Adding Firefox support to the Preview pane [edit]

This page explains how to add a Firefox tab to the Preview pane in the Aptana HTML editor.

Introduction

By default, the web browser used by the Preview pane in Aptana's HTML Editor is IE for Windows and Safari for Mac. If you would like to add Firefox support to your Preview pane, you can download and install a plug-in that will add a Firefox tab to your HTML Editor in Aptana. This plug-in is an embedded XUL-based Firefox browser that appears alongside of your IE or Safari Preview.

Note: You must be running Aptana Build 0.2.8.13195 or later to use the Firefox plug-in.

Instructions

Note: These instructions only work for the standalone IDE. If you are using Aptana as a plug-in to Eclipse, install the Firefox Preview as you would any other plug-in (Installing a plug-in) and use the following update URL:

http://update.aptana.com/install/xul/3.2/

To install and add Firefox support to your Preview pane (in the standalone IDE):

  1. Download and install the plug-in:
    1. From the Help menu, select Software Updates > Find and Install... to open an Install/Update window.
    2. On the Install/Update window, choose the Search for new features to install option.
    3. Check the box next to the Firefox Browser Preview site.
    4. Click the Finish button to start installing the plug-in.
    5. Follow the installation prompts to complete the installation.
  2. Complete the post-install cleaning steps. You will only need to perform these steps once:
    1. Close the Aptana (or Eclipse) IDE.
    2. For Windows and Linux, open a command prompt, and navigate to the Aptana (or Eclipse) directory.
    3. Run the "clean" command:
      • If you use the standalone Aptana IDE on Windows, run the command Aptana.exe -clean at the command prompt.
      • If you use the Eclipse IDE (with the Aptana plug-in), run the command eclipse -clean at the command prompt.
      • If you use the standalone Aptana IDE on Mac OSX:
        1. Download the following file:

          http://www.aptana.com/downloads/Aptana_Clean_MacOSX.zip

        2. Unzip the file contents into the folder where you have Aptana installed.
        3. Double-click the Aptana Clean Configuration.app file to run the cleaning program.
    4. Re-start your IDE.
  3. Enable the Firefox plug-in:
    1. From the Window menu, select Preferences...
    2. On the tree on the left, expand Aptana > Editors > HTML Editor, and select Preview to go to the Preview preferences screen.
    3. Check the box next to Firefox, and click OK.

The next time that you open a page in the Aptana HTML Editor, you will see a Firefox tab as a preview option.

Related Topics