Mozilla Labs Chromeless 0.3 Is Already Here, Two Weeks After the Previous Update

Mozilla Labs warned that it would start releasing updates to its Chromeless project more often and it's keeping its word. Just a couple of weeks after Chromeless 0.2 hit, Chromeless 0.3 is here with quite a few new features, considering the short period since the last release.

Mozilla Labs' Chromeless project aims to create a platform for developers to leverage the underpinnings of Firefox 4 to built custom applications based on web technologies.

As the name implies, in essence, Chromeless strips the Firefox user interface (the chrome) to enable developers to build their own, but also provides APIs that are useful in this context, for example for accessing Firefox's built-in features or to create a custom UI.

Since there has been plenty of enthusiasm in the project, there are already some interesting applications built on top of Chromeless. The latest update makes some of those apps available right from the official GitHub repository.

"Inside the Chromeless tree you’ll find a nonchalant directory named gallery. That directory is a collection of git submodules that point to various applications the community has built on top of Chromeless," Mozilla explained.

Another addition to Chromeless 0.3 is support for custom modules that expand on the functionality of the tool. Until now any changes meant that developers had to fork from the official source code. With custom modules, they can build any addition separately without affecting the main code.

Developers will also appreciate a new feature in Chromeless 0.3 that allows them to access native libraries from the machine Chromeless is running on.

"JSCTypes is a simple new way for JavaScript to interact with native code that landed in Firefox 4. There’s now an example that shows how you might bundle native code with your Chromeless application. The module inclusion feature mentioned above lets you include libraries and expose features built upon them to your application via a JavaScript API of your design," Mozilla wrote.

Chromeless 0.4 is already on its way and, considering the fast new pace the developers have imposed, it should be coming soon. You can check out more details in the Changelog and grab the source code here.