This page is a work in progress !!

Packaging Mozilla FireFox 4.0+ and newer Geckos in NLS version

As of June 2011, there is no alternate way, there is only XUL -- er... one way to repackage Mozilla applications with any add-ons, because -install-global-extension has been removed from Gecko 1.9.2, as has been reported in https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Command_Line_Options#Add-ons∞

Remarks:

• This method works for FireFox 4.0.1 (officially included with eCS 2.1 I think), ThunderBird 2.0 (but ThunderBird has no official OS/2 version as of June, 2011, so I don't think it will be included with eCS) and SeaMonkey 2.1 (a suitable substitute including an email client).
• For the old methods, please refer to the Wiki archive.
• This method might stop working in the future, just as the -install-global-extension one, so be careful.
• Language Packs are considered "special" inside Mozilla apps, but they are installed the same way as everything else. This allows us to pack and deploy Mozilla applications along any global extensions we may want; for example, language pack or spelling dictionary switchers.
• Any applications being packed aren't run anymore, so no cautions with running Mozilla applications are needed.

What you need:

• FireFox.zip; get it from ecsinst2_1\en_us\cid\server\mozilla
• <yourlang>.xpi from ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/<product>/releases/<version>/win32/xpi for FireFox and ThunderBird
• <langpack>.xpi from ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/seamonkey/releases/<version>/langpack for SeaMonkey
• (Optionally) spelling dictionaries from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/language-tools/∞ (it says FireFox but they should be the same for every Mozilla application)

Steps to take:

1. Copy {program}.zip and the .xpi files to an empty directory; e.g. ?:\mztemp (where '?' is a local drive on your PC)
2. Unzip {program}.zip; a folder called firefox, seamonkey or thunderbird (from now on referred to as "{program}") should be there.
3. Extract install.rdf from {langpack}.xpi; i.e., type 'unzip {langpack}.xpi install.rdf'. It should look like:

1. Copy the package id (between the quotes in em:id="..."). (You can then delete the extracted copy of install.rdf.)
2. Move and rename {langpack}.xpi to ?:\mztemp\{program}\extensions\<id>.xpi; for the the previous example it would be ?:\mztemp\firefox\extensions\langpack-es-ES@firefox.mozilla.org.xpi <- Mind all the dots!
3. Optionally unpack <dictionary>.xpi, and move <lang>.dic and <lang>.aff to ?:\mztemp\{program}\dictionaries\
4. Unpack {program}\omni.jar in another directory; e.g. from ?:\mztemp type 'unzip {program}\omni.jar -d omni'
5. Edit ?:\mztemp\omni\defaults\pref\{something}-l10n.js, ({something} = suite for SeaMonkey, or = firefox, etc.), and change changing "en-US" to the new language for the program UI and for the spellchecking too, if you have installed the dictionary.
6. Move {program}\omni.jar to ?:\mztemp as a backup; ie from ?:\mztemp type 'move {program}\omni.jar .' <-Mind the final dot!
7. Repack omni.jar; i.e. from ?\mztemp, type 'cd omni'
   'zip -r9 ..\{program}\omni.jar *'
   'cd..'
   
8. Optionally, repeat step 3 through 5 with any other useful packages, like language switchers. In that regard, these come to mind:
   Dictionary switcher: get it from me or from http://xsidebar.mozdev.org/∞; I've modified it to work with SeaMonkey 1.1 - 2.1, FireFox 2.0 - 4.* and ThunderBird 2.0+
   Locale switcher: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/locale-switcher/∞
   Quick Locale Switcher (looks like a mix of the other two, plus more options): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/quick-locale-switcher/∞
   
9. Repack the application; from '?:\mztemp' type 'zip -r9 {program}_new.zip {program}'
10. Test the new zip and commit it to CVS.