Contents

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Introduction

Fresno provides unix command line access to the Javascript interpreter of your running Firefox instance.

It is a complement to MozRepl, so you will need to have that installed and running in your firefox.

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Why do I Care?

Here's an example of what you can do. This visits a web page, plucks out the HTML for a portion of the page, and then uses grep to pick out the hrefs. 

  % ./fresno -p http://simile.mit.edu/ -c -j "document.getElementById('slideshow').innerHTML" \
    | grep href
            <div class="title"><a href="semantic-bank/">Semantic Bank</a></div>
            <div class="title"><a href="gadget/">Gadget</a></div>
            <div class="title"><a href="welkin/">Welkin</a></div>
            <div class="title"><a href="timeline/">Timeline</a></div>
            <div class="title"><a href="referee/">Referee</a></div>
            <div class="title"><a href="babel/">Babel</a></div>
            <div class="title"><a href="exhibit/">Exhibit</a></div>
            <div class="title"><a href="appalachian/">Appalachian</a></div>
  %
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How do I get it?

Install it pulling it from our SVN repository, as so: 

  svn co http://simile.mit.edu/repository/fresno/trunk fresno
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Usage

./fresno <args>
  -p <url>                 -- Move browser to this page
  -j <javascript expr>     -- evaluate this expression
  -e <javascript expr>     -- enter's the object before running the script
  -c                       -- equivalent to: -e content
  -l <javascript filename> -- load javascript file, done prior to any -e
  -v                       -- run verbose
  -h                       -- this help message
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Examples

Send your browser to a page: 

  % ./fresno -p http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Fresno

Find our what page your visiting: 

  % ./fresno -j content.location.href
  http://simile.mit.edu/

Reload that page: 

  % ./fresno -j 'content.location.reload()'

MozRepl's routines are, of course available. The default context it runs in is the ChromeWindow 

  % ./fresno -j 'repl.whereAmI()'
  [object ChromeWindow] - Document title: "about:config"

But you can switch to the content Window. 

  % ./fresno -c -j 'repl.whereAmI()'
  [object Window] - Document title: "about:config"

MozRepl has lots of useful reoutines, for example you can inspect objects: 

  % ./fresno -c -j 'repl.inspect(location)'
  <object>.href=http://simile.mit.edu/
  <object>.search=
  <object>.hash=
  <object>.host=simile.mit.edu
  <object>.hostname=simile.mit.edu
  <object>.pathname=/
  <object>.port=
  <object>.protocol=http:
  <object>.replace=[function]
  <object>.assign=[function]
  <object>.reload=[function]

There are lots of things around 

% ./fresno -j 'repl.inspect(this)' | wc -l
     963
% ./fresno -j 'repl.inspect(Components.classes)' | wc -l
     862
% ./fresno -j 'repl.inspect(content)' | wc -l
     197
% ./fresno -j 'repl.inspect(XULBrowserWindow)' | wc -l
      37
%
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Bugs

  • Add bugs here
  • When js command return a string beginning by dash -, expect interpret it as an option. Two dashes must be added after (probably) every send and send_user commands. eg: doOutput='send_user -- $expect_out(1,string)' --JJL 23:24, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
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Thanks

  • Massimiliano Mirra for MozRepl, and enhancements and fixes to Fresno.
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See also

Retrieved from "http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Fresno"