Localizing your Mozilla Firefox
Developing Firefox with Gecko engine was a big challenge to Mozilla Firefox development team. The team was dedicated to build the “best of breed” browser for Linux, Unit and Windows operating system. There is always tremendous workload on the team in between the two major release set. Mozilla always tried to satisfy all needs and requirements of Firefox users with its upcoming version. The team worked hard on each step of development from the point of planning, design to schedules and branch process information. The latest updated project ended with the successful completion with many previous security bugs. It will continue to maintain it in its consecutive projects.
Mozilla Firefox development and design team has added a new feature called Localization. This feature will allow the users to change the interface look and overall feel by changing its language and adapting foreign culture. If you wish to localize your browser then you have to do lot of work but it is a great fun. There are many opportunities for you to learn new things and get involved with the latest technologies. You will get help from the Mozilla site members, who have already worked on localizing their browser with. They will be happy to help people who needs help. Do not need to mention that Google will also help you to find existing work of localizing Firefox.
If above two options, you do not find exciting then you can create your team page similar to German team or you can even join the exiting team as whatever you need the team may be working on the same. You need to co-ordinate with them. All other projects of Mozilla like Thunderbird and XULRunner share the same core “toolkit” which you can use with Firefox. The organization provides server dedicated to these teams, which will provide you mailing lists, place to store your code and many other things. The services provided by this server, is a complete package by itself.
To get the files needed to localize your Mozilla Firefox you can check files from Mercurial. There are different files provided for different versions. You need to get right file according to your Mozilla Firefox version. You can also substitute the browser with mail, calendar and suite. The files necessary for mail you will get form Localization link of Thunderbird, files for calendar in sunbird and for suite the files will be available in SeaMonkey project of Mozilla. This will help you to create directory with a series of modules. After getting all this you will be provided toolkit as well. The local variables are defined as module level variables which you may require for your code.
The organization provides legal documents. However, few documents are not present in the 110n repository (Link on Mozilla website). Localization team members, who are hired professionals of Mozilla, translate the documents in simple language for you.
You need to maintain certain coding standards. The entities and properties are supposed to be throughout all localizations. For example: You need to follow the height and width of dialogs. The strings like ‘true’ or ‘false’ are keywords for any language and some special words should not be used for setting values in the code. After you complete your localization you need to get official release in your language from Firefox.
Mozilla has collected information and analyzed the new ideas from users for future enhancements of Firefox. Their goal is to create a single index, which will list all ideas and innovations with more detailed links and targets for specific implementations. You can create a new page to outline your ideas. If you want Mozilla to add some feature choose the most appropriate group link and share your thought. Including references and detailed information will help to understand your idea. Not only new idea but you can also comment on features on discussion page. Don’t forget to include summary comment and contact information. If the team needs any clarification they can get in touch with you.
Tags: Firefox Help
