[webkit-dev] Step 1 of Plugin removal: Deleting NPAPI (and thus Flash support)

[Maciej Stachowiak]

I discussed this some with Apple folks internally. Besides the PDF plugin mentioned by Dean, macOS apps using the WebKit API have the ability to embed NPAPI plugins in their app bundle and register them for WebView use. We are not sure if this is currently in use by any important apps, but we feel obligated to do some compatibility testing before we fully rip things out.

> On Feb 6, 2020, at 12:25 AM, Carlos Garcia Campos <carlosgc at webkit.org> wrote:
> 
> El mar, 14-01-2020 a las 05:06 +1100, Dean Jackson escribió:
>> 
>> 
>>> On 13 Jan 2020, at 20:14, Carlos Garcia Campos <carlosgc at webkit.org
>>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> El lun, 13-01-2020 a las 05:30 +1100, Dean Jackson escribió:
>>>> Dear Non-Apple ports,
>>>> 
>>>> Running Flash has been more difficult over the past few years as
>>>> part
>>>> of a (semi-) coordinated effort by browsers and Adobe. The plan
>>>> is to
>>>> remove support for Flash + NPAPI by the end of this year. See the
>>>> links below. 
>>>> 
>>>> I'd like to remove our NPAPI code soon, but I want to make sure
>>>> the
>>>> other ports are ok with this. Please speak up if you have a
>>>> reason to
>>>> keep it in.
>>> 
>>> WPE has never supported NPAPI plugins and the GTK port removed the
>>> support for GTK2 plugins (flash) already in our current stable
>>> version.
>>> Plugins not using GTK at all (or using GTK3) are still supported by
>>> GTK
>>> port (some of them only under X11, though). I'm ok with removing
>>> the
>>> NPAPI plugins support in the GTk port, but we are at the end of the
>>> release cycle, so I prefer if we remove the feature right after we
>>> branch for the next stable version (scheduled for the 1st
>>> February). I
>>> could even branch earlier if needed.
>> 
>> Waiting until February is totally ok with me. Good luck with your
>> release.
> 
> We have already branched, so we can start removing NPAPI plugins from
> trunk :-)
> 
>> Dean
>> 
>>>> [Note that we will still have some plugin code e.g. our internal
>>>> PDFPlugin, just no support for externally installed plugins]
>>>> 
>>>> Dean
>>>> 
>>>> * Adobe's end of life for Flash - 
>>>> https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/
>>>> * Chrome removing Flash support by end of 2020 - 
>>>> https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/flash-roadmap
>>>> * Google removing support for Flash by end of 2020 - 
>>>> https://www.blog.google/products/chrome/saying-goodbye-flash-chrome/
>>>> * Mozilla removing NPAPI by end of 2020 - 
>>>> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Plugins/Roadmap
>>>> * Mozilla only uses NPAPI for Flash - 
>>>> https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2015/10/08/npapi-plugins-in-firefox/
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> Thanks!
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
> 
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