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
    Create a CSS Cube

    CSS cubes really showcase what CSS has become over the years, evolving from simple color and dimension directives to a language capable of creating deep, creative visuals.  Add animation and you've got something really neat.  Unfortunately each CSS cube tutorial I've read is a bit...

  • By
    Animated 3D Flipping Menu with CSS

    CSS animations aren't just for basic fades or sliding elements anymore -- CSS animations are capable of much more.  I've showed you how you can create an exploding logo (applied with JavaScript, but all animation is CSS), an animated Photo Stack, a sweet...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Dynamic Waveform Visualizations with wavesurfer.js

    Waveform images are an awesome addition to boring audio widgets.  They can be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing, allowing users to navigate audio visually.  I recently found wavesurfer.js, an amazing waveform image utility that uses to Web Audio API to create super customizable...

  • By
    Create a 3D Panorama Image with A-Frame

    In the five years I've been at Mozilla I've seen some awesome projects.  Some of them very popular, some of them very niche, but none of them has inspired me the way the MozVR team's work with WebVR and A-Frame project have. A-Frame is a community project...

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!