wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

< developing on vista: sidebar gadgets part 2 | Home | flickr4office: office add-ins for your pleasure >

via Twitter:

wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

posted @ Wednesday, December 06, 2006 11:22 AM | 11 Comments

since the ctp of wpf/e became available, there have been some interesting discussions and demos happening in the world. again, if you haven't seen theWPFBlog.com check it out...one of the latest samples (Microbe) shows what appears to be a single animation, but is actually half WPF/e and Flash. it is so visually clean, it is hard to tell the difference -- i had to put a mouse over each half to even notice a difference. very interesting.

two other questions have popped up to me. first, the installation. yeah, you have to go to a site and download an exe/msi (for windows) and a dmg (for mac). kinda sucks i agree. i can tell you that microsoft is working to create the ideal installation experience for the final release of WPF/e. this first ctp is focused on features of the framework, not the deployment model...so stay tuned.

the second question is about firefox 2 support...or lack thereof. this is for both mac only really. here's the skinny -- the team just didn't have time to officially put firefox 2 on the testing platform in order to get the ctp out. but have no fear...here's how to self-host. in aghost.js, about line 87, you'll see:

if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Firefox/1.5.0.8") != -1 || navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Safari") != -1){

there you have it...change that line to ensure firefox 2 can be met -- you should be able to just remove the version number check and it should work.

hope this helps some testing.

tags: wpfe, windows presentation foundation everywhere, wpf, firefox, winfx, vista, wpf/e

Comments

david

2/5/2007 9:07 AM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

Apparently, this issue has been fixed in the Feb 2007 version of wpf/e.

However, the installer doesn't place the appropriate plugin into firefox's plugin directory. :(

Additionally, after copying the npag.dll, none of the wpf/e examples work in firefox 2 for me. I even tried in Firefox's Safe Mode, which disables themes, extensions, etc.

I tried these URLs:

http://www.thewpfblog.com/examples/wpfe/microbe/Default.html
http://channel9.msdn.com/playground/wpfe/PageTurn/default.html
http://channel9.msdn.com/playground/wpfe/SleekVideoPlayer/default.html
http://channel9.msdn.com/playground/wpfe/VideoLibrary/default.html
http://channel9.msdn.com/playground/wpfe/Sprawl/default.html
http://channel9.msdn.com/playground/wpfe/Filmstrip/default.htm
http://www.interfacett.com/wpfe/eggtimer/default.html
http://www.windowsvista.si/main.htm

The pages will load and do not prompt me to install the plugin, but no wpf/e content is rendered. :(

I'm running Windows XP Pro SP2 and Firefox 2.0.0.1 w/ WPFe Plug-In 0.8.5.0.

Any ideas? I'm going to ask in the wpf/e forums, as well.

david
david

2/5/2007 10:50 AM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

I stand corrected. Your K.I.T.T. demo works fine in firefox:

http://www.timheuer.com/kitt.html

the other, however, are just blank. :|
kiran

2/5/2007 11:46 AM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

Hello David,
By “the installer doesn't place the appropriate plugin into firefox's plugin directory” you mean Installer did not copy the files to “<<your drive>>:\ Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins”? Then yes, its intentional. WPF/e installer copies the files to “<<your drive>>:\Program Files\WPFe” and sets the appropriate regkey for Browser to find the plugin. This is to make sure that we have only one copy of binaries in the system for both ActiveX control and Plugin.
Can you give little more details…
After uninstalling through Add remove program and reinstalling 8.5 bits does it work?
david

2/5/2007 3:31 PM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

Hello Kiran,
Yes, that is what I meant when I said that the installer did not place the files into firefox's plugins directory. I did not know about the regkey that was set by the installer:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@Microsoft.com/AgCtrl,version=0.8.5.0

I never had the Dec 2006 preview, so I had nothing to uninstall. I simply ran the Feb 2007 installer, which didn't give much indication of what it was doing.

I had no luck getting it to work with firefox 2.0.0.1, in either regular mode (w/ all of my extensions, etc. enabled) or ff's safe mode.

The only way I was able to get it to work in ff2 was to copy the 4 dlls into firefox's plugins directory. After that, all the wpf/e examples worked great. :|

Any ideas?
david

2/5/2007 10:45 PM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

Kiran,
I replied earlier, but apparently it didn't make it into the comments.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant when I said that the wpf/e installer didn't place any files into firefox's plugins directory. I had no idea it was setting a regkey, as the installer wasn't very informative as to what it was doing.

I did not have the Dec 2006 version installed, so I didn't have anything to uninstall.

After installing 0.8.5 and restarting firefox, none of the examples worked. I tried firefox regularly (w/ extensions, etc. enabled) and in it's "safe mode".

The examples I mentioned above did not work until I copied all four .dlls into firefox's plugins directory.

I checked the registry and found the entries created by the wpf/e installer, but I have no idea why it didn't work. I'm interested in any ideas on that.

david
david

2/6/2007 7:13 AM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

kiran,
This is my third attempt to respond to your comment, the 1st to were flagged as spam and never made it through.

Yes, you are correct, I assumed the installer would copy plugin files into firefox's plugins directory. The installer was not very informational as to what it was doing & I didn't know about the regkey.

I never installed Dec 2006 version, so I had nothing to remove. After installing 0.8.5, I restarted firefox and none of the wpf/e examples worked. As I mentioned, I tried firefox regularly and in its safe mode, w/ extensions, themes, ec. disabled.

It wasn't until I copied all four dlls that the examples worked for me.

This key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@Microsoft.com/AgCtrl,version=0.8.5.0

and its subkeys were created in the registry, but I am not sure what all was supposed to have been created there.

I'm interested in any ideas as to why the plugin(s) didn't work until they were copied to the plugins directory.

david
kiran

2/6/2007 3:19 PM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

Thanx David,
Can you give me more information like what OS you are getting this problem? We haven’t see this issue before but I will be more than happy to help you.

kiran
david

2/6/2007 8:56 PM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

As I mentioned in my 1st comment, I tried it in Windows XP SP2. I have IE7 & Office 2007 installed in a domain environment along with firefox 2.0.0.1.
kiran

2/7/2007 1:04 PM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

Hmm, Unfortunately I am not able to repro your case. Have you tried uninstalling WPFe and installing it again?
david

2/7/2007 8:27 PM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

kiran, I could not reproduce it on another machine, either. :|

I'll try uninstalling/reinstalling it again on the machine that I had the problem.
Rick

4/23/2007 9:24 AM | # re: wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

I am seeing the same behavior, Windows XP SP2, Firefox 2.0.0.3.

None of the samples off of the Silverlight page work.

I know this is kind of an old discussion, but I haven't found anyone else having the problem.

The samples do work for me in IE7, just not in Firefox. It seems to cause the browser to lock up as well on occasion.

Name (required)

Subject

E-Mail (will not be published)

Website

Remember Me?

Please add 3 and 6 and type the answer here:

wpf/e: plugins and firefox 2

Me

Best Bets

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Topic Browser

Did you know that your Internet Explorer is out of date?