Recommended way handling JS objects for Plugins

0. Introduction

This document attempts to alleviate the problems with JavaScript, where checks for specific features of plugins fail. There is presently no defined way to construct the Plugins array in JavaScript, and no way that some of the information can be provided under the current specification. A typical symptom of this problem is to be told that a particular plugin is required by a website, when it is known that the plugin is already installed.

1. Scope

This document is an unofficial addendum to the Plugin Functional specification. It is intended to provide guidelines for browser and plugin authors as to a standardised way of providing information about the plugins.

2. Plugins object

Within the browsers JS implementation, the Plugins array consists of a number of MimeType objects. These contain details gleaned from installed plugins. Plugins can be indexed by number or by name. These exist as :
• navigator.plugins[<num>]
• navigator.plugins['<name>']
This object has the properties :

name

This describes the name of the plugin. It is the same as that used with a string index into the plugins array. Under RISC OS, this should be obtained from the PlugIn$Type_xxx variable.

description

This gives a single line description of the plugin. It may contain vendor and version information. See 'Description file' for its derivation.

length

The number of MimeTypes supported by this plugin. This will 'probably' be 1, but agents may group similarly named plugins to create a larger object (for example if a plugin named 'Bob' was claiming to support type &FF5 and &653).

filename

This is usually the name of the code used to execute the plugin. We don't have the joy of a single executable providing the plugin. We do, however, know 'how to run' the code. Since the filename provides the means by which you execute the plugin, our 'how to run' the plugin provides a similar facility. This isn't actually too useful to any system because it uses local file naming style, so using the 'how to run' is not significant. Therefore, this property should be mapped to the contents of Alias$@PlugInType_xxx.

The elements of this object are defined to be 'length' MimeType objects. This MimeType array can be accessed numerically from 0 (for example navigator.plugins[1][0].description).

3. MimeTypes object

The MimeTypes objects describes the MIME types known on the system. It has the properties :

description

An english description of this type. Since we don't have a 'good' english description of a particular type, I recommend that this be taken from the textual RISC OS name MimeMap entry of the content type. That is :
SYS MimeMap_Translate, MMM_TYPE_MIME, mimetype, MMM_TYPE_RISCOS_STRING, description
If no description can be found, it should duplicate the type name itself.

enabledPlugin

A reference to the plugin object that supports this content type, or null if none. This is for use in the navigator.mimeTypes[x] objects and refers to the plugin object that supports this type.

suffixes

This is a string of comma separated extensions which can be used on this content type. In lieu of any way to read the full list, this should be the value returned from MimeMap with MMM_TYPE_DOT_EXTN. An extension should be made to MimeMap to read all the extensions which map to this content type.

type

This is a string containing the content type that this object refers to. This should be obtained from MimeMap with MMM_TYPE_MIME.

4. Description file

The above sections cover the bulk of the Plugin-specific objects and data. Primarily, the missing data from the Plugins object is the description. This will be provided by the Plugin in a description file. The description file will allow for a range of other 'meta-data' to be provided about this plugin, should there be a need to provide this in the future.

The file <Plugin$About_xxx>.Info will be a colon separated tag/value pair file, terminated by newline characters. Tags are case insensitive. Lines starting with a '#' are ignored up to the next newline. Lines which are empty (newline, newline in the file) are to be ignored. Tag entries may contain the characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _ and - only. Value entries may contain any UTF-8 encoded strings. Control characters (0-31) are not allowed. Tags and values may be of unlimited length.

Currently defined tags are :

Description

The description of this plugin, to supply to the Plugin object's 'description' property. This may contain the vendor name, plugin version and any other pertinent information. It is recommended that these match implementations on other systems as closely as possible to allow interworking of JavaScript that checks by different methods for the presence or absence of such objects.

All other tags are presently reserved.

Any line which is not understood in the Info file should not be faulted, but should be silently ignored.
The 'Info' file will be given the RISC OS type of Text (&fff).

5. Contact

Justin Fletcher can be contacted at justin@movspclr.co.uk.