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Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator Plug-ins BrieflyFor Internet Explorer, the 3Space player object plug-in is an ActiveX control. Don't be frightened by this terminology. You don't need to understand this complex technology to be able to use it. An ActiveX control is just a classical program that can be embedded inside another one called a container. Your are probably already an expert in using ActiveX controls inside containers without even knowing it. When you include an image inside a Word document, the image is handled by an ActiveX control. It's just a way to include new content inside documents handled by existing applications. Even if the mechanism is different with Netscape Navigator, the behavior is pretty similar. But here we use a Java applet interface instead of an ActiveX control. This document will explain you the basis of ActiveX control insertion inside Internet Explorer and applet embedding inside Netscape Navigator. Then we will see how to manage the ActiveX controls and Netscape Navigator plug-ins installed on your computer. Finally, we will talk about security problems you may encounter with plug-ins.
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Inserting an ActiveX control inside HTML pages with Internet ExplorerInternet Explorer defines an extension to HTML to allow you to do that. The <OBJECT> HTML tag defines the name, size, location, identification and parameters of the ActiveX control you want to include in your HTML page. Internet Explorer handles the download and installation of ActiveX controls used in a page automatically. You just need to specify the URL of the "cabinet" file containing the plug-in. The installation is done only once. For instance, here is the code that defines a simple 3SPace player object: <OBJECT ID="myobj"
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The important parameters are:
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Inserting a plug-in inside HTML pages with Netscape NavigatorNetscape Navigator defines an extension to HTML to allow you to do that. The <EMBED> HTML tag defines the name, size, location, identification and parameters of the plug-in you want to include in your HTML page. Netscape Navigator does not handles the download and installation of plug-ins used in a page automatically. You have to write it by hand or to propose to the user to visit first the TGS 3SPace page to load the plug-in and then to go back to your page. For instance, here is the code that defines a simple 3Space player plug-in: <EMBED type="application/x-z3d"
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Putting it all togetherAlthough the extension used by Netscape is different from the one used by Internet Explorer, there is a trick to allow both of them to exist in the same page without compatibility problems. Just do the following: <OBJECT ID="myobj"
<XML id="scene" SRC="scene.xml"> </XML> An important difference between Netscape 4 and Internet Explorer is the fact that Netscape 4 does not support XML. The XML tag we use to describe the 3Space scene is ignored by Netscape. So we have to isolate the XML content in a separate file and to give this file name to the 3Space player in the SRC attribute or using the TSSetSource() method. Practically, this means that you cannot use XML Data Islands if you want to create portable 3Space applications.
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Managing installed ActiveX controls:Internet Explorer stores the ActiveX controls downloaded from an OBJECT tag in a folder called WINNT\Downloaded Program Files (for Windows NT 4 or 2000 systems) or WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files (for Windows 95/98 systems). You can list the contents of this folder and delete files from it. If you want to remove the 3Space player from your system, open this folder, select the 3Space player object, click on the right mouse button and select remove.
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Managing installed Netscape Plug-ins:Netscape stores the 3Space plug-in downloaded from an APPLET tag in the
file:
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SecurityActiveX controls and Netscape plug-in are unsecured. They can access
all the system resources. Thus, it is usually recommended to disable the
ActiveX control and plug-in download and activation. If you do so, the
3Space player won't be able to display objects.
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