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World: r3wp

[Plugin-2] Browser Plugins

JoshM
15-Jun-2006
[1087x2]
Pekr: Backwards-compatibility w/REBOL, AFAIK, is only broken with 
the first digit changing (i.e. 1.x to 3.x). We'll follow that process 
with the plugin -- automatic updates from 1.2 to 1.3, 1.3 to 1.4, 
etc., but a new manual download for 3.0 (including new HTML, side-by-side 
listing in "Downloaded Program Files", etc.)
Henrik: yes. I'd be curious what the Mac or Linux demand is.
Henrik
15-Jun-2006
[1089]
I'd think there would be some demand for a mac version. switching 
to mac everywhere here :-)
JoshM
15-Jun-2006
[1090x3]
Henrik, thanks...good feedback.
Note: After some research, Pekr and I discovered that you can place 
a user.r file in the "sandbox" directory (system/options/home) with 
your proxy settings to get around the limitations of set-net-info.
That may be a temporary solution for those of you stuck behind a 
firewall.
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1093]
Thanks a JoshM for the solution. Although that is not final solution 
(plug-in demos will not work for those who directly click the link 
on website), with some user assistence, doc update, we could get 
it at least working, which is really cool!
Graham
15-Jun-2006
[1094x2]
does proxy work behind squid ?
Will we get ssl for the plugin?
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1096]
iirc we have squid at work, View works, so should plug-in imo ...
Graham
15-Jun-2006
[1097x2]
Ok, I know that beer doesn't
Altme doesn't
JoshM
15-Jun-2006
[1099]
We are looking at SSL in the future.
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1100]
Altme doesn't? Is that problem of altme? I doubt it - altme uses 
proxy settings ... but it uses world look-up, and for that single 
thing is requires some special port opened on firewall, thing our 
admins will not do for me ....
Graham
15-Jun-2006
[1101x2]
How about encapping product for use on plugin?:
Good to know that rT is considering releasing SSL somehow...
JoshM
15-Jun-2006
[1103x2]
Graham, we are looking into that also.
(We are looking at the idea of securing source code, not necessarily 
"encapping" per-se)
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1105]
Ah, good.
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1106]
securing? hooo ho, so maybe finally we will be able to work with 
certificates in rebol? :-) That would be uber cool :-)
Graham
15-Jun-2006
[1107]
Yes, certificate support are also needed if we are going to replace 
those java banking apps, and medical applications
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1108]
As a suggestion for dealing with proxy issues, why not have the plugin 
dll read the browser's proxy settings and then call the View dll 
with some REBOL code that would set its proxy settings accordingly?
Graham
15-Jun-2006
[1109]
that's what it does now.
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1110x2]
it does not imo anything like that ...
plugin dll imo does not do anything, just starts View with some parameter 
.... it is View's get-net-info, which is outdated (look at the source) 
and incorrect. It looks at incorrect Registry setting
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1112]
I mean, once the security infrastructure is set up properly in a 
future version of the plugin, anonymous scripts shouldn't get a persistent 
sandbox at all, so there would be no place to put a user.r.
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1113x2]
that is why even normal View is not able to get control panel proxy 
setting
Brian's suggestion might work, but not sure Josh will do it, as he 
already suggested we should contact Carl, to fix View code involved 
...
Graham
15-Jun-2006
[1115]
ok, my bad understanding
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1116x2]
no persistent sandbox? what do you mean, please? Are you suggesting, 
that our plug-in apps, should not rely on local storage? I am not 
sure I like it ...
Imagine plug-in version of IOS. Currently the sand box is in Temp 
dir, which get's purged by control panel setting. I don't want to 
lose MY local data :-)
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1118]
I have gone over this before - the key word is anonymous.
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1119]
maybe I don't understand what you mean ....
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1120]
Josh's aforementioned secure source code was something I suggested. 
The other part of the suggestion was that every secure script would 
be cryptographically signed by an SDK license key, or some other 
way for RT to trace the author of the script. Only those signed scripts 
would be allowed to store persistent data in a sandbox without the 
attempt to do so prompting the user with a security requestor.
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1121]
so in your opinion, plug-in should not be allowed to write even in 
sandbox dir?
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1122]
Scripts that aren't cryptographically signed (anonymous scripts) 
would be limited in what they can do on your system.
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1123]
my question was a bit different, though. Let's imagine your proposed 
secure way, so I can use it for some app, to sync some data to user. 
The problem for me is the sandbox placement - in system Temp dir, 
which can be purged via control panel. I am not sure I like it, if 
there is possibility I could loose my synced data. Or am I missing 
something?
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1124x2]
Your last reaction to when I brought this up:

OK - one thing is clear now - "What would you let your worst enemy 
do with your computer?" should be a saying for Rebol plug-in .... 
now just how to represent it ...
My suggestion was just for anonymous scripts. Signed scripts could 
get a sandbox, probably somewhere under %appdata%.
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1126]
Did it take long time for you to dig it up? :-)
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1127]
I just had to look for the last point in the history where I posted. 
Security seems to be a recurring theme in my posts. :)
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1128]
btw - what do you mean by "should not get a persistent sandbox at 
all" - do you mean it should not be allowed to write to temp at ll, 
just use memory? Or just by anonymous you mean randomly generated 
"anonymous" directory somewhere in Temp directory?
Graham
15-Jun-2006
[1129]
Isnt' this a bit over the top?  What about cookies ?
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1130]
No, just use memory. No cookies except browser cookies - there should 
be a way to access them, similar to how do-browser lets you access 
JavaScript. Perhaps a wrapper function around do-browser could work 
for now.
Volker
15-Jun-2006
[1131]
although some storage for graphics-heavy things would be nice.
Pekr
15-Jun-2006
[1132]
Brain - are you suggesting so tight security for us rebollers only, 
or do also other plug-ins use such limited environment? (although 
I am starting to understand, that there should be NO way of how to 
harm your computer, or it will be regarded - unsecure)
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1133x2]
I don't want there to be any need for people to make a REBOL-blocker 
like FlashBlock or NoScript.
(both of which I use,  btw)
Volker
15-Jun-2006
[1135]
i would not go oncrypto only but also on "allow website", like noscript
BrianH
15-Jun-2006
[1136]
Yes, we need better security requestors too.