User:Dmose:Fx-Docs:MediaPlugins
Status
- Feature tracking bug
Any relevant status comments for the feature can be placed here.
Overview
Make plugin experience as smooth as possible.
Motivation
Describe the motivation behind the feature here.
Use Cases
- User attempts to view a page that contains a media type that the installation currently doesn't have a plugin for. Obtaining that plugin should happen as easily/smoothly (transparently?) as possible.
Requirements
| CON-002a | P1 | FR | Should be able to play all popular media formats when plugins/codecs are installed | Robust plugin support for Flash, Acrobat, WMV, Quicktime, Java. Is there a functional requirement that users can play media files without installing additional software? IE: should we be investigating bundling. Further investigate the bundling options and possibilities. |
| CON-002b | P1 | NFR | It should be easy to locate and install missing plugins | Not sure if we can truly solve this ourselves. "Make it possible for a well-behaved plugin author to do the right thing" - facilitate the installation of plugins. |
| CON-002c | P2 | NFR | Identify ways to mitigate plugin crashes | ENSURE THAT THIS IS ADDED TO MOZ2 |
| CON-002d | P1 | NFR | Support all media types on all platforms as best we can |
Schedule
Describe the rough schedule here, linking back to relevant product release milestones, as well as linking to any build/release notes.
Design & Implementation
- Documentation
- Repository
Mozilla CVS trunk.
API Changes
list any API changes made by this feature.
Extensibility
At some level, the add-ons experience should (from an end-user point of view) share much UI with the plugins experience.
Customization
None anticipated.
Performance
None anticipated.
Reliability/Stability
If it's possible to do any plugin crash mitigation in Firefox3, that would potentially improve reliability/stability.
Security
If we bundle any plugins with Firefox, we will to some extent be seen as vouching for their security. If we go so far as to allow transparent plugin installation, this would almost certainly warrant a security review.
Privacy
Checking with mozilla.org (or other) servers for plugins would allow the server operator to associate the IP address being checked from with the fact that that person is running Firefox and interested in a certain type of plugin. This does not seem like a major issue.
Global Audience
If we were to go so far as to bundle plugins, they themselves would likely come in multiple locales. Furthermore, each locale might (or might not) want to specifically tailor the set of plugins that it gets.
Web Compatibility
Generally speaking, these features are an attempt to become more seemlessly compatible with various sites on the web.
Other
any other implementation or design related documentation
Discussion & Implications
Caveats / What We've Tried Before
links to previous design documents, discussions, etc.
References
links to external documents that could inform the design of the feature
