[Ext] Glasser - Add Vista Glass to Firefox

[6XGate]

Windows Aero Glass for Firefox

Latest Version: 3.5.2

Firefox Versions Supported by Latest: 3.5.5 to 3.6.*

Get the latest news on Glasser from Sleeping Cats

The Glasser extension provides a major visual upgrade to Mozilla Firefox when running on Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7 by instructing Windows to make the toolbars in Firefox rendered over Windows Aero Glass. Read this entire article before install this extension.

System Requirements

Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7

A DirectX 9 compatible graphics processor with a WDDM driver that support Pixel Shader 2.0 and has at least 128MiB of Video RAM (as required for Windows Aero)

Your active visual style must be Window Aero.

Mozilla Firefox 3.5.5 or later. Known to work for the current 3.6 beta.

Known Issues

Because of several bugs in the Cairo graphics library, which is used in Mozilla Firefox; some font colors may now mix well over certain backgrounds when used over or near Aero rendered portions of the UI. This problem only manifests it self when using third-party themes or user-applied styles. There is also a known bug with the calculating of rendered text sizes that can cause Cairo to cut off the a small portion of the last character in some text. These are known issues with Mozilla Firefox and Cairo and both parties are working to resolve them. Usually these bugs do not cause any text to become unreadable but may produce undesired results.

Install

Get the latest version from AddOns.Mozilla.Org. With some releases, the latest version may be in a sandbox, but can be installed without problem.

Options

Glasser can look really great with a few extra tools and finger work. If you would like your Mozilla Firefox install to look like any one of those pictured above, simply install the Stylish Add-on and check out the Glasser Extras forum on SleepingCats.org. Also, if you wish to hide the menu bar, download the Personal Menu Add-on or the Hide Menubar Add-on. Both support using the Alt key to temperately show the menu-bar and Personal Menu lets you keep a button on the toolbar to gain access to the menus.

Source Code

Glasser's native components and the extension itself is released under a 2-clause FreeBSD style license. The source code be checked out or view via anonymous SVN over HTTP. Check out the DwmXPCOM Repository for the Glasser XPCOM source and the GeckoSDK needed to compile it. Check out the Glasser Repository for the extension as it is packaged for Mozilla Firefox. You may use Firefox or your favorite SVN client to check out the source code.

Final Note, and Special Thanks

I hope you folks enjoy this extension. If anyone has any suggestions or finds any bugs, feel free to post them here or at the Glasser Forum at SleepingCats.org.

I used a similar method go get the native window handle as used in MinimizeToTray, but coded in C++.

Special thanks goes to Carl Booth for the Aqua personal bar.

Special thanks goes to Relativity_17 for the heads up on the native theme element for Windows Mail/Calendar look.

Special thanks goes to ptmb for for the heads up on the native theme element for Windows Media Player look.

License

Copyright 2008-2009 Matthew Holder. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

   1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
   2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Edited December 19, 2009 by 6XGate

[garwin]

:) cool

[ViperAFK]

My favorite firefox extension :) firefox looks amazing in vista with this.

6XGate, what extension are you using for the new tab button on the tab bar? Tab mix plus?

[MrFuji]

6XGate, what extension are you using for the new tab button on the tab bar? Tab mix plus?

Perhaps this one with a modified install.rdf to make it compatible with 3.0.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

Perhaps this one with a modified install.rdf to make it compatible with 3.0.

Your link is dead-404

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

Yes that is Tab Mix Plus Viper. A dev release you can get it here Tab Mix Plus 0.3.6.1.080416

[6XGate]

My favorite firefox extension :) firefox looks amazing in vista with this.

6XGate, what extension are you using for the new tab button on the tab bar? Tab mix plus?

A heavly modified (fixed) version of New Tab on Tab Bar. I hope the author will update it himself soon. The nightly tool won't fix it BTW.

Edited May 17, 2008 by 6XGate

[andy_rose]

How the he** did you get the back button to look the same as forward?? Looks great!

[ViperAFK]

How the he** did you get the back button to look the same as forward?? Looks great!

Right click the nav bar and hit customize. Select small icons.

[andy_rose]

Ah of course mate, thanx:)

[proximo]

how do i get the text on the personal menu extension items on the right hand side rather than underneath the icon. (Like how it is for the home icon).

[SMELTN]

very cool. Glad it is updated..

Just need someone to update stylish to work with RC1 so we can get our other styles with this working.

[proximo]

you could also use an extension called basics to add a tab button to the tab bar area. but like tabs mix plus it lacks themes integration. Its best you wait for the author of new tab button to update it. Here's the link anyway.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/versions/69

BTW its compatiable for 3.0pre so modifying the install.rdf will make it work with RC1 without any problems.

[WongKit]

Veeeery nice Addon! :yes:

On your screenshot there is more space between the buttons and the toolbar. How do I get this too? Thx

left your screen | right mine

WongKit

[andy_rose]

Veeeery nice Addon! :yes:

On your screenshot there is more space between the buttons and the toolbar. How do I get this too?

Same here, how to make the extra space?

[Calum Veteran]

Thank you very much for this update 6XGate! It's good to see you have bought it out just as RC1 is released! I just wish other developers would do the same with their extensions!

you could also use an extension called basics to add a tab button to the tab bar area. but like tabs mix plus it lacks themes integration. Its best you wait for the author of new tab button to update it.

I used Basics for Beta 5 as it worked, however, that doesn't work for RC1. I wish the developer of New Tab Button on Tab Bar would update it, but it doesn't look like he is going to anytime soon :/

Is there any chance you could provide us with you heavily modified and working version of New Tab Button on Tab Bar please 6XGate? I would really appreciate it.

Veeeery nice Addon! :yes:

On your screenshot there is more space between the buttons and the toolbar. How do I get this too? Thx

left your screen | right mine

WongKit

I would love to know this too please.

----------------

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via FoxyTunes

[NienorGT]

On your screenshot there is more space between the buttons and the toolbar. How do I get this too? Thx

This is the value that change this padding:

#main-window #navigator-toolbox #nav-bar
{
	padding-bottom: 4px !important;
}

Change the value to the one you wish.

[Julius Caro]

Tomorrow Ill go ahead and compile the latest version of the DLL for the x64 platform. Although there's no x64 build of rc1 anywhere, as far as I know.

[batbeef]

This is awesome!

[zerologic]

:cool:

New version. Very good, thanks for releasing this new version!

[6XGate]

Same here, how to make the extra space?

Sorry folks, I forgot I had that one. It's a Stylish entry

@namespace url(http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul);

#main-window #nav-bar[iconsize="small"]
{
padding-bottom: 5px !important;
}

[zerologic]

Sorry folks, I forgot I had that one. It's a Stylish entry

@namespace url(http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul);

#main-window #nav-bar[iconsize="small"]
{
padding-bottom: 5px !important;
}

Ok. So will there be a new version of Glasser?

[Shannon]

Just a quick heads-up, the favicon part of the URL bar is slightly out. Fix:

#identity-box
{
	margin-left: -4px !important;
}

#identity-box > hbox
{
	border-left-width: 0 !important;
}

[Calum Veteran]

6XGate. Just a quick question:

Do you plan on including some of these important Stylish styles (e.g. the thing to move the icons up a bit, transparent menu-bar) in with the extension XPI file itself at all? It would be really helpful, although because I'm only a beginner programmer I don't know whether it can be done with the way you've coded the extension.

[primexx]

awesome extension! it'd be great if you could compile all the variations into an options pane too.