Re: [Jmol-users] Web browser plug-in?

[Miguel H. <mt...@mt...>]

Robert wrote:

> Back to the issue of loading Jmol in a browser when Jmol is not
> delivered by the server that also delivers the content.  I found this
> page on plug-in development for Safari.
>
> http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn2020.html

This is a useful document for me. Thanks for sending it.

> According to this document, plug-ins for Netscape for MacOS 7-9 can
> easily be modified for Safari on MacOS X.  Might this be done for
> Chime?

Well, there is the *not insignificant* problem that only MDL has the
source code for Chime.

If it was easily done then MDL would have done it. Instead, they have
officially announced that they will not be supporting OSX and have
officially put Chime on and end-of-life plan.

> (I know this is a Jmol forum, not a Chime forum, but y'all  are
> always talking about Chime, too, so I figured it was a good place  to
> ask.)

No problem.

> Also, by following the link in this document to the Netscape
> Developers' Plug-in page,
> http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/communicator/plugin/index.htm
>  , I have learned that plug-ins are written in C or C++.

This is true.

> So apparently it would not be easy to convert Jmol into a plug-in.

You are correct that it would not be easy. But it is theoretically
possible that this could be done.

> But
> maybe a very simple plug-in that would call Jmol could be written, as
> described in Chapter 2 of the Netscape documentation.
>
> There's still the option of training Safari to call Jmol when a MOL  or
> PDB file or somesuch is loaded, but I haven't found anything that  says
> that's possible, although Miguel suggests it is.

> Any thoughts?

Having Safari call the Jmol *application* directly (as a 'helper
application') can be done today. This would automatically launch the Jmol
application when a .mol or .pdb file was accessed ... whether the user was
online or not.

The Jmol *application* would be launched, so the user would no longer be
working in the context of the web browser.

If you think that this would be useful, then we can write up some
documents and package things up a little better so that this can be more
easily configured.

Q: Would it be valuable to have a simpler mechanism to associate the Jmol
application with web browsers as a helper application?



Miguel