Mozilla’s New App Manager Makes Debugging Easier For Firefox OS Developers

Mozilla today launched the Firefox OS App Manager to make it easier for developers to build and debug Firefox OS apps in its simulator and on a connected device. From the earliest days of Firefox OS, Mozilla has always put an emphasis on providing a full set of developer tools, and most of them are integrated into Firefox. The new App Manager, which is now available in Firefox’s Aurora channel, replaces the old Simulator Dashboard to provide an integrated debug and deployment environment for Firefox OS apps.

The tool leverages the existing Firefox Developer Tools, Mozilla says. It can be used to install hosted and packaged apps, as well as to debug them right on the device. Using the App Manager, developers can also take screenshots, get a list of all the apps currently installed on the device and get a list of the APIs available to their apps, as well as the privilege level required to use them.

Developers can also use it to update, start, stop and debug system-level apps using the regular Firefox developer tools to modify the HTML, CSS on the fly and to debug JavaScript code using the standard Firefox debugger.

The App Manager is now available in Firefox’s pre-Beta Aurora release channel (version 26). This current version is scheduled to become the stable release in December, though Mozilla often holds features back in its pre-release channels if it deems them to be too unstable for a general release.