[REBOL] Re: REBOL Web Browser Plugin (Alpha)
From: robert:muench:robertmuench at: 9-Jun-2001 15:12
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [rebol-bounce--rebol--com] [mailto:[rebol-bounce--rebol--com]]On Behalf Of
> Carl Sassenrath
> Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 8:47 PM
> To: [rebol-list--rebol--com]
> Subject: [REBOL] Re: REBOL Web Browser Plugin (Alpha)
> When a plug-in is executed from a file association (as opposed
> to an embed tag), how does the plug-in keep the browser on the
> same page as the link? We found no API function or option for
> that. It's as if the designers of the plug-in API did not
> consider that possibility.
Hi, I have investigated this problem a bit. Sorry, no direct useable solution
but some thoughts:
The problem seems to be known by other (especially netscape) plug-in developers
too. But I couldn't find any solution to it...
Anyway, recalling my browser development skills I would expect the plug-in
process to work like the following:
1. The user clicks on a link with a .r
2. This request is sent to the server
3. A response is sent to the browser
4. The browser either uses a helper app (via MIME) or checks for a
plug-in to handle the response, if this fails, the response is displayed.
No comes the question: If a helper app or plug-in is used, what is displayed by
the browser?
I would expect for a helper app the current page as is, because the helper app
will be run outside the browser window. This will brake the normal message flow
used by browsers [and that might be the cause for the bug]: request/response. In
this case there was a request send from the browser to the server, but the
response is consumed by some other object and the browser just displays a blank
page, as default response.
For a plug-in, which as the name says is expected to run inside a browser
window, there are two conceptual possibilities:
1. The server sends a HTML response to the browser, where the plug-in output is
embedded. Unlikely, because what kind of HTML file should be send by the server?
It only received the .r link, and no reference to a HTML file.
2. The plug-in is responsible to provide the HTML surrounding to the browser
through the DOM. This would make sense, the plug-in than has to spit out
hardcoded HTML stuff to the browser. In this case the Rebol plug-in might emit a
redirect to the last page, which should be mentioned somewhere in the
history/referee/...
I don't know if this all makes sense... Robert
