30733 - Embedding helper applications within Mozilla window

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect, P4)

Description

[Roland Mainz]

RFE (for Unix/X11R6): A flag in the ~/.mailcap file which tells the browser to
"embed" the helper application's window inside mozillas window like "web enabled
X" does. http://www.broadway-info.com/xdemos/xeyes.html is a good demo...

Comment 1

[Roland Mainz]

The demo required the application/x-rx plugin which can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.x.org/pub/R6.4/plug-ins/
I'd like to see the same functionality within Mozilla for "helper" applications.

WARNING: Not all X apps are written so clean that they like the xrx-plugin.
xeyes, xterm, dtterm and xclock are working, but dtcalc, sdtprocess and netscape
4.x crashes due some NULL-pointer issues, therefore I suggest to make this an
optional "flag" which should be enabled for some selected apps...

Comment 2

[Roland Mainz]

Why M20 ? ;-(

This would be a cool feature for the new Mozilla !!
This feature can be implemented using the APPGROUP extension. I can send example
code on demand...

Comment 3

[Roland Mainz]

OK, I have a working prototype which does the following: It is able to embed
another application within a Xt widget using the APPGROUP X server extension.
The implementation is very simple: Create window and widget, create thread which
forwards X traffic from a port (currently port 6020, e.g. DISPLAY=:20.0) to the
widget, creates a magic cookie for that widget and then starts the application
using ksh -c 'xauth add COOKIE; start_my_app; xauth remove COOKIE'.
That's all.
Any interest in this piece of code ?

Comment 4

[Roland Mainz]

Attachment: Embedding prototype

Comment 5

[Roland Mainz]

Added APPGROUP demo/prototype.
The prototype works on Solaris 2.7/MU4 without any problems. It still needs some
cleanup because it is currently _VERY_ sloppy on error checking ;-(

Comments ?

Comment 6

[ekrock's old account (dead)]

<tough_decision>Very sorry, but we've closed down acceptance of new 
non-life-or-death features, however cool, in the interest of getting a working 
browser out the door. Marking FUTURE.</tough_decision>

Comment 7

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

nominating

Comment 8

[rubydoo123]

bug review: setting to PL2:P4

Comment 9

[Josh Aas]

Based on my limited understanding of what this is about, I'm guessing this is WONTFIX.