mozplugger - a streaming multimedia plugin for UNIX mozilla

MozPlugger is a Mozilla plugin which can show many types of multimedia inside your Mozilla. To accomplish this, MozPlugger uses external programs such as mplayer, xanim, mtv, timidity and tracker.

You can configure mozplugger by changing the file mozpluggerrc which can be located in any of the following directories:

$HOME/.netscape/

$HOME/.opera/

$MOZILLA_HOME/

$OPERA_HOME/

/usr/local/netscape/mozpluggerrc

/etc/mozpluggerrc

/usr/etc/mozpluggerrc

/usr/local/etc/mozpluggerrc

The format of mozpluggerrc is very simple. The general layout is to have one or more lines describing mime types followed by one or more lines describing commands used to handle those mime types. Lines beginning with # are considered comments and are ignored. Here is a simple example:

video/mpeg; mpeg; Mpeg video

video/quicktime; qt; Mpeg video

: xanim +W$window -Zr +q +Ze +f $file

Each line describing a mime type has three fields:

mime type ; extensions ; description

mime type

The mime type is the standardized name for the content type you want MozPlugger to handle. This must be the same type as the web server claims the file to be, or MozPlugger will not be used for that file, regardless of the extension.

extensions

This is a comma separated list of extensions that should be associated with this particular mime type. The extensions are only used when a web server does not report what type of file it is, or when loading files directly from disk.

description

This is the description that shows up in about:plugins and in the application preferences section in Mozilla.

Lines that describe what command to use for a mime type must begin with a whitespace and have two fields:

flags : command

flags

This is a comma-separated list of flags which tells mozplugger how to handle this particular application. See below for further details.

command

This is a command which is sent to /bin/sh when handling this mime type.

When MozPlugger is called from your browser, it looks through the configuration file and tries to find a matching mime type. For an application to be chosen it has to fulfill certain criteria, it has to exist, and it must match the flags given to mozplugger.

When it does, it tries to figure out which command to use. First, it looks through all the commands for that particular mime type to see if it can find an application that has the stream flag. If it cannot find a streaming application it downloads the file and tries again. Note that MozPlugger will check the first word of the command and search your $PATH for that command. If that command is not found MozPlugger will go to the next line in your mozpluggerrc.

repeat

This indicates that the command uses the $repeat variable.

loop

This indicates that the application loops forever. If the <EMBED> tag used to start MozPlugger indicated that the file should not loop forever, the command on this line will not be used.

stream

This indicates that this application can take an url. In this case, the variable $file contains the URL of the file to play and the browser does not download it.

ignore_errors

This flag tells MozPlugger to ignore the exit status of the application.

noisy

This flag tells MozPlugger to redirect the stdout and stderr of the application to /dev/null.

nokill

This will tell MozPlugger not to try to kill the application when leaving the page. This is normally used for programs which start in their own window and can play multiple files, such as xmms.

swallow ( name )

This is the only flag that takes an argument so far. It will tell mozplugger that the application will open a window with the specified name and that this window will then be moved to inside your browser.

fill

This keyword is used to maximize an swallowed window.

maxaspect

This keyword is used to maximize an swallowed window while keeping the width/height ratio constant.

controls

This flag is typically used with audio files to display a controller with the buttons play, pause and stop while playing. It only works with EMBED tags.

embed, noembed

These flags can be used to define embed-only or full-window-only commands.

hidden

In conjunction with the swallow keyword, this tells the plugin to swallow windows which are not visible yet.

MozPlugger gives some variables to /bin/sh when starting the application, these variables are:

$repeats

This variable contains how many times the file should be played. Applications which use this variable should also set the repeat flag.

$window

This is the X window Mozilla has given the plugin. This can be used with applications such as MPlayer to display graphics inside the mozilla window.

$width

This is the horizontal resolution in pixels.

$height

This is the vertical resolution in pixels.

$file

This is the file to play. If the application uses the stream flag, this this variable contains the URL of the file to play.

$mimetype

This variable contains the mime type of $file.

$VAR_<parameter_name>

All the parameters of the <EMBED> tags are made available in mozpluggerrc through environment variables. For example the parameter loop="1" in an <EMBED> tag defines the variable VAR_loop=1.

You have to remove ~/.netscape/plugin-list or ~/.mozilla/pluginreg.dat after changing the configuration, or nothing will happen. This is a Netscape/Mozilla bug, not a MozPlugger bug.

Netscape 3.x will not play anything for <EMBED> tags for which height or width are zero. This too is a Netscape bug.

Fredrik Hübinette, hubbe@hubbe.net

Louis Bavoil, louis@bavoil.net