Introduction

I have searched for available Firefox 2 and Opera 9 plugins for various popular MIME types listed in the task description. I have used Gentoo Linux distribution for testing. The results can be seen in the table below. If a plugin has any parameters, they are listed (or there is a link to them) in the Parameters column.

Results

Program (Plugin)

MIME types

Comments

Parameters

OpenOffice.org Plug-in


application/vnd.stardivision.calc
application/vnd.stardivision.chart
application/vnd.stardivision.draw
application/vnd.stardivision.impress
application/vnd.stardivision.impress-packed
application/vnd.stardivision.math
application/vnd.stardivision.writer
application/vnd.stardivision.writer-global
application/vnd.staroffice.writer
application/vnd.sun.xml.calc
application/vnd.sun.xml.calc.template
application/vnd.sun.xml.draw
application/vnd.sun.xml.draw.template
application/vnd.sun.xml.impress
application/vnd.sun.xml.impress.template
application/vnd.sun.xml.math
application/vnd.sun.xml.writer
application/vnd.sun.xml.writer.global
application/vnd.sun.xml.writer.template
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-template
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-master
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-web
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet-template application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics-template application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation-template
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text

text/richtext
text/rtf
application/rtf
text/csv

application/x-msoffice
application/msword
application/vnd.ms-excel
application/vnd.ms-powerpoint


This plug-in needs to be enabled in OOo (Tools->Options->Internet->Mozilla Plug-in->Enable) in order to work with Firefox. It works well with Firefox, although it doesn't work with Opera by default. I have found on the Internet that mozilla's plug-in could be copied to opera's plugin folder. I tried to do this, but the plug-in didn't work (operapluginwrapper: [plugin failed ] dlopen failed on /opt/opera/lib/opera/plugins/libnpsoplugin.so).

OOo plug-in could possibly open rtf, csv and MS Office MIME types, but that needs to be configured manually in the browser's preferences, as these MIME types aren't asigned to OOo by default.

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Mozplugger + Timidity


audio/mid audio/x-midi audio/midi


It seems that there is a problem with playing midi files on Linux as no major media player (mplayer, vlc, gxine...) supports this MIME type. There are no special plug-ins for playing midi files within browsers, too. I have found a workaround for Firefox. It is a bit tricky and doesn't seem to provide any functional controls. Opera needs mozplugger.so copying to it's plugin folder.

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Adobe Acrobat Reader


application/pdf
application/vnd.adobe.x-mars
application/vnd.fdf
application/vnd.adobe.xfdf
application/vnd.adobe.xdp+xml
application/vnd.adobe.xfd+xml


This plug-in works fine with Firefox. However, it has a few issues with Opera. The user must click on the control window to activate it and until then only black window instead of document is shown. The actual document sometimes doesn't show up even after clicking on it several times. It finally shows up only after reloading the page.

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Mozplugger + Evince

application/postscript
application/x-postscript

I could not find a dedicated plugin for Firefox/Opera, but I have found a workaround for Firefox (needs to be adjusted depending on an operating system). Opera needs mozplugger.so copying to it's plugin folder. It seems that Evince has it's own mozilla plugin, but it's not included with Evince and I could not find where to download it.

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mplayerplug-in


application/x-google-vlc-plugin
video/quicktime
video/x-quicktime
image/x-quicktime
video/quicktime
video/quicktime
application/x-quicktimeplayer
application/smil
audio/x-pn-realaudio
application/vnd.rn-realmedia
application/vnd.rn-realaudio
video/vnd.rn-realvideo
audio/x-realaudio
audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin
application/asx
video/x-ms-asf-plugin
video/x-msvideo
video/msvideo
application/x-mplayer2
application/x-ms-wmv
video/x-ms-asf
video/x-ms-wm
video/x-ms-wmv
audio/x-ms-wmv
video/x-ms-wmp
application/x-ms-wmp
video/x-ms-wvx
audio/x-ms-wax
audio/x-ms-wma
application/x-drm-v2
audio/wav
audio/x-wav video/divx
video/vnd.divx
video/mpeg
audio/mpeg
video/x-mpeg
video/x-mpeg2
audio/mpeg
audio/x-mpeg
audio/mpeg2
audio/x-mpeg2
video/mp4
video/3gpp
application/x-ogg
audio/ogg
audio/x-ogg
application/ogg
audio/flac
audio/x-flac
video/fli
video/x-fli
video/x-flv
video/vnd.vivo
application/x-nsv-vp3-mp3
audio/x-mod
audio/basic
audio/x-basic


It works well with Firefox and Opera. It supports almost every audio/video format. However, I could not find any list or description of OBJECT tag parameters.

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VLC Plug-in


audio/mpeg
audio/x-mpeg
video/mpeg
video/x-mpeg
video/mpeg-system
video/x-mpeg-system
video/mpeg4
audio/mpeg4
application/mpeg4-iod
application/mpeg4-muxcodetable
video/x-msvideo
video/quicktime
application/x-ogg
application/ogg
application/x-vlc-plugin
video/x-ms-asf-plugin
video/x-ms-asf
application/x-mplayer2
video/x-ms-wmv
application/x-google-vlc-plugin
audio/wav
audio/x-wav
audio/3gpp
video/3gpp
audio/3gpp2
video/3gpp2
video/divx

It works only with Firefox for me and in Opera it displays a black window instead of a embedded video. It seems to not work if there are several embedded videos on the same page: "(no video)" is displayed in a black background. This plugin doesn't provide any controls (even no play, pause, stop).


autoplay (autostart), autoloop (loop), mrl (src, filename), mute, visible (showdisplay), volume

The list of parameters with descriptions you can find here. They are for IE plug-in, but I believe they should work with this plug-in, too. I could not find any other OBJECT parameters list.

Abiword, Koffice


x-abiword
x-kpresenter
x-kspread
x-kword

I could not find any plug-in for Firefox or Opera that could handle Abiword or Koffice files.

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Mozilla Tiff Plug-in


image/x-tiff
image/tiff

It needs to be manually compiled on non-deb systems.

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Firefox/Opera (native support)

image/svg+xml

It is handled internally in Firefox/Opera. There's no need for a plug-in.

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FreeWRL Plug-in


model/vrml
x-world/x-vrml

It works only in a full-screen mode (not embedded) for me. If I open an embedded VRML image, it just crashes the Firefox and displays an error message. It doesn't crach Opera though, but displays the same error message. The program works fluently in a stand-alone mode.

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DjVuLibre Plug-in


image/vnd.djvu
image/x.djvu
image/x-djvu
image/x-iw44
image/x-dejavu
image/djvu

Works perfectly with both browsers (and probably even more).

Here are embedding instructions.

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model/iges
model/mesh
text/calendar
text/x-vcalendar
text/x-vcard

I could not find any plug-in that could open embedded files of these MIME types.

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Conclusion

I have found Firefox/Opera plug-ins for the most popular MIME types (audio, video, image). However, there are almost no plug-ins or the existing ones are buggy for not so popular MIME types. Some plug-ins required manual compiling and copying, what is not very user-friendly. For some MIME types for which there are no dedicated plug-ins I have found workarounds using Mozplugger and a stand-alone program that can open the specified MIME types. Getting Mozplugger to work is not so easy like using a dedicated plug-in, so I hope there will be more plug-ins available for Linux browsers in the future.

MoinMoin: ErnestasLiubarskij/LinuxBrowserPlugins (last edited 2008-01-14 01:42:17 by ErnestasLiubarskij)