Chrome Registration

What is chrome?

Chrome is the set of user interface elements of the application window that are outside the window’s content area. Toolbars, menu bars, progress bars, and window title bars are all examples of elements that are typically part of the chrome.

chrome.manifest files are used to register XPCOM components and sources for the chrome protocol. Every application supplies a root chrome.manifest file that Mozilla reads on startup.

Chrome providers

A supplier of chrome for a given window type (e.g., for the browser window) is called a chrome provider. The providers work together to supply a complete set of chrome for a particular window, from the images on the toolbar buttons to the files that describe the text, content, and appearance of the window itself.

There are three basic types of chrome providers:

Content

The main source file for a window description comes from the content provider, and it can be any file type viewable from within Mozilla. It will typically be a XUL file, since XUL is designed for describing the contents of windows and dialogs. The JavaScript files that define the user interface are also contained within the content packages.

Locale

Localizable applications keep all their localized information in locale providers and Fluent FTL files, which are handled separately. This allows translators to plug in a different chrome package to translate an application without altering the rest of the source code. In a chrome provider, localizable files are mostly Java-style properties files.

Skin

A skin provider is responsible for providing a complete set of files that describe the visual appearance of the chrome. Typically a skin provider will provide CSS files and images.

The chrome registry

The Gecko runtime maintains a service known as the chrome registry that provides mappings from chrome package names to the physical location of chrome packages on disk.

This chrome registry is configurable and persistent, and thus a user can install different chrome providers, and select a preferred skin and locale. This is accomplished through xpinstall and the extension manager.

In order to inform the chrome registry of the available chrome, a text manifest is used: this manifest is “chrome.manifest” in the root of an extension, or theme, or XULRunner application.

The plaintext chrome manifests are in a simple line-based format. Each line is parsed individually; if the line is parsable the chrome registry takes the action identified by that line, otherwise the chrome registry ignores that line (and prints a warning message in the runtime error console).

locale packagename localename path/to/files
skin packagename skinname path/to/files

Note

The characters @ # ; : ? / are not allowed in the packagename.

Manifest instructions

comments

# this line is a comment - you can put here whatever you want

A line is a comment if it begins with the character ‘#’. Any following character in the same line is ignored.

manifest

manifest subdirectory/foo.manifest [flags]

This will load a secondary manifest file. This can be useful for separating component and chrome registration instructions, or separate platform-specific registration data.

component

component {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} components/mycomponent.js [flags]

Informs Mozilla about a component CID implemented by an XPCOM component implemented in JavaScript (or another scripting language, if applicable). The ClassID {0000…} must match the ClassID implemented by the component. To generate a unique ClassID, use a UUID generator program or site.

contract

contract @foobar/mycontract;1 {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} [flags]

Maps a contract ID (a readable string) to the ClassID for a specific implementation. Typically a contract ID will be paired with a component entry immediately preceding.

category

category category entry-name value [flags]

Registers an entry in the category manager. The specific format and meaning of category entries depend on the category.

content

A content package is registered with the line:

content packagename uri/to/files/ [flags]

This will register a location to use when resolving the URI chrome://packagename/content/.... The URI may be absolute or relative to the location of the manifest file. Note: it must end with a ‘/’.

locale

A locale package is registered with the line:

locale packagename localename uri/to/files/ [flags]

This will register a locale package when resolving the URI chrome://packagename/locale/… . The localename is usually a plain language identifier “en” or a language-country identifier “en-US”. If more than one locale is registered for a package, the chrome registry will select the best-fit locale using the user’s preferences.

skin

A skin package is registered with the line:

skin packagename skinname uri/to/files/ [flags]

This will register a skin package when resolving the URI chrome://packagename/skin/… . The skinname is an opaque string identifying an installed skin. If more than one skin is registered for a package, the chrome registry will select the best-fit skin using the user’s preferences.

style

Style overlays (custom CSS which will be applied to a chrome page) are registered with the following syntax:

style chrome://URI-to-style chrome://stylesheet-URI [flags]

override

In some cases an extension or embedder may wish to override a chrome file provided by the application or XULRunner. In order to allow for this, the chrome registration manifest allows for “override” instructions:

override chrome://package/type/original-uri.whatever new-resolved-URI [flags]

Note: overrides are not recursive (so overriding chrome://foo/content/bar/ with file:///home/john/blah/ will not usually do what you want or expect it to do). Also, the path inside overridden files is relative to the overridden path, not the original one (this can be annoying and/or useful in CSS files, for example).

resource

Aliases can be created using the resource instruction:

resource aliasname uri/to/files/ [flags]

This will create a mapping for resource://<aliasname>/ URIs to the path given.

Note

Note: There are no security restrictions preventing web content from including content at resource: URIs, so take care what you make visible there.

Manifest flags

Manifest lines can have multiple, space-delimited flags added at the end of the registration line. These flags mark special attributes of chrome in that package, or limit the conditions under which the line is used.

application

Extensions may install into multiple applications. There may be chrome registration lines which only apply to one particular application. The flag

application=app-ID

indicates that the instruction should only be applied if the extension is installed into the application identified by app-ID. Multiple application flags may be included on a single line, in which case the line is applied if any of the flags match.

This example shows how a different overlay can be used for different applications:

overlay chrome://browser/content/browser.xul chrome://myaddon/content/ffOverlay.xul application={ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}
overlay chrome://messenger/content/mailWindowOverlay.xul chrome://myaddon/content/tbOverlay.xul application={3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}
overlay chrome://songbird/content/xul/layoutBaseOverlay.xul chrome://myaddon/content/sbOverlay.xul application=songbird@songbirdnest.com

appversion

Extensions may install into multiple versions of an application. There may be chrome registration lines which only apply to a particular application version. The flag

appversion=version
appversion<version
appversion<=version
appversion>version
appversion>=version

indicates that the instruction should only be applied if the extension is installed into the application version identified. Multiple appversion flags may be included on a single line, in which case the line is applied if any of the flags match. The version string must conform to the Toolkit version format.

platformversion

When supporting more then one application, it is often more convenient for an extension to specify which Gecko version it is compatible with. This is particularly true for binary components. If there are chrome registration lines which only apply to a particular Gecko version, the flag

platformversion=version
platformversion<version
platformversion<=version
platformversion>version
platformversion>=version

indicates that the instruction should only be applied if the extension is installed into an application using the Gecko version identified. Multiple platformversion flags may be included on a single line, in which case the line is applied if any of the flags match.

contentaccessible

Chrome resources can no longer be referenced from within <img>, <script>, or other elements contained in, or added to, content that was loaded from an untrusted source. This restriction applies to both elements defined by the untrusted source and to elements added by trusted extensions. If such references need to be explicitly allowed, set the contentaccessible flag to yes to obtain the behavior found in older versions of Firefox. See bug 436989.

The contentaccessible flag applies only to content packages: it is not recognized for locale or skin registration. However, the matching locale and skin packages will also be exposed to content.

n.b.: Because older versions of Firefox do not understand the contentaccessible flag, any extension designed to work with both Firefox 3 and older versions of Firefox will need to provide a fallback. For example:

content packagename chrome/path/
content packagename chrome/path/ contentaccessible=yes

os

Extensions (or themes) may offer different features depending on the operating system on which Firefox is running. The value is compared to the value of OS_TARGET for the platform.

os=WINNT
os=Darwin

osversion

An extension or theme may need to operate differently depending on which version of an operating system is running. For example, a theme may wish to adopt a different look on Mac OS X 10.5 than 10.4:

osversion>=10.5

abi

If a component is only compatible with a particular ABI, it can specify which ABI/OS by using this directive. The value is taken from the nsIXULRuntime OS and XPCOMABI values (concatenated with an underscore). For example:

binary-component component/myLib.dll abi=WINNT_x86-MSVC
binary-component component/myLib.so abi=Linux_x86-gcc3

platform (Platform-specific packages)

Some packages are marked with a special flag indicating that they are platform specific. Some parts of content, skin, and locales may be different based on the platform being run. These packages contain three different sets of files, for Windows and OS/2, Macintosh, and Unix-like platforms. For example, the order of the “OK” and “Cancel” buttons in a dialog is different, as well as the names of some items.

The “platform” modifier is only parsed for content registration; it is not recognized for locale or skin registration. However, it applies to content, locale, and skin parts of the package, when specified.

process

In electrolysis registrations can be set to only apply in either the main process or any content processes. The “process” flag selects between these two. This can allow you to register different components for the same contract ID or ensure a component can only be loaded in the main process.

component {09543782-22b1-4a0b-ba07-9134365776ee} maincomponent.js process=main
component {98309951-ac89-4642-afea-7b2b6216bcef} contentcomponent.js process=content

remoteenabled

In multiprocess Firefox, the default is that a given chrome: URI will always be loaded into the chrome process. If you set the “remoteenabled” flag, then the page will be loaded in the same process as the browser that loaded it:

content packagename chrome/path/ remoteenabled=yes

remoterequired

In multiprocess Firefox, the default is that a given chrome: URI will always be loaded into the chrome process. If you set the “remoterequired” flag, then the page will always be loaded into a child process:

content packagename chrome/path/ remoterequired=yes

Example chrome manifest

type	engine	language	url
content	branding	browser/content/branding/	contentaccessible=yes
content	browser	browser/content/browser/	contentaccessible=yes
override		chrome://global/content/license.html	chrome://browser/content/license.html
resource	payments	browser/res/payments/
skin	browser	classic/1.0 browser/skin/classic/browser/
locale	branding	en-US	en-US/locale/branding/
locale	browser	en-US	en-US/locale/browser/
locale	browser-region	en-US	en-US/locale/browser-region/