toolbox
=======

*an index of Mozilla software tools*


The Story of Toolbox
--------------------

Tools are only useful if you know where they exists and can find them.
Toolbox is an index of tools developed by and
for the Mozilla community.  Toolbox is not a hosting service -- it is a
listing of tools which can live anywhere that are of use to Mozillians.

It can also be used to track:

* smart bookmarks
* code snippets
* webapps

Each tool in the listing must provide the following attributes:

* a *name* that uniquely identifies the tool
* a text *description* of the tool
* a canonical *URL* where you can find the tool

Toolbox also tracks several optional classifiers for each tool in its
database.   The classifiers are described below.


How to use Toolbox
------------------

The `index page <./>`_ of toolbox lists all tools with the most
recently updated first. All fields on a tool are clickable.  Clicking on the
description lets you edit the description which will be saved after
you finish editing it. Hovering over the tool title or URL will display an
`edit button <http://universaleditbutton.org/>`_ which on clicking
will allow you to edit the appropriate data.
Clicking a URL, like `?author=harth <./?author=harth>`_ will give
you the tools that ``harth`` wrote. There is also full text search
using the ``?q=`` parameter (like `?q=firefox <./?q=firefox>`_ ) which
will search both the descriptions and all of the fields.

You can also display results by a particular field by going to that
field name.  For example, to display tools by author, go to 
`/author <author>`_ .  You can add a new tool at 
`/new <new>`_ by providing its name, description, and URL. Upon
creation, you'll be redirected to the tool's index page where you can
add whatever classifiers you want.


Classifiers
-----------

Outside of the required fields (name, description, and URL), a tool
has a number of classifier tags.  These fields are:

* usage: what the tool is for
* type: is the tool a particular kind of software such as an addon or a script?
* language: which programming language the tool is written in
* author: who wrote and/or maintains the software?

You can freely add and remove classifiers for each project.
Autocomplete is enabled to help you find the classifier you want.


TODO
----

There is much more that we plan to add to Toolbox. The project source
code may be found at https://github.com/mozilla/toolbox .

* add scrapers for hosted tools to automatically seed toolbox with data
* integrate author with community phonebook and bugzilla id
* the first time someone edits a description (etc.) from a pointed-to
  file (e.g. a setup.py) then the project should be notified
* you should be able to edit a field, e.g. author.  Changing one field
  value should give the option to change all similar field values.
* a "Request a tool" link that functions like stack overflow; users
  can request a tool. If it does not exist, it gets turned into a
  bug. Users should also be able to point to a tool to answer the
  question. Similarly, developers should be able to see a list of
  requested tools and take ownership of them if desired
* Similarly, users should be able to note similarity of tools and
  propose a consolidation strategy

Oustanding issues are listed at
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?resolution=---&component=Toolbox&product=Webtools
. Please file new bugs or feature requests at
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Webtools&component=Toolbox
or contact jhammel@mozilla.org or discuss in #ateam at irc.mozilla.org.


Other Resources
---------------

Mozilla tools are recorded on other sites too.

* http://www.mozdev.org/
* https://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Jprosevear/Tools
* http://infomonkey.cdleary.com/
* http://userscripts.org/