Detecting Mozilla App Install Capabilities with JavaScript

By  on  

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I'm riveting super excited about the forthcoming Firefox Marketplace. A marketplace where you can download desktop, tablet, and mobile phone applications based on web technologies, from a host with a record as awesome as Mozilla, is a dream come true. The initial install process is powered via a JavaScript interface within Firefox, and if you can detect if the user's current Firefox install has app capabilities, you can advertise your own app when they come to your website.

The JavaScript

Feature detection is the best way to discover if the user's browser can install Firefox Marketplace applications:

var canInstallMozApp = !!(navigator.mozApps && navigator.mozApps.install);

Marketplace features live within the navigator object under the mozApps property. The install method triggers app installation, so that's ultimately the method whose existence should be checked. If present, the user has app install capabilities and you know you can show a "download our app" advertisement or, if your app manifest is configured properly, you can install the app from your own site!

Recent Features

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Creating Spacers with Flexbox

    I was one of the biggest fans of flexbox before it hit but, due to being shuffled around at Mozilla, I never had the chance to use it in any practice project; thus, flexbox still seems like a bit of a mystery to me.  This greatly...

  • By
    Dynamically Load Stylesheets Using MooTools 1.2

    Theming has become a big part of the Web 2.0 revolution. Luckily, so too has a higher regard for semantics and CSS standards. If you build your pages using good XHTML code, changing a CSS file can make your website look completely different.

Discussion

  1. Alex

    I personally can’t find a use for it even if combined with OpenCl, WebGl in the not-so-distant future.

  2. Nice! Potch has some boilerplate install code. I think it should use this snippet if it doesn’t already.

  3. Nice, first I’ve heard of this. Now to think if an app. :-)

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