Creating an instance of a FireBreath plugin using ActiveXObject - firebreath

Question

I am using FireBreath to create a cross browser plugin. In the HTML test page i am using the following function to detect whether the plugin is installed and to initiate a download of the MSI installer if the plugin is not detected.
function checkPlugin(){
var pluginInstalled = false;
if ((navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE') != -1) && (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Win') != -1)) {
// For IE
var pluginObject = null;
try {
pluginObject = new ActiveXObject('Test.TestPlugin');
if(pluginObject){
pluginInstalled = true;
//pluginObject.Dispose();
}
} catch (e) {
// Cannot load the plugin. Most probably it's not installed
console.log(e.message);
}
}else{
// For other browsers
pluginInstalled = (navigator.mimeTypes && navigator.mimeTypes["application/x-test"] && navigator.plugins["TestPlugin"]);
}
return pluginInstalled;
}
Above function works fine on all other browsers except for IE. It causes both IE 9 and 10 to crash when it attempts to create an instance of the plugin using ActiveXObject. I have noted that support for this functionality was added from FireBreath 1.4 onwards but I believe i am using the latest version of FireBreath which is 1.7. Any assistance in solving this issue is greatly appreciated :)

Answer 1

That looks like the method used in the FireBreath javascript detection example, and that's what I'm using in my plugins. You weren't entirely clear on what version you're using; are you on 1.7? It works for me on 1.6 and 1.7 for sure.
If you could be a little more specific about where it crashes that might be easier to make some speculations; try attaching a debugger. For information on how to force IE to be single process to make attaching a debugger see the "Debugging Plugins" page on firebreath.org.