Dynamic Toolbar DTX Developer FAQ

System Requirements

1. What are the system requirements to run the DTX Toolbar?
   
   

   The system requirements for running the DTX Toolbar are:
   
   for Windows:

   • Microsoft Windows (2000, XP or Vista)
   • Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6.0 or greater
   • Mozilla Firefox version 3.0 or greater

   For Mac:

   • Lepard 10.5
   • Firefox version 3.0 or greater

   For Linux:

   • Firefox 3.0 or greater

2. What browsers support the toolbar?
   
   

   We currently support Internet Explorer and FireFox.

3. How to download the SDK?
   
   

   The SDK must be installed in Eclipse as shown by the tutorials. Eclipse will take care of the initial download and sub-sequent updates.
   

4. How to update to the latest SDK?
   
   
   • If running Eclipse 3.5, open the “Help” menu and select “Check for Updates”.
   • In Eclipse 3.4 you must open the “Help” menu and then click on “Software Updates…”. This will show the “Software Updates and Add-ons” dialog. There click “Update…” in the “Installed Software” tab.
     

Using the SDK

1. During the toolbar creation process, what is Access Key? And what would be the usage for this key?
   
   

   An access key is a key that may be used in some browsers to access the toolbar. It may also appear in the Add-ons user interface for some browsers. You can leave this field empty as it is not mandatory. This access key defines the letter that will be underlined on the browser context menu. This key helps navigate people that are using the "ALT+Letter" shortcuts on submenus.
   

2. Do I need runtime framework?
   
   

   DTX toolbars are self-sufficient, they do not require any additional frameworks or plug-ins like Java, .NET or Flash.

3. When I try to attach the toolbar to IE Ant and exit with OK, nothing appears.
   
   

   If running in Windows Vista with User Account Control ON, you may need to run Eclipse as an administrator so the toolbar can be registered by Ant within Eclipse. You may also check if the toolbar is disabled by right clicking on the menu bar or tab area and find out if the toolbar’s name appears then click on it to enable, if it doesn’t appear then the toolbar is not attached to IE.
   

4. How to add HTML code inside the current webpage shown on the browser?
   
   

   Please find below an example that will create an Iframe in the current webpage DOM.
   You can easily change this code to create divs, textboxes, etc.

   var doc = framework.getContentDocument();
   var iframe = doc.createElement('iframe');  
   iframe.setAttribute('id','coupon');
   iframe.style.display = "none";  
   iframe.style.width = "400px";
   iframe.style.height = "400px";  
   iframe.src = "http://www.google.com";
   doc.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].appendChild(iframe);

5. Issues with IE: is there any other way to check or to attach the toolbar to IE.
   
   

   To be able to register correctly the toolbar on IE, especially on Vista and Win7, you need to start eclipse in Administrative rights and then register the dll with Ant.
   
   To do so (on Win7)

   • right click on eclipse.exe go, to properties / Compatibility,
   • select the last Checkbox which say "Run this program in administrative mode".
   • Next time you start eclipse, a security warning will show up, just click "Yes".

   If this still doesn't work, registering the dll maunally by opening "cmd" in administrator rights will do the trick also.

   The Ant simply registers the dtx.dll file to get it shown properly on your browser. To register the dll manually, please do the following:

   • Open a DOS console and navigate to the root of your DTX project.
   • Type the following line: regsvr32 dtx.dll
   • Close all IE instances and open a new one. You should then the Toolbar on your browser.

   Note: You still need to do this even if your windows users are an administrator of this machine.

6. Why do users receive this message: this toolbar was created using an evaluation version of the dtx sdk. To remove this message, please obtain a dtx sdk license?
   
   

   Any toolbar built with the DTX SDK will show this message. To get rid of it you must contact Visicom Media and purchase a license.

7. How can I create an .exe file with Eclipse so that users can download and install the toolbar. Or is there a better way to distribute the toolbar?
   
   

   Regarding packaging, we have some source code that we use here that could be given to you for creating EXE and XPI for your toolbars. Creating an XPI for Firefox is easy as it only a ZIP or 7ZIP file with a specific set of files and subfolders. As for the EXE, we are using and supporting NSIS scripts. We could give you one of our scripts which can be used for your projects as well. As we would distribute this code freely to you, you must be aware that any questions or issues with those installer scripts will need to be addressed with the Toolbar support plan of your choice.

8. How can I grab the user’s unique toolbar ID?
   
   

   By using the following code (note that you need to replace the YouToolbarNamespace by your real namespace) :

   YouToolbarNamespace.framework.getToolbarID();

9. How can I know the URL that a user visits?
   
   

   By using the following code (note that you need to replace the YourToolbarNamespace by your real namespace) :

   YourToolbarNamespace.framework.addEventListener(this, "beforenavigate",
   YourToolbarNamespace.onBeforeNavigate);

   And with this function :

   YourToolbarNamespace.onBeforeNavigate = function(src, url){ alert(url);
   };

10. I’m having trouble with which doesn’t seem to work. Also with < neterror >.
    
    

    In your toolbar.xml, add the following code (note that you need to replace the YourToolbarNamespace by your real namespace):

    < newtab id="NewtabID"
    src="chrome://YourToolbarNamespace/content/newtab/newtab.html"
    enabled="true"
    track="true"
    persist="enabled"
    />

    Then, be sure that there is a file called newtab.html in your folder /content/newtab/. This will activate the newtab functionnality on Firefox. For IE, it's a little bit more complicated. Your need to change a registry value for this. We strongly suggest you to not change this value as this is against Guidelines and requirements for add-ons that extend Internet Explorer.

    Reference : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973764

11. Is there any known issue for users downloading or upgrading toolbars behind a firewall?
    
    

    There is no known issue regarding the distribution or upgrade for users behind firewall.

12. How to uninstall the toolbar?
    
    

    You may use the Ant targets in your project to uninstall the toolbar. Drag the “targets.xml” file into the Ant view in Eclipse and choose the “Uninstall” target. This will remove the toolbar in both Internet Explorer and FireFox.

Other resources

1. Can you recommend a Web site where I can find resources on Windows, ActiveX and Internet Explorer?
   
   

   For interacting with Windows, ActiveX and Internet Explorer, you may visit this Web site:
   Microsoft Developer Network - http://msdn.microsoft.com/

2. Can you recommend a Web site where I can find resources on Firefox specific development?
   
   

   For Firefox-specific development, , you may visit this Web site:
   Mozilla Developer Center - MDC - https://developer.mozilla.org/

3. Can you recommend a Web site where I can find resources on HTML, AJAX development?
   
   

   For HTML, AJAX development, you may visit these Web sites:
   AJAXIAN - www.ajaxian.com
   W3 Schools  - www.w3schools.com