Making a Cross-Platform Cross-Manufacturer Browser Plugin?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Shearer Cooper
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C

Chris Shearer Cooper

Sorry for the cross-post, not sure where to put this question ...

I need to make it possible for the user to control my application via a
browser, and I realize one of my options is to write a browser plugin for
every version of every browser on every platform, but then a friend pointed
out that BitTorrent had actually created its own protocol (torrent://) and
somehow registered it so the browser knew where to go when a URL with that
prefix appeared.

Can I use this to make a more generic interface to my application? That is,
can I somehow register with Windows that my application provides the narg://
protocol, and then write JavaScript stuff that talks to URLs with the
narg:// protocol?

Thanks!
Chris
 
Chris Shearer Cooper said:
I need to make it possible for the user to control my application via
a browser, and I realize one of my options is to write a browser
plugin for every version of every browser on every platform, but then
a friend pointed out that BitTorrent had actually created its own
protocol (torrent://) and somehow registered it so the browser knew
where to go when a URL with that prefix appeared.

Can I use this to make a more generic interface to my application?
Click to expand...

See

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/networking/pluggable/overview/appendix_a.asp

I know Internet Explorer and Firefox honor these registry settings.
Don't know about other browsers.
That is, can I somehow register with Windows that my application
provides the narg:// protocol, and then write JavaScript stuff that
talks to URLs with the narg:// protocol?
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "talk" ? A script could launch your application
simply by instructing the browser to navigate to such a URL (or you
could simply put a link on a page and have the user click it). The URL
is then passed to your application on the command line. That's it -
there is no channel of communication opening between the browser and the
app, it's a one-time one-way shot.
--
With best wishes,
Igor Tandetnik

With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not
necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to
land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly
overhead. -- RFC 1925
 
I had hoped it would work like other COM things Microsoft likes to do, where
it launches a COM interface (which, if my application is already running,
and then passes the URL to a function on that interface.

The way I had hoped to get things to "talk" is to have the browser request a
page over my protocol, and have my application return data in the response
to that protocol - in the same way that the browser makes HTTP requests.
So, for example, if some JavaScript in the browser could request the page
"narg://whats_your_status" and my application could return some information
to the JavaScript, now we've got something!

Chris
 
Chris Shearer Cooper said:
I had hoped it would work like other COM things Microsoft likes to
do, where it launches a COM interface (which, if my application is
already running, and then passes the URL to a function on that
interface.
Click to expand...

Well, Microsoft likes to do COM, but other browser vendors don't. So if
you want a solution working without modifications with non-Microsoft
browsers, it can't be based on COM.
The way I had hoped to get things to "talk" is to have the browser
request a page over my protocol, and have my application return data
in the response to that protocol - in the same way that the browser
makes HTTP requests.
Click to expand...

With Internet Explorer, you can implement Asynchronous Pluggable
Protocol for that. Firefox has its own API for pluggable protocols. I
don't believe it can be done in a way portable between different
browsers.
--
With best wishes,
Igor Tandetnik

With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not
necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to
land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly
overhead. -- RFC 1925
 
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