Latest News 11/03 The current source is in CVS at mozdev. A new component has been built to hold this functionality but there's still significant work to do. Visual History Numerous projects have found that thumbnail screenshots improve the usability of bookmarks and history mechanisms. In Mozilla, on Linux, the OEone project features this functionality but this code has not landed in the Mozilla.org cvs repository. Academic work has also proven the utility of images for improving the revisitation process. |
May 22th, 2003 -- Uzilla LLC hires the Mozdev Group, Inc to add screen capture to the Mozilla browser.
Uzilla, LLC, a leading usability analytics firm specializing in Mozilla related technology, today announced a new project -- adding screen capture functionality to the Mozilla browser. This addition completes a feature initiated in Mozilla's DOM Inspector and allows a bitmap capture of a specific DOM node. The interface is in place, at inIScreenCapturer.idl.
"This is a great example of a teamwork between the Mozilla organization and industry. A reference interface is already implemented and the end result should integrate well into the application." Said Asa Dotzler, mozilla.org driver and QA lead.
Not only will Uzilla, our suite of user interface analytics tools be enhanced by this, but this functionality opens a wide array of enhancements to the Gecko family of browsers.
Our open source project for web based heuristic review, uzReview, will also use the screen capture capabilities to allow usability analysts to comment on whole pages or individual components with visual capture.
Additionally, numerous other potential applications will be enabled. For example, thumbnail images can be displayed in bookmarks, as shown in the sidebar. An opensource project, Mozwho, aims to create an adaptive homepage portal will use this functionality to provide better context about previously visited sites, a "visual history".
As an integrated component, it will be available in the DOM Inspector for development and bug reporting tasks.
Uzilla, LLC's first goal is to get screen capture working on Windows but we hope to extend it soon after to other platforms as well. The code is intended for contribution to the Mozilla codebase and will be licensed with the tri-MPL.
This functionality is already underway, see the bug report for Windows #149302. Related bugs track progresss for linux and macintosh.
About the Mozdev Group
Mozdev Group, Inc. offers, a suite of open source tools, toolkits and libraries for the development of effective cross platform applications. Our products and Mozilla software development services are best suited for small and medium sized businesses and organizations looking for innovative solutions that meet todays demands to cut cost while reaching the widest range of operating systems possible for products and solutions.Pete Collins will be writing the extension to Mozilla for screen capture. He and his partners at MDG are responsible for the O'Reilly book "Developing Applications with Mozilla". Learn more about the mozdev group at their site.
About Uzilla
Uzilla, LLC, provides products and services for web-based usability testing. It was founded in 2002 by Andy Edmonds, whose 7-year career in Internet development follows an education in Cognitive Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and Georgia Tech. Andy teaches classes in Web development and has spoken at numerous tradeshows and user groups. He is the creator of several popular Mozilla add-ons including the gestural navigation plugin. For more information please visit our company Web site at www.uzilla.net.###
Uzilla Contact:
Andy Edmonds, President864.624.9776
andy@uzilla.net