NPAPI:GuidAttribute
Contents
Status
Under Consideration
Problem Summary
Nearly 100% of all users have at least one plugin installed. Keeping them up to date is not a trivial task as most have multi-step installers and knowing where and how to get the latest version is not clear. The Mozilla Plugins Database is a central repository for tracking plugin versions and installer locations.
Currently plugin detection via Mozilla's Plugin Checker (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/) is based on the plugin's name and mimetype. This makes detection difficult as the algorithm to match plugins is not trivial (https://wiki.mozilla.org/PFS2#General_Algorithm). A unique method of identifying plugins via a guid (similar to addons on addons.mozilla.org) allows for a very simple API for browsers to use to find updates to installed plugins.
Existing Discussions and Documentation
Related Documentation
- General plugins docs
- PFS2 Documentation (plugins db)
API Requirements
- Adding a 'guid' attribute
Current Proposal
- Last modified: July 27, 2010
- Author: Ryan Doherty (Mozilla)
Open Issues
- Who would generate guids?
- Since guids are unique, plugin vendors can generate them on their own.
- Can this simply be handled via NPP_GetValue (https://developer.mozilla.org/en/NPP_GetValue)?
- Guid format?
- human readable or http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4122.html