MozillaZine

First Forumzilla Release!

Friday September 15th, 2000

Tony Jordan writes, "We wanted to let everone know that we have released a new Mozilla application called ForumZilla. This is a newsgroup like web-based forum reader that lets you read sites like MozillaZine, for example, in a mail/news type format. In fact, MozillaZine is the first forum to support ForumZilla. Go here for the press release or just go here to install it and tell us what you think!"

After installing Forumzilla and restarting, the app will appear in your Tasks menu. Click it, and when the Forumzilla window comes up, choose Subscribe from the App menu. For now, choose one of the two forums from the dropdown list. If you subscribe to the MozillaZine forum, you can then browse and reply to our forums using Forumzilla.

Forumzilla is an extremely cool implementation of Mozilla's XUL technology (and RDF as well). Definitely check it out when you get the chance.

#1 Way to go guys!

by jelwell

Friday September 15th, 2000 5:41 PM

This is one of the best applications built on the Mozilla framework yet. Congratulations, and I'm posting this comment using Forumzilla. I look forward to new features and continued support with Mozilla development. I know it's difficult to have such a great usable product that is based on a framework that is changing daily. Thank you for keeping Forumzilla working with the nightlies and for such a great product.

Joseph Elwell.

#2 WOW!

by sremick

Friday September 15th, 2000 6:20 PM

This is way cool. VERY NICE. Sure, the UI needs a bit of polish, but WOW... Quick and easy install, and it just WORKS. Very fast way to do web forums. I'm VERY impressed.

Question: will Forumzilla eventually put itself as a nice sculpted button on the Taskbar, or will we always have to use the pulldown menu?

[posted w/ Forumzilla]

#5 Re: WOW!

by mykmelez

Friday September 15th, 2000 10:44 PM

I never even thought of the task bar, but it seems like a natural place for an application that gets a lot of use.

#8 Re: Re: WOW!

by skeeterow

Saturday September 16th, 2000 1:51 AM

Sounds like a good idea. What about a place in My Sidebar? Or is it already there in the newer nightlies? Using a Mathml-Svg M17 at the moment this new app ,forumzilla, works great in it. build id:2000081111

steve

#19 Re: Re: WOW!

by sremick

Tuesday September 19th, 2000 1:00 PM

Well, I wasn't even thinking about it from the standpoint of Forumzilla getting a lot of use. The first thing that occurred to me was the fact that since it appeared in the TASKS menu pulldown, it should naturally also be associated with the TASKbar. I'm not entirely clear on all the ways that the Taskbar can be used... I've always just seen the nice sculpted buttons for the different components (Navigator, Mail, Composer, etc) and the Mozilla pop-up. Shouldn't this be a place where application plug-ins can add a button to themselves?

#3 livejournal.com support

by bradfitz

Friday September 15th, 2000 6:27 PM

Very cool.

My fellow developers and I are going to work on supporting ForumZilla from livejournal.com.

#10 Re ForumZilla in general

by leafdigital

Monday September 18th, 2000 6:37 AM

Pretty cool, but I can't help feeling it's kind of pointless - it doesn't even reformat the messages, so that you can use its own interface, etc.

Clever, though, and a good example of what's possible in future.

This is posted using ForumZilla, but I'll be back to the standard browser from now on ;)

--sam

#4 The power of Mozilla...

by esmaster

Friday September 15th, 2000 8:45 PM

It\'s this kind of versatility that the general public and reviewers are not aware of yet. It also the kind that will ensure the success of mozilla

#6 The name?

by jonde

Friday September 15th, 2000 11:39 PM

I haven't yet tried the application, but I'd sure like it to be called the Mozrum (something like mushroom...).

#7 The next logical step ...

by mpt

Saturday September 16th, 2000 12:19 AM

Now, if only the Forumzilla developers could get these discussions working as folders within Mozilla's mail/news component itself, so I didn't have to switch to a different component to read and reply to them (and I didn't have to learn a different UI than the one I already use for e-mail and Usenet discussions) ... now that would *really* be cool (and would cut down on bloat).

An even more fiendish exercise would be to develop a wizard which, given a Web page, and with some help from the user, could parse any Web forum and work out how to present it as a Forumzilla folder.

-- mpt

#20 Re: The next logical step ...

by sremick

Tuesday September 19th, 2000 1:03 PM

I really like the idea of Forumzilla forums being another folder in Mail/News. Is this technically possible?

#9 Rock on!

by Kovu

Saturday September 16th, 2000 12:08 PM

Posted w/Forumzilla! Woohoo!

James

#11 yup

by ataferner

Monday September 18th, 2000 9:27 AM

this is a perfect exapmle why mozilla is bound to succeed! posted using forumzilla!

#12 XUL is a proprietary technology

by monas

Monday September 18th, 2000 10:26 AM

Ok, results are Cool. Ok, I can't wait Netscape 6 to be released. Ok, I do my best by reporting bugs to bugzilla, but lets say true: XUL is a proprietary technology. Like VBscript and so on. And this means that unless I design look of my site for _EVERY_ browser I will not use it.

Another thing is that if I design some system, I can not relay on XUL, unless I know that I can request users use Mozilla to run that system ('cos I know of no features in other browsers that would easily/automagically emulate XUL posibilities).

#13 So what?

by mozineAdmin

Monday September 18th, 2000 2:12 PM

Sure, no other browser has XUL, but that doesn't make a lick of difference regarding whether or not you can implement a forumzilla setup for your site. It'll just be an added benefit for Mozilla users. If you don't want to go to the trouble, then don't, but also don't give the impression that people have to redesign their site, because they don't have to.

#17 Re: So what?

by monas

Tuesday September 19th, 2000 5:18 AM

Disclaimer: I'm not a native english speaker and my english is far from perfect. I'm sorry for my inability to express my opinions in crystal clear way.

If you have a forum system and want use forumzilla, you have to: 1) add link to your site which will start forumzilla; 2) add code to your system which will generate .rdf file; 3) change code to store messages into individual files [if you code does not do that already]. If you do not have forum system, then you should design and implement some mechanism for those without forumzilla access. Isn't this a redesign?

The same applies to XUL in general.

#18 Re: Re: So what?

by FrodoB

Tuesday September 19th, 2000 7:52 AM

XUL has absolutely nothing to do with it (caveat: I haven't tried ForumZilla, and if it *does* require remote XUL, then this message is in error). XUL is used to define user interfaces. I think your gripe is with RDF, which *is* an open standard.

#14 Re: XUL is a proprietary technology

by mcrist

Monday September 18th, 2000 2:14 PM

Uhh, I don\'t understand your post. Isn\'t XUL covered by the MPL, and in the near future, the GPL? Hardly seems proprietary to me.

#15 Re: XUL is a proprietary technology

by darkmane

Monday September 18th, 2000 4:56 PM

Ummm... XUL is covered by the MPL, and It's also a dialect of XML. So it can be implemented by others if they choose.

Also, for people like myself who develop INTRA/Extranet webapps, XUL allows us to create an interface to our applications more like the traditional Word Processors users have experience with. I look forward to rolling it out to my users.

#16 Re: Re: XUL is a proprietary technology

by monas

Tuesday September 19th, 2000 1:35 AM

Others could implement it only if: XUL interfaces will stop changing AND will be documented like HTML and other standard are.

I agree that it allows to create more natural applications. But what you will tell to those who will came to your site using old browsers? "Please install mozilla"? Guess what lots of potential users will do if your competitor supports all the browsers!?

#22 Re: It's the other way around

by zakaria

Thursday September 21st, 2000 12:46 AM

It's like you're site offering WAP support. It's not you reject the other instead you just offer another services.

#21 How do I get this going?

by samfish

Tuesday September 19th, 2000 6:40 PM

I just installed on the latest nightly build and returned here and everything looks the same. I clicked on the pull down display and nothing sees to have happened. Have I done something wrong?

#23 Re: How do I get this going?

by rdonkin

Saturday September 30th, 2000 1:23 PM

You must start mozilla with the option

-chrome chrome://forumzilla/content/

Otherwise you\\\\\\\'ll get a blank list of site in the Subscribe dropdown.

Once you\\\\\\\'ve done this it seems you can then launch it from the Tasks menu, but I\\\\\\\'m not sure about this.