I have been following a Firefox OS course, and although I had Firefox OS simulador installed, I got this incompatibility issue after Firefox 26+:
Problem with FirefoxOS
So, let’s try if the old simulator works:
FirefoxOS funcionando
And yes, it works, even with the warning that recommend me to use the App Manager for Firefox.
App Manager
App Manager is a new tool available in Firefox for Desktop, which provides a number of useful tools to help you test, deploy and debug HTML5 web apps on Firefox OS phones and the Firefox OS Simulator, directly from your browser. It’s used for Firefox OS 1.2 and newer versions (for previous versions, use the old simulator).
The way to start the App Manager is to write on the direction bar: about:app-manager:
App Manager
In the footer part of App Manager you can check that you don’t have any simulator installed yet, but you have a button to do it. Let’s click on it!
No Firefox OS simulador installed
After clicking on Install Simulator, you get access to Firefox OS Simulator Add-On web page:
Install FirefoxOS simulator
Click on Install, and you will access a new web page where you can select which Firefox OS Simulator you would like to install (https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/fxos-simulator/)
Simuladores FirefoxOS
I have decided to install versión 1.3, and I am asked for permission to do it:
Permission for installing FirefoxOS Simulator
After finishing the download, I am asked again for permission to install it:
Install FirefoxOS
A few minutes later, I got this message that everything is installed correctly:
Now, in the footer of App Manager, I have the Firefox OS 1.3 simulator ready to start:
In case you own a Firefox OS device, it is neccesary for you to install the ADB drivers, also available on Firefox OS App Manager Add-Ons:
ADB Helper
The procedure is exactly the same as with the Simulator: download first, accept the permissions to install it until you get the messages that everything has been installed.
You can access the App Manager by writting the url about:app-manager on the direction bar, or using the menu Tools / Web Developer:
App Manager
Running Firefox OS 1.3 Simulator
Because you have the simulator ready, let’s start it, and after the initial screen, you net the new Firefox OS interfaz:
FirefoxOS 1.3
The apparience is similar to previous versions, with the exception if the search zone. The desktop also seem the same. At internal level, the are high differences.
Controlling the Firefox OS Simulator using App Manager
One of the coolest aspect of App Manager is controlling the simulator from here. You can start, debug and stop apps from here, at a click.
App Manager for Firefox
Of course, you can add new apps (you can not unistall from here, because you have to do it inside Firefox OS, as you’ll see later on this post), and let’s try to include Manejandodatos just by using the manifest.webapp:
Manejando datos on FirefoxOS
I am positive about using App Manager, mainly because you can test of several versions of Firefox OS, making easy to deploy your apps, and not limited but a single version.
One step further
I haven’t written about Firefox OS for some time, but the thruth is that it’s growing day by day, of course behind iOS and Android, but it’s the third mobile OS, and every day a step closer.
I hopy this help you and have a nice day!