Appendix A

XUL Programmer's Reference

This appendix is a reference of XUL elements, and is included to provide a brief overview of XUL elements, their attributes, and how they are used in XUL programming. There are six major sections of this appendix, and they are as follows:

· XUL Elements - This section will list each XUL element and briefly describe its properties.

· XUL Core Attributes, Methods, and Properties - This section will list attributes, JavaScript methods, and JavaScript properties that are common to each XUL element.

· Basic Attributes - This section will list and define certain attributes that are common to many XUL elements.

· Event Handler Attributes - These are attributes of XUL elements that trigger JavaScript events.

· Visual Examples - This section will provide visual examples of the basic types of visual elements and their use.

All elements are printed in brackets as they exist in XUL documents (ex: "<elementName>"). Attributes and JavaScript properties are listed in italics, and all JavaScript methods are listed in regular font with an open parenthesis, the parameters that are called, followed by the closed parenthesis (ex: "methodName(param1, param2, param3)" ) .

XUL Elements

The element reference may provide the following sections in a table format:

· Contained by - If the element is usually a child of a certain element, this item will be listed in the table. If the "contained by" section is not listed, then you are to assume that it could be contained by any element.

· Contains - If the element usually contains specific children related to its functionality, this will be listed in the table. If the "contains" section is not listed for an element, then you are to assume that it may contain any element.

· Attributes - If the element contains attributes in addition to the XUL core attributes, these will be listed. If there is an important attribute that relates to the element, this will be denoted in the text before the table.

· Properties/Methods Used By JavaScript - If the element has properties that are referenced by JavaScript, or if the element has methods (function calls) that can be called with JavaScript, they will be listed in this section. If this section is not listed, it is assumed that there are no special properties or methods (other than the XUL Core Methods and Properties) for that element that will be referenced by JavaScript.

· See Also - If the element is related to another XUL element, they will be listed in this section.

Relevant Chapters/Examples - This references chapters or examples throughout this book.