Experts-Exchange

Soon, I will be posting some questions on Experts-Exchange.com (not Expert Sex Change, they had to change their domain because it used to be expertsexchange.com).

My dad has a premium account there that I can use, so I will be able to ask any question I want about XPCOM, firefox extensions, C++ etc, and hopefully that will help BitFox get started.

Experts-Exchange normally has people that are willing to help (I believe it is possible to swap points for money, but I can't be sure, I just ask the questions), and a lot of experts within different fields.

What is going on with BitFox

For those that want to know what is going on with BitFox, and when a release will be out.

I am only new to developing. I am a Year 10 student in Australia learning Pyton (at school) and C++ (self taught) etc, and I have done programming a lot of my life, as my dad is a programmer himself.

I wanted to start working on Firefox extensions. So I thought I would make something that I have wanted for a long time. A bittorrent client within FireFox.

I didn't really know how I would do it, but from what I had read, it probably was possible.

So I went to Google Code and made a project for that, and called it BitFox. I didn't know how long it would take. The idea behind it was that I could work on it over a long period of time. I didn't even know if it would work. The reason I made the Google Code page was to see if there is any one else interested in helping with the project on a programming side, and to be able to track all the changes myself.

I have to say, I didn't expect this article to appear on Digg, among other websites. This sort of motivated me to rush the project, and since I didn't know what I was doing, there was no way I was going to get anywhere.

This project really isn't going to get anywhere in the near future, but I will slowly work on it. If anyone else is interested in joining, it will get this done faster, but I do hope to get it done, but I can't really give a time of when it will be done.

The bottom line is: I don't want to be known as a developer who starts projects and doesn't finish them. I don't want a new prject I have started going around the web and one or two people saying "That is by JoshHendo that is never going to be finished.". BitFox is currently a bit to advance for me, and I do want to finish it as much as everyone else wants me to finish it.

Surounding myself in heaps of tutorials

Currently, I am printing off heaps of different tutorials, Firefox tutorials, XPCOM tutorials, information on the torrent protocol.

In the next week, I will be living off coffee and coke, jugging school work with development of a prototype of BitFox for the end of April.

You may not be able to download torrents, but hopefully you will be able to connect to a torrent and get information about it. Once that is done, it should be all good.

Alpha 002 due end of April

I have set a goal to have Alpha 002 released by the end of April.

The main difference from Alpha 001 will be that Alpha 002 will be able to download torrents. That is the only feature I am working on at the moment.

Yes, I will slowly add more features over time, but I don't really want to overload it, so I will have to draw a line at what is possible with the limitations I have, not overloading it, and what is needed.

I am naming them by 00's, because I want the last Alpha to be 007 ;)

[While I hope to have it out at the end of April, whether it will happen or not is a different matter, but I am working hard to make it happen]

Alpha 001 and XPCOM components

I have released Alpha 001, but it isn't really useable. If you look in our release pages, you will see that all Alpha 001 is, is a skeleton for the extension.

Also, as I posted last post, I made a XPCOM component in JavaScript, and managed to compile one in C++ (but I haven't managed to get it to register yet, but I haven't tried that much), so I will be able to work on BitTorrent code VERY soon!

- Josh

Getting somewhere with XPCOM

I was just looking at a simple JavaScript XPCOM tutorial, and suddenly, it just all made sense!

I will attempt to add a JavaScript XPCOM component to the source code soon, and if that all works, hopefully it will not be much harder to add a C++ one, and then the extension will start to look like... it!

- Josh

Edit: For those geeks out there... I am having some problems with SVN, but I managed to compile something.

I just copied and pasted all the code from this page. It may only be a hello world, but that hello world will be from a xpcom component. I am currently testing it to see if it works.

I managed to compile everything fine, as I said, I haven't tested it yet, but will. When I get SVN fixed and a working copy, I will upload it to SVN, and then start working on a C++ version of the same component. Once that is done, BitFox will be on its way.

If anyone is able to help with XPCOM

XPCOM makes my head hurt. It is the only language/system/etc that I haven't been able to understand. It shouldn't be that hard to compile a simple C++ file into a component, and then have that component accessable by the FF extension (I know how to do the latter, it is just compiling it I am having problems with).

I am able to work on other parts of the extension for now, but I put out this plea for anyone experienced with XPCOM and C++ (I am all good with C++, but XPCOM and C++, ouch). If you are experienced with XPCOM and C++, please email me, josh@joshhendo.com. It would be great if you could join the project (see the main page), but just been able to help me compile some simple C++ code into a component would be great.

BitFox won't get anywhere without any help. Hopefully Ben from FireStorm will get back to me soon and put me in the right direction!

SVN isn't my favourite tool to work with

I have to admit, I have never really worked with SVN before (I have got stuff from it, but never added stuff), and I have to say it is very confusing.

I have had this problem before, but I can't be bothered to fix it tonight. So if no one can find anything in SVN, or very little... sorry! It will be up sometime tomorrow.

For those interested, the code I was going to upload was just code that added a BitFox tab to the preferences (unix) / options (windows) dialog, and a uncompiled sample C++ component (the only problem I have now is turning it into a XPCOM component, once I get that and am able to access the code (as I said, very simple code, just to test if I can access it from the extension), then I will be able to include some BitTorrent code).

Clear up a few of the comments on Digg

I just want to clear up some of the comments posted on the recent Digg article about BitFox.

i may potentially use this only for smaller torrents, i'll still leave the larger torrents to utorrent

Yep, that is exactly what I was thinking when I decided to make it. There was one torrent that I got, that wasn't that big (50meg), and it downloaded at about full speed, and I thought that it would be cool if it was treated just like a normal download.

Yes. That's generally the way it works anyway. Most users stop seeding after they've completed a torrent. Some of us won't. It's only a tool. A good one potentially.

The idea is that users will continue to seed after the torrent has finished downloading while FF is still running, but like any good program/extension, they will be notified and have the option to turn it off (I don't like to hard code options in).

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? I know that I don't _always_ have firefox running. I restart it from time to time, or simple close it if I'm not using it.

What we need is a bittorrent client that runs as a service, and communicates with a seperate frontend or web UI...Maybe I should start coding one....

For large, slow torrents, I agree with you. As I mentioned above, I made it for small torrents that are similar sizes to things you would generally download in FF (I would never download a large file in FF). I will continue to use another BitTorrent client even after BitFox has a working copy.

I don't get it why would anyone want to try and do this? uTorrent is 170KB does every single feature a torrent should do and doesn't require installation! Long Live uTorrent!

A challenge. I really don't care if no one uses it actually (I don't know how many people actually would), I just want to try and do this.

A start of a UI

I have just uploaded to SVN a update to what is currently in existence of the extension, and it is starting to have a UI. I have finally got it working to have a item in the Tools menu, and now when you click on it, it has the basis of a options UI.

I had to start over, but not much had been done, and now that everything I am trying to do (so far) is working, I am very happy. I will try to make this work a bit better, and then I will try XPCOM (noooo!) again (again, if anyone has any experience with creating and using XPCOM components, please email me).

I will update here again when something else comes up. Also, remember, if you want to help out with the project, just go to the main page and select "join project" or help out in the Google Group.

Dugg, FireStorm and UI

Well, we got Dugg. Good thing that everything is hosted on Google, as I have been Dugg before, and my servers don't cope very well!

A few other things (I may as well put them all in the one post)...

I had a email from Ben, who is running the FireStorm project, which is similar to BitFox, and we hope to be able to work together to (possibly) make a single extension, but we will probably have the 2 projects while in early development. I am going to speak with him later and I will let everyone know more here.

As for the UI, I have taken a break from XPCOM, as it isn't the easiest thing to understand (I will get back to it later), I will hopefully have a UI for BitFox up soon (just a basic one, will probably change). The idea: All the C++ code is as components, and then those components can be accessed by the extension, which will then download the torrent and display everything in the UI. Can't be that hard right?....

Libtorrent

Libtorrent is a open source C++ library for BitTorrent transfers, which, is exactly what is needed for BitFox to work.

I should have a link between XPCOM and some of the C++ code up soon, hopefully, assuming everything works out.

New Google Group

I have set up a Google Group/Mailing list for BitFox.

If you are interested in helping this group out in any way, please join this group, and participate in some of the discussions. This is a great way for other developers to help out with this project, as this project isn't going anywhere without any help :).

Go to our Google Group.

Python no go, C++ possibly

Well, it appears that I can't run Python within a Firefox extension.

I posted on the Google/Usenet Group about running Python, and was told that I am not able to.

If you have read the thread, you will know that I have seen FlashGot use C++ within it (I think), so hopefully I will be able to use some code from a open source C++ BitTorrent client.

If anyone has any suggestions on how I could do all this, please email me, bitfoxextension@gmail.com.

New email address

I have set up a email address for this extension.

If you want to contact me or inquire about the extension, please email bitfoxextension@gmail.com.

BitFox Development Blog

Welcome to the BitFox Development Blog.

Here is where I will post any development updates, as well as any news (news will also appear on the BitFox front page)

Also, if you are interested in helping out with BitFox, please see this page.