Jetpack is a new product of Mozilla Labs. It is basically a new way to create Firefox plugins using web programming languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The idea behind is the same as for Adobe AIR. If you know HTML, CSS and JavaScript you can build a Firefox plugin in no time.
The bad news is that Jetpack is still in early developer testing stage, so it is not available in Firefox yet. The good news is that Jetpack is using jQuery and you can use it to do all kinds of stuff like responding to user click events, manipulate any website DOM elements and use cross-site XMLHttpRequest object, etc. Besides, Jetpack can be setted up to use other javascript libraries such as prototype.js, dojo.js etc. and third party API libraries such as Twitter, Google, etc. API libraries.
Where to go from here?
If you want to learn more about Jetpack and how to use jQuery with it refer to this links:
- Watch this Jetpack video
Good starting point to get an idea of what Jetpack is and how jQuery is used within it. Also good starting point to understand what kind of things can be don with Jetpack. - Read Jetpack tutorial
Official Jetpack introduction tutorial from Jetpack team. Probably the first article you must read about developing for Jetpack. - Jetpack API documentation
A list of global variables that are available in your Jetpacks. Currently it has a very limited global variables and functions. - Jetpack plugin for your Firefox
If you want to develop Jetpacks you need to install this Firefox plugin. - Available Jetpack to investigate the code here and here.
Most developers prefer understanding the logic and learning by investigating someone else’s code easier.
I am planning to post more Jetpack tutorials on this blog and try to show what kind of things can be done using Jetpack and jQuery. Keep tuned by following me on Twitter (@jQueryHowto) or subscribe to blog’s RSS.