[Ext] Glasser 1.0 (Alpha)

[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 13, 2009 by 6XGate

[+Fahim S. MVC]

Nice job but I am not touching it until it goes gold.

[Simon Veteran]

Oh thank God someone did it.

[KeeperOfThePizza]

wow only 2 comments on this? only the whole friggin community was complaining about this.

[gigapixels Veteran]

Nice job but I am not touching it until it goes gold.

Definitely. I'd rather have a stable browsing experience, though I'm very excited to see this under development.

(Y)

[Divardo]

This does look really promising, going to keep on eye on how this develops :)

[Zimmedon]

Awesome work. Look forward to seeing a stable version.

Running good on 3.0pre 2008041807 / Windows Vista x64 SP1

[KeeperOfThePizza]

I've installed it but theres just a white space across the menu bar.. :(

[SoapyHamHocks Member]

Nice job on this, working great so far.

I've installed it but theres just a white space across the menu bar.. :(

I use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4762 to hide the menubar and press alt to show it.

[KeeperOfThePizza]

Nice job on this, working great so far.

I use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4762 to hide the menubar and press alt to show it.

ahhh Thanks man :D :D

[gigapixels Veteran]

Well I went ahead and installed it anyway :laugh:

Looks great, especially with that blue favorites bar background. No problems encountered so far.

[Beastage]

I am unable to install it on latest 3.0pre with vista 64bit, I see Donovann did install it, the Stylish add on is not compatible and I don't know how to work with the CSS files.

[Knife Party]

ZOMG ! i am so looking forward to this :jump: :woot:

[Marcel T]

For those cautious to test this, just create a new profile in Firefox and test away.

[DreadBoat89]

very very nice...

[smctainsh]

Awesome extension - I'm using it right now with Firefox 3 Beta 5. :D

Smctainsh

[Lee G. Veteran]

Awesome - I'm using it now! (Y)

[zhangm Supervisor]

Great that this finally got made. I get this though:

@sixxgate.com/DwmCalls/CDwmCalls;1

Some sort of error. Running on Vista x64 and Firefoxx64.

[Dc'1]

Nice! I was realy hoping for somebody to do this lol.

One problem though... The "File Edit" and so on... Toolbar is a gray line lol... Perfect other than that.

P.S. How do I remove that toolbar lol, it's not there in the screenshot...

Edited April 19, 2008 by Dc'1

[Lee G. Veteran]

Nice! I was realy hoping for somebody to do this lol.

One problem though... The "File Edit" and so on... Toolbar is a gray line lol... Perfect other than that.

P.S. How do I remove that toolbar lol, it's not there in the screenshot...

http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4762

[Harrison H.]

Great that this finally got made. I get this though:

@sixxgate.com/DwmCalls/CDwmCalls;1

Some sort of error. Running on Vista x64 and Firefoxx64.

Make sure you install visual c++ redistributable 2008 like the original post said to.

[Dc'1]

http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4762

Thanks, looks much better now!

[andy_rose]

Great that this finally got made. I get this though:

@sixxgate.com/DwmCalls/CDwmCalls;1

Some sort of error. Running on Vista x64 and Firefoxx64.

I get the same thing here eventhough I have installed the c++ files. Since I am on Vista 64 bit I tried both the x86 and the x64 package. Still no go:(

[6XGate]

I am unable to install it on latest 3.0pre with vista 64bit, I see Donovann did install it, the Stylish add on is not compatible and I don't know how to work with the CSS files.

Interesting as I develop and ran this on Vista Ultimate 64-bit and ran it on Vista Business 32-bit at work. Do you get any errors of any kind. That would be helpful.

Great that this finally got made. I get this though:

@sixxgate.com/DwmCalls/CDwmCalls;1

Some sort of error. Running on Vista x64 and Firefoxx64.

Sorry about that, but since I don't know of any Official 64-bit version of Firefox, I didn't compile a 64-bit version of the extension's C++ part. If you can give me a link to a 64-bit version of Firefox 3, then I'll try and see what I can do about the 64-bit part.

[nazgul]

Great that this finally got made. I get this though:

@sixxgate.com/DwmCalls/CDwmCalls;1

Some sort of error. Running on Vista x64 and Firefoxx64.

I'm getting this same error, but running Vista Business 32, and just the current FF3 nightly. Oh well, can't wait till this is final, glad to see someone doing it!