Using a FireBreath plugin from vba - firebreath

I created a JSAPI plugin that work in the browser but since the Firebreath plugin is an activex, i would like to know if it is possible to use the same plugin from VBA.
The problem is that it crash on instantiation. I suspect some browser requirement, is it possible to work around ?

I wrote firebreath, and I have no idea. I'm sure there is some way to make it work by tweaking the right things in the c++ activex code, but to my knowledge nobody has done what you're attempting.

Related

Cross-compile Firebreath plugin ARM

I need to compile a Firebreath plugin for our ARM linux-based device. I don't see any section on the docs that mention how to specify what toolchain and compiler to use.
Anyone can give a tip on that?
Thanks!
The reason there is no section in the docs is because as far as I know nobody has ever done it =] (and I wrote FireBreath, so it's not unlikely that I would have heard about it)
This would be a cmake problem -- look at what the prep scripts are doing, particularly prepcommon.sh, and how they use cmake. You'd need to figure out how to tell cmake to use an arm-targetting toolchain. You also need to find out if there is anything different about the NPAPI implementation on your platform. Keep in mind as well that NPAPI in Firefox is going away in the release planned for early March.
FireBreath2 will support FireFox and Chrome via native messaging but I have no idea what may or may not be different on ARM for that. To do what you want to do you'll need to learn a bit more about both FireBreath and cmake.

Using Java/Python libraries in programming Firefox/Chrome Extensions

I have an idea of studying user behavior on the browser, for which I intend to make a Chrome/Firefox extension to study the behavior dynamically. I have some predefined libraries in Java and Python to analyze the results, which will be impossible to program in plain JavaScript.
Now for my question: is it possible to use third party libraries, especially those of Python or Java like plain function calls?
I have a vague idea about something like Java XPCOM or PyXPCOM for Firefox. However, for a beginner, it all looks so scary. I started making Add-On for Firefox, but got lost somewhere in the huge API.
I found Programming Chrome extensions easier than Firefox, but I couldn't come across something similar to XPCOM in Chrome.
How can I decide which one to go for?
Chrome - seems easy but I am not sure of its power.
Firefox - Seems powerful, but is it really possible to use any Java/Python Library?
Additionally, I came across this link that may be useful: How does someone use thirdparty libraries to be included in Firefox addons/extensions?
But seems like it mostly talks about C++ and XPCOM.
I have a vague idea about something like Java XPCOM or PyXPCOM for Firefox. But for a beginner, it all looks so scary.
I am not a beginner and JavaXPCOM/PyXPCOM are very scary (in addition to being barely maintained). As Firefox goes, it should be much easier to wrap your Java/Python library in an application and run it as an external process: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/XPCOM_Interface_Reference/nsIProcess. Note that you cannot get data back (other than an exit code) so the application should write it to a file that you can then read in your Firefox extension. Not very elegant but it has the advantage of being doable.
As to Chrome, its extensions run in a sandbox and using Java or Python isn't possible. Only option is adding an NPAPI plugin to your extension. It is binary code meaning that it could do anything.
When writing Chrome extensions, you're limited to JavaScript unless you choose to use an NPAPI plugin, which lets you do pretty much anything, but is not recommended.
The other approach you could take is to implement your Java or Python code on the server and make requests from the chrome extension's JavaScript.

Is a NPAPI plugin what I am looking for?

I need to develop a mini ClickOnce plugin for Firefox, Chrome, Operah and Safari (preferably, one that works on all of the above).
My plugin needs to be able to run an application in a one-click fashion. In other words, by going to a specific URL, my application will run on the target machine (no prompts / dialogs shown). Unfortunately, ClickOnce is only available with IE, and I am unhappy with the ClickOnce plugins that currently exist. I would like to develop a tailored ClickOnce plugin that suits my specific needs.
I read about FireBreath, which sounded like a perfect solution for me. I also read about the difference between an extension and a plugin and I think a plugin is what I am looking for. I just wanted to make sure with you guys that I am on the right path. Is what I want to achieve possible with FireBreath / NPAPI plugins? Can a plugin download an executable and then run it on a target machine?
Yes, NPAPI will allow you to do what you want. You can run arbitrary native code using an NPAPI plugin, and control it via JavaScript on the web page side. Users will have to download and install your plugin though, so it only makes sense if this is something users will use more than once.
You'll obviously have to be very, very careful about security though. If you make a plugin whose sole purpose is to download and run code without user interaction then you'll need to be absolutely certain that there's no way for a malicious page to use your plugin.

Eclipse - plugin for feeding html syntax?

I'm trying to make use of Eclipse to be my primary tool for making websites, but I'm looking for a functionality that exists in Dreamweaver - html attributes sugestions. Is there any plugin that would enable that?
I'm already using HTML Tidy for checking the syntax. (I was going to use it to format, but I cannot get used to code being so tighthly formatted.)
Take a look at Aptana Studio
There are few versions (2nd, 3rd, 2nd for Ruby support); the 3rd one is still beta. It can be used as it is, or can be installed as plugin for your Eclipse.
IMHO this is the best plugin if you need to use HTML/CSS/JavaScript and do it in Eclipse IDE (the reason does not matter :)
UPDATE: just forgot to mention that it has built-in support for popular JS frameworks (like YUI, jQuery, etc.).

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 answers
http://mxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/modules/plugin/samples/
http://www.firebreath.org/
http://code.google.com/p/nixysa/
http://code.google.com/p/npapi-file-io/
2 and 3 are both frameworks to make plugin development easier.
I found one example at
http://mxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/modules/plugin/samples/
you could also use the open source FireBreath plugin framework; they are nearing a 1.0 release for windows only, but it would not be hard to port it to linux; mac os shouldn't be bad either, but it will take a little work to get CMake to generate the correct bundle type =]
Yes, I am one of the primary maintainers, so I'm a bit biased. You can also find some good general information on how NPAPI works on my blog, starting here:
http://colonelpanic.net/2009/03/building-a-firefox-plugin-part-one/