[WEB4LIB] Netscape 7.0 - How to control it ?

[Andrew I. Mutch]

Kim,

Welcome to "Mission Impossible"!

Just kidding, sort of.

Netscape 7.0 interface is built with XUL which combines XML and CSS to
create the graphical interface. Unfortunately, traditional tools like
WinSelect and hacks like Resource Editors don't know how to handle XUL and
can't lock down the browser interface. That means that would-be users of
Netscape 7/Mozilla/Phoenix are left to their own devices to figure out how
to lock down the interface elements.

So how do you lock down XUL? With Notepad. Seriously, editing the
interface is just a matter of commenting out XML markup in the XUL files
that define the Netscape interface. The problem is that the XUL files
are not just sitting around for you to edit. They are packaged up in
JAR files which you can open up with a ZIP program like WinZip. Once
you unpack the JAR files, you have to figure out which lines need to be
commented out, not only to eliminate interface elements but also to block
functions like browsing the hard drive. After you've done all that,
you have to package it all back up and hope you haven't broken anything.
Now do all this without any useful documentation from Netscape or Mozilla.
Does it sound like fun yet? This is why most people stick to Public Web
Browser and K-Meleon.

I do have a set of documentation for Mozilla 1.0 that was provided to me
that explains how to do all this. It was actually pretty comprehensive but
I never got the time to play around with it. The author actually offered
to put together some pre-packaged builds that would have all of the
interface lockdowns completed. If there is some interest out there, I can
contact him about putting something together for Netscape 7. I've had
several contacts recently about Netscape 7 so it sounds like some people
out in the library world are deciding to make the leap forward (or is that
back??). If you are interested, contact me off list and I'll see what I
can set up.

Good luck!

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI 





On Thu, 26 Sep 2002 plim at ccsf.edu wrote:

> 
> > Hi all,
> > We are planning to replace Netscape 4.7 with Netscape 7.0
> > as
> > our public terminal browser. However, Netscape 7.0 doesn't
> > work with Winselect, and students can access the c drive
> > and
> > our server by typing c:// as the URL, or use the "Save
> > Page
> > As" command to break into the hard drive or the server.
> > Has
> > any library using Netscape 7.0 done anything to protect
> > your
> > network? We would like to block access to "Preferences"
> > too.
> > We will really appreciate it if you could share
> > information
> > with us.
> > 
> > Thank you.
> > 
> > 
> > Kim Lim
> > Skyline College Library
> > 
>