Questions tagged [npapi]

The Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) is a cross-platform plugin architecture used by many browsers, with the notable exception of Internet Explorer.

Deprecation

The NPAPI is being gradually deprecated by Google (Chrome) and Mozilla (Firefox):

Starting January 1st 2014, Chrome disabled NPAPI plugins by default (with the exception of a few popular plugins). However, Users are prompted and can choose to activate the plugin.
Chrome is expected to remove all support for NPAPI come January 2015.
Starting with Firefox version 30 (June 10th, 2014), NPAPI is disabled by default (Again, with the temporary exception of a few plugins). Users can still enable specific plugins using Firefox's settings menu.

Alternatives

There are a number of ways to replace the now-almost-defunct NPAPI plugins:

In Google's Chrome, the 2 main options are NaCl (Native Client) and Chrome extension with Native Messaging - each offering a different kind of solution.
In Mozilla's Firefox, the common alternative is using the js-ctypes feature which allows direct loading of .dlls. The Firefox team has indicated that they will be eventually supporting Native Messaging like Chrome does.

A rudimentary overview of the options (with comparison of their strengths and weaknesses) is available here:

http://www.firebreath.org/display/documentation/Browser+Plugins+in+a+post-NPAPI+world

The FireBreath team has also released FireBreath 2 with very sparse documentation (users are asked to help document it) which attempts to make FireBreath plugins work via Native Messaging in addition to NPAPI and ActiveX support.

Resources

npapi-sdk - Official repository for the NPAPI headers.
npsimple - The "Hello, World!" of NPAPI.
Mozilla Developer Center on plugins and NPAPI.
FireBreath, a cross-platform framework building NPAPI and ActiveX plugins from the same source base that can target Windows, Mac, and *nix.
The JUCE framework includes wrapper classes for browser plugins.
Nixysa, a glue code generation framework for NPAPI plugins.
Mozilla's policy regarding whitelisted plugins.
Google's announcement regarding NPAPI deprecation.

732 questions

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5 answers

Accessing scanner at client side from a web page without applet

I want to acces a scanner at client side, before I was using java applet without problem but after chrome has decided to not support java what can I do. If there's solution with JS, Jquery or other language please tell me

asked Jan 19 '16 at 16:56

taha yahia

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1 answer

Generating async Javascript events from browser plugin (NPAPI)

I'm writing a web browser plugin (NPAPI.) My plugin starts a worker thread, and as the worker progresses, I'd like to pass events back to Javascript. But because of the NPAPI threading model, it's not legal for the worker thread to call back into…

javascript browser plugins npapi

asked Dec 19 '09 at 03:48

Geoff

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1 answer

Any example of writing an NPAPI plugin in Linux?

I need to write a browser plugin to communicate with another process, and it seems I have to use NPAPI plugins. Is there any example or open source NPAPI plugin I can refer to? Many thanks for your reply. Summary of…

google-chrome firefox npapi browser-plugin

asked Dec 15 '09 at 08:08

ZelluX

69,107
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104

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2 answers

Equivalent of Chrome Native Messaging in Edge

NPAPI plugins are not supported on Microsoft's new browser Edge. Google Chrome developed Chrome Native Messaging in order to interact with an executable installed on the computer provided its link on the registry (for Windows OS). Firefox seems to…

npapi microsoft-edge chrome-native-messaging

asked Aug 28 '15 at 20:12

Thordax

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1 answer

Trouble loading an NPAPI plugin in Mac app

I'm working on a standalone daemon executable that needs to load an existing third party NPAPI plugin on a host machine. What I want to do is render the generated views from the plugin to a texture/surface. It needs to work on both Mac and Windows,…

cocoa plugins webkit npapi gecko

asked Aug 10 '15 at 21:24

Charles

2,615
3
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35

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1 answer

Reading smartcard from chrome after NPAPI drop

This chromium blog states Chrome is dropping NPAPI for good now. In my current project I need to access a Belgian E-ID card to get data (not authentication). All documentation and examples I found are using Java plugins. This will become imposible…

google-chrome smartcard npapi

asked Jan 14 '15 at 08:33

Boris Callens

90,659
85
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305

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2 answers

Alternative of NPAPI plugins for Flash / Java Applet

My question is regarding chrome announcement of Not supporting the NPAPI plugins post December, 2014. Firefox is also following the same. I have a NPAPI based plugin in one of my legacy application and that was doing well till now but after…

flash google-chrome firefox applet npapi

asked Jul 30 '14 at 11:54

user1461826

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2 answers

Alternatives to NPAPI plugins

The NPAPI is being phased out by Chrome. What are the alternatives for writing NPAPI like browser plugins with cross browser support? I need to write a browser plugin which could talk to desktop based installed application. My environment is such…

npapi

asked Feb 05 '14 at 04:54

A.R

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3 answers

trying to debug npapi plugin in Chrome and Firefox , without success what is the right way?

i build working npapi pluging using firebreath framework , and its working just fine. i compiled in debug mode . did regsvr32 myddl.dll and restart the Chrome browser. now in visual studio 2008 express and did attached to process attached to Chrome…

visual-studio-2008 debugging firefox google-chrome npapi

asked May 17 '11 at 07:33

user63898

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514

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1 answer

NPAPI plugin in Internet explorer?

Is there any way to make an NPAPI plugin work in Internet explorer or do I need to go the activex way ? thanks

internet-explorer npapi

asked Jan 19 '11 at 12:28

G-Man

7,232
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0 answers

Does using XEmbed put restrictions on OpenGL functionality?

I am building an NPAPI plugin for Linux that uses the XEmbed protocol for the window that is controlled by the plugin. I am using Gtk+ for attaching to the window, wrapping the XEmbed window with a GtkPlug. I want to render an OpenGL surface on the…

linux gtk glsl npapi

asked Dec 21 '10 at 23:38

user335938

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3 answers

Installing vlc web plugin for chrome on mac

I want to install the vlc web plugin for chrome on my mac (Mountain Lion) . I could succesfully do it on Windows by just selecting web plugin at the time of vlc installation. However, on a mac I think the plugin comes as a seperate package. Can…

macos google-chrome vlc npapi

asked Mar 12 '14 at 16:59

user3392740

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1 answer

NPAPI support in Firefox and Chrome actually dropped?

Recently I've found out that Chrome and Firefox are dropping NPAPI plugins support by January 2013. Anyway, reading the blog messages with more attention, it seems that NPAPI plugins will be just disabled by default and not actually impossible to…

c++ google-chrome firefox npapi

asked Oct 18 '13 at 19:39

Dan Tumaykin

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1 answer

Future of FireBreath ? Will it be dead?

I am creating plugins which target multiple browsers like IE, Mozilla Chrome etc. For this I am using the FireBreath framework. As I understand FireBreath uses ActiveX and NPAPI interfaces to interact with IE and other browsers. Today I came across…

npapi firebreath

asked Sep 24 '13 at 07:54

user2809953

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2 answers

Building NPAPI plugin in C#

Attempting to build a C# NPAPI plugin I have found a tutorial which describes that your dll needs to implement a number of methods such as NP_GetEntryPoints , NP_Initialize and NPP_New along with a number of others. However what I want to understand…

c# .net interop npapi

asked Jul 03 '12 at 10:33

Maxim Gershkovich

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