[X3D-Public] PlugIns for HTML5 Browsers

[Joe D Williams]

Hi All,

Anyone interested in HTML5 plugins?

Here is some important text in the new HTML5 specification:

http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-object-element

The object element can represent an external resource, which, 
depending on the type of the resource, will either be treated as an 
image, as a nested browsing context, or as an external resource to be 
processed by a plugin.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#plugin

2.1.5 Plugins
The term plugin is used to mean any content handler for Web content 
types that are either not supported by the user agent natively or that 
do not expose a DOM, which supports rendering the content as part of 
the user agent's interface.

Typically such content handlers are provided by third parties.

One example of a plugin would be a PDF viewer that is instantiated in 
a browsing context when the user navigates to a PDF file. This would 
count as a plugin regardless of whether the party that implemented the 
PDF viewer component was the same as that which implemented the user 
agent itself. However, a PDF viewer application that launches separate 
from the user agent (as opposed to using the same interface) is not a 
plugin by this definition.

Note: This specification does not define a mechanism for interacting 
with plugins, as it is expected to be user-agent- and 
platform-specific. Some UAs might opt to support a plugin mechanism 
such as the Netscape Plugin API; others might use remote content 
converters or have built-in support for certain types. [NPAPI]

*Warning! Browsers should take extreme care when interacting with 
external content intended for plugins. When third-party software is 
run with the same privileges as the user agent itself, vulnerabilities 
in the third-party software become as dangerous as those in the user 
agent.



http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/browsers.html#nested-browsing-context

6.1.1 Nested browsing contexts
Certain elements (for example, iframe elements) can instantiate 
further browsing contexts. These are called nested browsing contexts.


Any guidance we can give them?
Thanks and Best Regards,
Joe