocks/ – Guido Jul 11 '13 at 11:30

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 28 '14 at 10:23

If you are a web developer, then I must say you are the master of Firefox OS already! It's all about HTML5, CSS and Javascript. Any development tool like Eclipse, Visual Studio, Notepad++, WebStorm and etc. can be used. But there is one and only difference between Web application and Firefox OS application. You have to add a manifest.webapp file in the root directory of your project. Let say your project files are like following

css
js
index.html

Now you have to add a manifest.webapp file in above and it should look like following

{
  "name": "My App",
  "description": "My elevator pitch goes here",
  "launch_path": "/index.html",
  "icons": {
    "512": "/img/icon-512.png",
    "128": "/img/icon-128.png"
  },
  "developer": {
    "name": "Your name or organization",
    "url": "http://your-homepage-here.org"
  },
  "default_locale": "en"
}

So your app is ready! What's next? App deployment ......

You can deploy your app as following ways..

Packaged App : All files will reside inside in your mobile Hosted app : Files will be hosted in a remote server like IIS, Apache and etc. Mobile will know the manifest.webapp file URL only.

And that's all about firefox os app development. I hope this post will help future beginner as I am very late to answer this question.

How to write app for Firefox OS

2 Answers2