This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Developing firefox plugin. Knowing when to use.

  • 4 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by macb6497

more options

I always ask this question when switching to a new platform/interface.

I'm in the process of developing a simple firefox plugin that allows users to view .mkv video on the browser.

Just how someone would develop a plugin for .mp4 video support.

My question is this: How will firefox know to use my plugin when it is trying to stream .mkv video?

As far as I'm concerned all plugins need to be running and firefox needs to cycle thorough them, testing each one to see if it can play the video.

This is slightly confusing. I already know how to get plugins to install, and the programming part where I incorporate support for a given file type is fairly easy.

But, how will firefox know when to use my plugin?

Thanks,

I always ask this question when switching to a new platform/interface. I'm in the process of developing a simple firefox plugin that allows users to view .mkv video on the browser. Just how someone would develop a plugin for .mp4 video support. My question is this: How will firefox know to use my plugin when it is trying to stream .mkv video? As far as I'm concerned all plugins need to be running and firefox needs to cycle thorough them, testing each one to see if it can play the video. This is slightly confusing. I already know how to get plugins to install, and the programming part where I incorporate support for a given file type is fairly easy. But, how will firefox know when to use my plugin? Thanks,

Chosen solution

Yes, that should work with the object and embed tag.

It won't work if files are send with an audio or video tag, because those tags only support specific MIME types in Firefox.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (4)

more options

If servers sends such a .mkv file with a specific MIME type then you need to make sure that your plugin supports that MIME type.
You can see on the about:plugins page which MIME types are supported by a plugin.

more options

I see. So if I associate my plugin with say: .mkv, mkv, or video/x-matroska, etc, firefox will pull my plugin down for use when it meets such a stream?

Modified by macb6497

more options

Chosen Solution

Yes, that should work with the object and embed tag.

It won't work if files are send with an audio or video tag, because those tags only support specific MIME types in Firefox.

more options

That's ok. I don't plan on using HTML5 or the object tag because I use a specific web player (flowplayer).

Thanks, though.