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
    9 Mind-Blowing Canvas Demos

    The <canvas> element has been a revelation for the visual experts among our ranks.  Canvas provides the means for incredible and efficient animations with the added bonus of no Flash; these developers can flash their awesome JavaScript skills instead.  Here are nine unbelievable canvas demos that...

  • By
    fetch API

    One of the worst kept secrets about AJAX on the web is that the underlying API for it, XMLHttpRequest, wasn't really made for what we've been using it for.  We've done well to create elegant APIs around XHR but we know we can do better.  Our effort to...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Create Your Own Dijit CSS Theme with LESS CSS

    The Dojo Toolkit seems to just get better and better.  One of the new additions in Dojo 1.6 was the use of LESS CSS to create Dijit themes.  The move to using LESS is a brilliant one because it makes creating your own Dijit theme...

  • By
    Creating the Treehouse Frog Animation

    Before we start, I want to say thank you to David for giving me this awesome opportunity to share this experience with you guys and say that I'm really flattered. I think that CSS animations are really great. When I first learned how CSS...

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!