[webkit-dev] Refactoring activex object converting to plugin code?

[Darin Adler]

On Dec 13, 2007, at 2:25 PM, Rui Jiang wrote:

> Right now webkit will automatically convert some well known ActiveX  
> objects (flash, wmp, realplayer etc) to corresponding plugins. (see  
> code in RenderPartObject.cpp, mapClassIdToServiceType etc). However,  
> this may not be always favorable. I've seen webpages just want the  
> browser bail out if it can not support the ActiveX object, and  
> display alternative instructions on how to view the page.

Can you cite some specific URLs?

> Does it make sense to refactor the code, so that with some  
> customization we can decide whether to support conversion or not?

Sure, we can put it in an ifdef if there's a good reason.

> Another problem I've seen with the conversion is, if there is an  
> embed tag inside an object, converted object type will override the  
> type of the embed object. e.g.:
>
> <OBJECT id="MediaPlayer" codeBase="..."  height="250" width="350"
>  classid="CLSID:6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6">
> <PARAM NAME="URL" VALUE="bt9.wma">
> <embed height=250 width=350 src="midflash.swf"/>
> </OBJECT>
>
> The outer object specifies a windows media player. WebKit uses  
> converted type "application/x-mplayer2" to create the plugin.  
> However, it uses the internal embed tag's src etc to init the  
> plugin, which fails to render correctly.

Can you cite some specific URLs of pages where this happens?

> To fix this, I think we should either use everything of the embed  
> tag (if it exists) or everything of the object tag (params) etc to  
> do conversion. Does that sound a good approach?

Sounds OK, but since this is a compatibility issue, we probably need  
some real world examples to try with.

     -- Darin