Firefox OS Manifest .htaccess Handler

By  on  

Want to know one of the secrets why Firefox OS is so incredibly awesome?  If you've created your website correctly, i.e. using CSS media queries (responsive design) and JavaScript feature detection, you can simply add an app.manifest file at the root of your domain and you've instantly created a Firefox OS app!  Of course you'll then want to list your app in the Firefox Marketplace.  The most frequent problem developers run into is with their app.manifest file not being served correctly.  With an update to the .htaccess file of the hosted app, that problem can go away!

The .htacess Code

The problem is that the manifest.webapp file isn't being served properly, so an AddType is the key:

AddType application/x-web-app-manifest+json .webapp

The .htaccess snippet above ensures that the manifest is served correctly, thus eliminating the annoying manifest error and letting you get your app listed on the Marketplace!

Recent Features

  • By
    Responsive and Infinitely Scalable JS Animations

    Back in late 2012 it was not easy to find open source projects using requestAnimationFrame() - this is the hook that allows Javascript code to synchronize with a web browser's native paint loop. Animations using this method can run at 60 fps and deliver fantastic...

  • By
    CSS Gradients

    With CSS border-radius, I showed you how CSS can bridge the gap between design and development by adding rounded corners to elements.  CSS gradients are another step in that direction.  Now that CSS gradients are supported in Internet Explorer 8+, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    MooTools Wall Plugin

    One of the more impressive MooTools plugins to hit the Forge recently was The Wall by Marco Dell'Anna.  The Wall creates an endless grid of elements which can be grabbed and dragged, fading in elements as they are encountered.  Let me show...

  • By
    Introducing MooTools Templated

    One major problem with creating UI components with the MooTools JavaScript framework is that there isn't a great way of allowing customization of template and ease of node creation. As of today, there are two ways of creating: new Element Madness The first way to create UI-driven...

Discussion

  1. In my nginx config manifest listed as(taken from mime.types file):
    text/cache-manifest manifest;
    If based on your example it would be:
    application/x-web-app-manifest+json manifest

  2. Stanton Moreland

    This is a really helpful post as I was looking to add my app on the Firefox marketplace for some time now. I am going to check it out soon! Since I am huge fan of Firefox Add-on Builder and SDK, I want you to check this blog post regarding developing Firefox add-ons.

    http://groupdocs.com/blog/tech-blog/archive/2013/02/01/developing-firefox-add-ons-with-the-add-on-builder-and-sdk.html

    I use GroupDocs viewer plugin for Firefox and it has good performance for a browser-based app but this add-on post has me confused. Hoping to hear from you on this!

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!