NAME

   XUL-Node - server-side XUL for Perl

SYNOPSIS

   package XUL::Node::Application::HelloWorld; # XUL-Node Hello World
   use XUL::Node;
   use base 'XUL::Node::Application';

   sub start { Window(Label(value => 'Hello World!')) }

   1;

DESCRIPTION

   XUL-Node is a rich user interface framework for server-based Perl
   applications. It includes a server, a UI framework, and a Javascript
   XUL client for the Firefox web browser. Perl applications run inside
   a POE server, and are displayed in a remote web browser.

   The XUL::Node POD has more information.

FEATURES

   * Develop user interfaces as you would using frameworks such as Tk or
     WxPerl, then deploy to Firefox web clients with no special security
     permissions or downloads
   * Support for almost all of the XUL, see TODO for unsupported features
   * Client-server communication is done through HTTP
   * Page never reloads, only UI deltas are sent over the wire
   * Almost a 1-1 correspondence with the XUL DOM API, with minimal Perl
     syntactic sugar- if you you know XUL, and you know Perl, you can
     program in XUL-Node
   * 14 examples, including the XUL Periodic Table of Elements,
     demonstrating the usage of every widget, attribute, and event
   * Unicode and BiDi support

PREREQUISITES

   XUL-Node requires Perl 5.8.2, Firefox 0.8 and 0.9, and the following
   modules, which can be obtained from CPAN:

     Scalar::Util
     LWP
     MIME::Types
     POE
     POE::Component::Server::HTTPServer
     Digest::MD5
     Test::Class
     Test::Exception
     Aspect

   If you install XUL-Node from the CPAN shell, these modules will, if
   necessary, be installed automatically as well.

INSTALLATION

   Install this distribution using the standard build process for Perl
   modules:

      perl Makefile.PL
      (...answer two questions...)
      make
      make test
      make install

    Or you could use the CPAN shell, as described in the "CPAN" module
    documentation.

    During installation you can provide a port and a server root
    directory path for the XUL-Node server when prompted.

    Several Perl modules, one script (the XUL-Node server), and a server
    root directory will be installed.

    You can then run the server using the command:

      xul-node-server

    And point your Firefox web browser at the following URL to see the
    demos, assuming you chose the default port:

      http://localhost:8077

AVAILABILITY

   XUL-Node has been uploaded to the CPAN.

AUTHOR

   Ran Eilam <eilara@cpan.org>. Please mail me bugs and suggestions.

COPYRIGHT

   Copyright 2003-2004 Ran Eilam. All rights reserved.

   This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
   it under the same terms as Perl itself.


