What I’m going to do with this post is explain exactly how BYOB works internally so that you can create your own distribution that has all the customizations you want. There are a some downsides to our method – primarily that we are Windows only and that we can’t sign our installers with the Mozilla certificate. But it’s the only way we can create a distribution that includes our own add-ons.

BYOB works by taking advantage of the features of the distribution directory in Firefox. The main component of the distribution directory is the distribution.ini file. The distribution.ini does have some documentation, but there are a few more tricks that we need to know about.

Previously I had talked about customizing the Firefox installer, and all that information is going to come into play here. What we’re going to do is after we’ve unpacked the Firefox installer we want to use, we’re going to create a subdirectory called distribution in the nonlocalized directory. In that directory, we’re going to create a file called distribution.ini. We can use this web page as a template for that file. The distribution.ini file is going to contain any preferences and bookmarks that we want to specify as part of our distribution. Information on how to create those things is in the sample file.

Next up are search engines. Search engines are placed in a subdirectory called searchplugins under the distribution directory. For search engines that we want installed for everyone, we put them in another subdirectory called common (searchplugins/common). If there are search plugins we want to be locale specific, we can put them in a directory that is named the same as the locale (This is all documented in the sample distribution.ini).

When I talked about customizing the Firefox installer, I indicated that you could preinstall add-ons by unzipping them into the nonlocalized/extensions directory. With the distribution directory, we have a new option. If we create a bundles directory and then put our add-ons in there, they are completely hidden from the user. They can’t be uninstalled or disabled. The method for putting add-ons in this directory is the same as before – create a directory that named the same as the ID of the add-on and then unzip the add-on into that directory.

If you’ve used BYOB, though, you may have noticed that they do things a little differently. If you bundle add-ons with your browser, they are installed the first time you start the browser. And if you create another profile, it gets those add-ons as well. And they are installed into your profile directory. This is accomplished is via a custom add-on that was created by Appcoast called the Addon Installer. I could find no information at all on this add-on. I’m going to document here how it works, but if you choose to use it, it’s at your own risk. To obtain it, you can download any of the browsers at the bottom of the BYOB page. After unpacking one of those installers, you’ll see the Addon Installer in nonlocalized/distribution/bundles/{04C927C9-E491-4DDC-9D45-54C145422A15}. Just duplicate that directory in your distribution. If I get a chance, I might create a version of this that is open source.

To use the Addon Installer, place the XPI files you want to install into a directory called extensions under the distribution directory. Then create a file called config.ini in that directory. The format of the config.ini file is like this:

[Extension0]
id=THE ID OF THE FIRST EXTENSION
file=THE XPI OF THE FIRST EXTENSION.XPI
Version=0.0.0
OS=ALL
[Extension1]
id=THE ID OF THE SECOND EXTENSION
file=THE XPI OF THE SECOND EXTENSION.XPI
Version=0.0.0
OS=ALL

Most of this is self explanatory. The only interesting part is OS. If for some reason, you need an add-on to be OS specific, put the OS name instead of ALL. You can see the OS names here.

Once we’ve made all these customizations, we can follow the instructions in my previous post to package our installer. Also, if you want your installer to say “Mozilla Firefox for Your Company”, don’t forget that you can do that using the setup.ini that is mentioned in that previous post. That’s in localized/distribution, NOT nonlocalized/distribution.

So in summary, while I usually plug the CCK Wizard, if all you need to do is set some default prefs, add some bookmarks, bundle some search engines and bundle some add-ons, the distribution method might be for you. If you need to do more detailed customizations, check out the CCK Wizard.

And as always, if you need help with any of this, you can contact Kaply Consulting.

Standard disclaimer: Under no circumstances should you use this information to create a custom Firefox install and redistribute it to anyone outside your organization. If you want more information, you can consult the Mozilla Foundation Trademark Policy.

What tools do I need to work with the Firefox installer?

The primary tool you need is 7-Zip. I install the MozillaBuild package which gives me all the tools I need. Even though the Firefox Installer is NSIS based, we will not need to use NSIS for most customizations. I’ll talk a little bit about the end about what kinds of things you would need NSIS to do.

How do I unpack the Firefox installer?

The Firefox installer is created using 7-Zip. So you can grab any of the Windows installers that end in EXE and unpack them. Any of the Windows installers on the Firefox download page will work. Once you’ve downloaded the EXE, create a temporary directory and type:

7z x "Firefox Setup 3.6.3.exe"

This will unpack the contents of the installer so we can modify it.

How do I bundle my extension with the Firefox installer?

Bundling your extension with the Firefox installer is just a matter of putting it in the right place. Then when we package up the installer at the end, it will get installed along with Firefox. For most extensions, the right place is nonlocalized/extensions. Inside that directory, create a subdirectory that corresponds to the ID of the extension you want to preinstall with Firefox. Then unzip the XPI into that directory. You can find the ID by looking at the install.rdf file inside the XPI. You can add as many extensions as you want into the installer.

What are some useful extensions I can bundle with Firefox

I’ve created two extensions that create interesting things to bundle with Firefox. The first is the CCK Wizard. The CCK Wizard can be used to change various defaults in Firefox so that you can customize it for deployment in your organization. The second is Rebrand. Rebrand allows you to change the internal branding used in Firefox.

Can I change the names used in the installer?

Yes, you can change the names used in the installer. To do this, you need to create a directory called distribution inside the localized directory that was created when you unpacked the installer. Create a file called setup.ini in this directory. Here’s what it looks like:

[Branding]
BrandFullName=Mike's Browser
BrandShortName=Browser

BrandFullName will be used to replace “Mozilla Firefox” and BrandShortName will be used to replace “Firefox”.

Can I change the images used in the installer?

Yes, you can change the images used in the installer. In that same directory where you put the setup.ini, you can put two files, modern-wizard.bmp and modern-header.bmp. The first images corresponds to the large image on the first page of the installer. The second image corresponds to the small image that is used on later pages of the installer. You can use the linked images as a reference to know what size to make these images.

How do I repackage the installer?

To repackage the installer, first you need to zip up the changes that you made. Type:

7z a -r -t7z app.7z -mx -m0=BCJ2 -m1=LZMA:d24 -m2=LZMA:d19 -m3=LZMA:d19 -mb0:1 -mb0s1:2 -mb0s2:3

This will create a file called app.7z that has all the changes we made. Now we need to package that file with some other files to create the final EXE. We’ll need the file 7zSD.sfx which you can download from Mozilla. And we’ll need a file called app.tag which you can create. It looks like this:

;!@Install@!UTF-8!
Title="Mozilla Firefox"
RunProgram="setup.exe"
;!@InstallEnd@!

Once we have these files, we can run the command:

copy /B 7zSD.sfx+app.tag+app.7z our_new_installer.exe

to package them all as an EXE. Don’t forget the /B. It indicates that the files are binary so Windows won’t put an EOF marker on them.

Can I change the defaults that are set in the installer like the install directory or the checkboxes?

At this time, there is no way to change the defaults in the installer without rebuilding the installer. There’s a bug open on this with a patch, so hopefully this will be fixed for Firefox 4.

Can I make my totally rebranded Firefox coexist nicely with an existing Firefox?

There are a couple ways to do this. The easiest way is to use the -no-remote parameter when you start Firefox. This causes the Firefox you are starting to not connect to the Firefox that is currently running. When you do this, you have to specify a different profile using the -P parameter. Alternatively, you can change the internal identifiers that Firefox uses. Then it will be considered to be a completely different browser. If you choose to do this, you should be aware that you will not receive updates and there will be other side effects. This is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Also, your profiles will be stored in different locations as well. If you want to do this, check out the file application.ini in the nonlocalized directory. The variables you want to change are Vendor and Name. Again, you do this at your own risk.

What can I do if I’m willing to rebuild the installer with NSIS?

If you are willing to rebuild the installer, you can change things like the name of the entry in the Add/Remove programs list, as well as the install directory and other defaults. This is a nontrivial exercise because some of the required files are built as part of the Mozilla build proces and are not available in the build tree. If you’re really interested in doing this, you can contact Kaply Consulting and we can talk about it.

I hope this answered some questions folks have. If anyone has any more questions, please don’t hesistate to ask.

Most interesting news on the CCK front is that I’ve decided to move it to Google Code instead of maintaining in the Mozilla trees. The URL is http://code.google.com/p/ff-cckwizard/. My primary reason for doing this is honestly that I’m not really contributing to Mozilla/Firefox proper anymore and messing with Mercurial isn’t worth it for me (I know, lame excuse.) It has some other advantages, though, like having my own bug reporting system and not having to get any reviews/approvals for checkins.

So if you have ideas/suggestions/bugs for the CCK Wizard, please open them in Google Code.

Also note that CCK Wizard is something I do on the side, so my time is limited. Contributions help. I know there are a lot of folks who depend on this for the business. Any and all love is appreciated.

CCK Wizard version 1.2.5

Here’s a summary of what’s changed:

• Dropped support for Firefox 2
• Added support for specifying sites where cookies are always allowed
• Added support for specifying sites to deny popups/installs/cookies
• Rewrote CCKService XPCOM Component to be a little cleaner
• Fixed problem where sometimes a created CCK wouldn’t install (ZIP path problem)
• Fixed problem where sometimes bookmarks weren’t created on first load
• Fixed problem where bookmarks weren’t created in the same order as specified in the CCK Wizard
• Made the additional help menu look better on Mac

Enjoy!

CCK Wizard 1.2

Enjoy!

• Security (keycards, etc.)
• MSI Packaging
• Active Directory Integration
• Perfect unattended install
• Allow entire Firefox directory to be specified
• Roaming profiles
• CCK for Thunderbird
• Store preferences in registry?
• Allow cache to be local with a remote profile
• Better ActiveX sandbox for Firefox
• Scalable deployment/management
• IEAK
• Active Directory
• Registry Editing
• Centralized Management
• Better enterprise patch deployment tools (Tivoli)
• WebDAV?
• LDAP
• Kiosk mode
• Whitelisting

What do people think? What on this list is really important?

FYI, I’m making a beta of the CCK Wizard available today for Firefox 3.

If you are deploying Firefox in your enterprise, educational institution, or even your household, you’ll want to check out the CCK Wizard (info at that link is a little dated right now).The CCK Wizard is an implementation of the old Netscape CCK that allows you to customize various aspects of Firefox and then contain all of those customizations in a single Firefox extension. Here are some of the things you can do

• Add an identifier to the user agent string
• Change the default home page and startup override home page
• Change the title bar text
• Change the animated logo
• Add a web page and tooltip used for the animated logo
• Add a help menu item that links to a web page
• Provide sites for which popups and XPInstalls are allowed by default
• Preinstall browser plug-ins
• Preinstall search engines
• Change the default search engine
• Add folders, bookmarks and live bookmarks to the personal toolbar
• Add folders, bookmarks and live bookmarks to the bookmarks folder
• Set default preferences
• Lock preferences
• Add registry keys (Windows only)
• Add certificates (See NOTE below)
• Set default proxy configurations
• Package other XPIs with your distribution
• Disable about:config

Note that if you customize Firefox using the CCK Wizard, there are certain restrictions on redistribution outside of your organization, especially if you add certificates. Read the Mozilla Foundation Trademark policies for more info, or contact licensing@mozilla.org.

And please let me know if you find any bugs.

Since there doesn’t seem to have been any communication from the assignee for
over a year, I am guessing that he is no longer working on it. With big help of
Michael Kaply (mkaply), we went into a different approach with this bug.

Instead of doing our own ADM template, we decided to do an implementation using
generic IE policies (gpedit.msc) that both browsers can share. For example,
setting the home page and enforcing full screen, and even disabling tabs! This
won’t be the best solution, because Firefox and IE are different in many ways.
But it gives us something to start with, as IE is already in the corporate
world, we might as well try imitating some of their success

We haven’t implemented every policy (only slightly over a dozen). And it
definitely needs some polish to the functionality and the code. There are some
ways to get around certain policies (we don’t do any preference locking), but
it is certainly better than not moving forward.

The code was designed to go into the mozilla\extensions directory. It works
with the latest version of Firefox3 (Firefox3.0b5pre), but not Firefox 2
(started using fuel). You can check out the source code via svn:
svn://cdot.senecac.on.ca/ff-ad/trunk

I am also making available an extension you can use. I haven’t done much
testing with it, other than it installs and works with no tab browsing and
enforce full screen:
http://matrix.senecac.on.ca/~cdolivei/files/grouppolicy.xpi

I also made a list of policies that we implement. Please feel free to look and
give feedback.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pqlMBxIY5x3i2yeezToYGfg

So now I am requesting community feedback. What is going to stop this from one
day getting into the tree (I assume everyone on the CC list wants something
like this in)? Other than using IE’s policies, of course

I think I got everything. If something is not working, feel free to email me.

This is really a first step, but I hope people will try it out.

I decided I don’t know enough about this area, so I’ve spent the past couple weeks investigating what Microsoft provides and the results actually surprised me: IE configuration via Group Policies seems to focus much more on customizing the browser(*) than it does on configuring individual preferences. Learning this made me wonder what exactly it is that people mean when the say that Firefox has a lack of support for Active Directory. Do they mean using Active Directory to manage install and updates? Or do they mean the types of customization that are provided via IE’s Group Policy.

So I’d like to pose a few questions to my readers:

1. Do you use Active Directory and Group Policy to manage Internet Explorer? If so, what policies are most important to you?
2. Do you use FirefoxADM or WetDog to manage Firefox? If so, what features are most important to you?
3. If support for Group Policies was implemented for Firefox, should it focus more on customizing the browser or setting preferences?

For more information on this subject, here are some links:

• Overview of Internet Explorer Group Policies
• Microsoft Spreadsheet where we removed everything but the IE policies.
• Bug 337679 (cck could allow settings to be set via windows group policy)
• Bug 267888 (Windows 2000/XP/2003 Group Policies support (make firefox configurable with domain group policy objects))

(*) By customizing the browser I mean things like removing printing, removing the help menu, removing view source, removing the context menu, preventing saving files to disk, removing the ability to open new windows, turning off tabbed browing, removing access to bookmarks, etc.