Fully Scriptable Plugins For Mozilla/Netscape

Greetings all,

Some good news for those that have wondered why for a long time, major
plugins like Flash and Quicktime have NOT been scriptable in Mozilla and
Netscape 6.x and Netscape 7 (PR1).  "Scriptability" is the term used to
describe the invoking of Plugin methods via Web-delivered JavaScript,
and vice-versa -- the Plugin's ability to access the DOM and invoke
client JavaScript methods.

Now, both Flash and Quicktime are fully scriptable: Macromedia have
released Flash 6 r 40
(http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayerbutton/) and Apple Quicktime
have released Quicktime 6 (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/).
Both plugins have installers that recognize both standalone Mozilla
browsers and Netscape browsers.  Here's a little more about what this
means :

Until a few days ago, you could not invoke JavaScript commands on these
plugins, nor could the plugin in any way access the DOM or call client
JavaScript.  This was a by-product of the fact that Mozilla browsers do
not support the old "LiveConnect" method present in Netscape
Communicator 4.x browsers of scripting plugins via the JRI/JNI bridge,
and that Plugin Vendors (like Macromedia) had not yet adopted the XPCOM
ideas to script plugins in Mozilla.

All that is poised to change now that we have a scriptable API that
Plugin Vendors are using :-)

Flash 6 r40 (http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayerbutton/) is both
scriptable and FSCommand compliant.  FSCommands allow you to "talk" to
the browser, and you can now invoke methods on the Flash player:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/publishexport/scriptingwithflash/

As a quick test, go to http://www.ford.de without the new Flash, and see
the difference after you do install it!

Similarly, Quicktime 6 (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/)is
fully scriptable.  You can read about the exposed API from:

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/quicktime/qtdevdocs/REF/QT41_HTML/QT41WhatsNew-72.html

Those multimedia/DHTML experiences that we were once "locked out of" are
now available in Mozilla and Netscape browsers :-)

-- AKR