MAB's HomePage
28/07/2003
MAB 1.0 has been released and from now MAB is hosted on http://www.faser.net/mab.
Please go to http://www.faser.net/mab to try and to install the latest version. This site will be no longer updated.
Help for end users
16/03/2003Work in progress - Any feedback is welcome
Get Started
MAB is an application that works with Netscape 6.0 +, Mozilla 1.0 + and all browsers based on Gecko engine. It doesn't work with Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Using MAB you can perform searches against the Amazon.com product catalogue and see the results from an interface desktop-like. If you want to buy a product or going directly to Amazon.com, you have to select a product from the result list and click on “Go Amazon” button or using the keyboard shortcuts ALT+G.
The User Interface is completely customizable. It provides keyboard shortcuts, resizing or hiding the comment panel on the right and the possibility to order the column in the result list with drag and drop. The button in the top right corner of the result list can be used to hide and show the columns. Name, Catalog and Our Price columns are showed by default while Rating and Released are hidden. The Rating column shows the average customer rating and it is available only if you perform heavy searches. This user interface unlike other web interfaces is persistent. This means that the widgets maintain the same size and order you have decided, even if you close and re-open MAB.
To perform a search, you have first to select from which catalogue you want to make the query and afterwards you have to decide the searching mode to be used, like searching for keywords, author, artist etc. Bear in mind that some type of searches are not possible, ie books and artist. You have to use books and author.
New, Save and Open
When you want to clear the screen from previous results, you have to open the Menu Bar and click on New. If you want to save the current result list click first on Save and then on New to start a new brand results list. To open a previous saved list click on Open. The results are only saved for the current sessions and are not saved permanently on your hard disk.
MAB Settings
You can perform two types of searches: lite and heavy. Lite Searches are faster because don't include customer comments and other product details. Heavy searches include all details available from Amazon.com. To select lite or heavy search go to the Menu Bar and click on Options ---> Settings.
The default MAB behavior is to keep and to merge previous search results with the new ones, displaying the new results at the beginning of the list. If you check “clear old list” the list is always emptied after each search.
Installing MAB
MAB can be installed in Mozilla under Tools menu. Click on install to proceed (beta version). You can also easily use MAB from your computer, without the need to use it on-line from this page or to install in Mozilla. To "install" MAB follow these simple steps.
MAB is an application that works with Netscape 6.0 +, Mozilla 1.0 + and all browsers based on Gecko engine. It doesn't work with Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Using MAB you can perform searches against the Amazon.com product catalogue and see the results from an interface desktop-like. If you want to buy a product or going directly to Amazon.com, you have to select a product from the result list and click on “Go Amazon” button or using the keyboard shortcuts ALT+G.
The User Interface is completely customizable. It provides keyboard shortcuts, resizing or hiding the comment panel on the right and the possibility to order the column in the result list with drag and drop. The button in the top right corner of the result list can be used to hide and show the columns. Name, Catalog and Our Price columns are showed by default while Rating and Released are hidden. The Rating column shows the average customer rating and it is available only if you perform heavy searches. This user interface unlike other web interfaces is persistent. This means that the widgets maintain the same size and order you have decided, even if you close and re-open MAB.
To perform a search, you have first to select from which catalogue you want to make the query and afterwards you have to decide the searching mode to be used, like searching for keywords, author, artist etc. Bear in mind that some type of searches are not possible, ie books and artist. You have to use books and author.
New, Save and Open
When you want to clear the screen from previous results, you have to open the Menu Bar and click on New. If you want to save the current result list click first on Save and then on New to start a new brand results list. To open a previous saved list click on Open. The results are only saved for the current sessions and are not saved permanently on your hard disk.
MAB Settings
You can perform two types of searches: lite and heavy. Lite Searches are faster because don't include customer comments and other product details. Heavy searches include all details available from Amazon.com. To select lite or heavy search go to the Menu Bar and click on Options ---> Settings.
The default MAB behavior is to keep and to merge previous search results with the new ones, displaying the new results at the beginning of the list. If you check “clear old list” the list is always emptied after each search.
Installing MAB
MAB can be installed in Mozilla under Tools menu. Click on install to proceed (beta version). You can also easily use MAB from your computer, without the need to use it on-line from this page or to install in Mozilla. To "install" MAB follow these simple steps.
- Download MAB
- Unzip the downloaded file in a directory.
- If you are using a Windows platform you can create a shortcut to MAB from your desktop, doing so you can use MAB without opening the browser. In the shortcut property insert the target directory like this: C:\Program Files\Mozilla\mozilla.exe -chrome " file:///C://MABDIRECTORY/content/mab.xul"
- You can also use MAB without the need to create the shortcut, you can open MAB directly from the browser like any HTML file. The start file is MABDIRECTORY/content/mab.xul
For programmers: why I used XUL.
16/03/2003
I discovered XUL some months ago, when I found the O'Reilly's book "Creating Applications with Mozilla", freely available at http://books.mozdev.org/. I started to read the book and I understood that in my daily web development I could use all widgets I'm used to have in desktop applications. When I develop Content Management System, Control Panel, and Web Administrative tools, I find myself spending a lot of time designing the interface to reproduce the most basic widgets. Things like resizing the columns width of a data grid, make the application usable with the keyboard, scrolling result list with arrow keys, creating tab panels and so on, are not a so simple task in web development. I have to write or find somewhere a lot of javascript library and I waste my time in designing the basic interface when I want to focus on the business logic. I think web applications (that are a different things from public web site) should have a powerful user interface similar to the ones on desktop programs.
XUL have almost all widgets. You can customize them using simple CSS or the GUI inherit the browser theme. I remind you that Mozilla is not just a browser, but a complete framework for building cross-platform applications. A big part of Mozilla is made with the same technology you can use in web applications: Javascript, CSS, XUL.
Anyway, 5 hours later meeting XUL, I was able to develop the GUI for an existing CMS. I can completely separate the server logic from the client's one. I can get the record set from a database and automatically display them in a sortable list. I can POST data to the server, in the same way I use to do with HTML, but without any need to refresh the page.
I know what you are thinking: XUL works only in Mozilla/Netscape. Yes, that is true, but I think this to be a false problem. I'm talking about web applications I'm used to developing. These applications are addressed to well-defined target of people, such as customers who need to administer their web site, call centers who have to make reservations and have different platform (Win, Linux, Mac) around the country.
A lot of customers prefer web applications instead of desktop program because they don't have to install anything, they can use it from any computer with a browser, the update process is painless and web applications are faster to develop. By using the Mozilla framework I can maintain all these advantages, and furthermore having a GUI and features of a desktop application.
Another objection is: browsers have evolved and now you can do anything with DHTML. This is undisputable, but we need a more practical solution. The point is: how long does it take to develop a Rich Web Client Application in DHTML?
In this period I'm reading a lot of litterature about Rich Web Client Application and I have tried several XUL competitor: Java Web Start, IBM Sash, Flash MX, Internet Explorer DHTML and so on. I found XUL the faster way to develop web applications. First of all, I don't need to learn any new language and/or a completely new framework. I can use my Javascript, CSS, HTML, XML knowledge. More important is that I can reuse what I'm learning using the Mozilla framework in the tradition web development, because the technology is standard and open.
Secondly, I can develop application that can run remotely and locally. MAB can be used on-line and locally without any need to change the code.
Thirdly, in my humble opinion, XUL GUI are lighter and more responsive than the GUI created by the competitors.
I hope to have in the future the chance to develop a Content Management System based on XUL, so that I can spend less time to develop the User Interface giving to customers a more powerful application.
English is not my mother tongue. Sorry for all my mistakes.
XUL have almost all widgets. You can customize them using simple CSS or the GUI inherit the browser theme. I remind you that Mozilla is not just a browser, but a complete framework for building cross-platform applications. A big part of Mozilla is made with the same technology you can use in web applications: Javascript, CSS, XUL.
Anyway, 5 hours later meeting XUL, I was able to develop the GUI for an existing CMS. I can completely separate the server logic from the client's one. I can get the record set from a database and automatically display them in a sortable list. I can POST data to the server, in the same way I use to do with HTML, but without any need to refresh the page.
I know what you are thinking: XUL works only in Mozilla/Netscape. Yes, that is true, but I think this to be a false problem. I'm talking about web applications I'm used to developing. These applications are addressed to well-defined target of people, such as customers who need to administer their web site, call centers who have to make reservations and have different platform (Win, Linux, Mac) around the country.
A lot of customers prefer web applications instead of desktop program because they don't have to install anything, they can use it from any computer with a browser, the update process is painless and web applications are faster to develop. By using the Mozilla framework I can maintain all these advantages, and furthermore having a GUI and features of a desktop application.
Another objection is: browsers have evolved and now you can do anything with DHTML. This is undisputable, but we need a more practical solution. The point is: how long does it take to develop a Rich Web Client Application in DHTML?
In this period I'm reading a lot of litterature about Rich Web Client Application and I have tried several XUL competitor: Java Web Start, IBM Sash, Flash MX, Internet Explorer DHTML and so on. I found XUL the faster way to develop web applications. First of all, I don't need to learn any new language and/or a completely new framework. I can use my Javascript, CSS, HTML, XML knowledge. More important is that I can reuse what I'm learning using the Mozilla framework in the tradition web development, because the technology is standard and open.
Secondly, I can develop application that can run remotely and locally. MAB can be used on-line and locally without any need to change the code.
Thirdly, in my humble opinion, XUL GUI are lighter and more responsive than the GUI created by the competitors.
I hope to have in the future the chance to develop a Content Management System based on XUL, so that I can spend less time to develop the User Interface giving to customers a more powerful application.
English is not my mother tongue. Sorry for all my mistakes.