[development] SoC: Multi-site administration through rich XUL client

[Gerhard Killesreiter]

Ben Francis wrote:
> Khalid B wrote:
>   
>> Is XUL the correct approach?
>>     
>
> I did wonder this myself, but note that the specification states
> "XULRunner", which I have interpreted as meaning a cross platform
> desktop application (like Firefox or Thunderbird) rather than web
> application.
>
> This is the reason I am asking whether writing an API with something
> like SOAP would be appropriate. This would expose the Drupal module to a
> desktop client as a web service but also enable anyone to write their
> own custom web app which calls the API. I may even do this in the future
> as well.
>
> At first, I was a bit dubious, but now that I've thought about it I
> think this would be a very useful and flexible way of implementing the
> administration tool to make it useful to a lot of different people
> (including myself).
>
> I would love to have the opportunity to write a PHP module, a web
> service and a JavaScript/CSS Desktop XUL application - it would be my
> ideal project. The only question is whether this can all be completed in
> the allotted time.
>   

I am wondering a bit about this as well. I think that such an 
application would be very useful, but also quite complicated.

I know that David Carrington once made an attempt at an XUL theme. His 
efforts can be seen here:

http://cvs.drupal.org/viewcvs/drupal/contributions/sandbox/thox/xul/

IIRC he didn't develop it further because he found that he had to 
re-implement a lot of functions.

Cheers,
    Gerhard