NPAPI plugin installation problem on Firefox 4 .. gets recognized as an extension instead

Question

I have a simple NPAPI plugin consisting of a dll and xpt. I tried installing it on Firefox 4 according to the following documentation https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Shipping_a_plugin_as_a_Toolkit_bundle

but when i try to load the .xpi in the browser, it recognizes it as an extension instead of a plugin. Is there a different way to install it as a plugin?

Answer 1

XPT is the xpcom interface defintion; xpcom plugins no longer work in Firefox as of Firefox 3.6. For more information, see http://colonelpanic.net/2010/01/firefox-3-6-has-removed-support-for-xpcom-plugins/

A XPI file is an extension, but it may contain a npapi plugin as part of the extension. If we go with the assumption that you aren't actually using that xpt and your plugin worked in Firefox 3.6, most likely the issue you're having is that Firefox 4 no longer unpacks the XPI by default, and for a plugin to work it needs to. See https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Updating_extensions_for_Firefox_4.0#XPI_unpacking

However, I much prefer installing using the registry like Dpp suggested. That is the method that FireBreath uses. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Gecko_Plugin_API_Reference/Plug-in_Development_Overview#Installing_Plug-ins for documentation on this method.

Answer 2

You can install the plugin by creating a reg key in HKLM\Software\MozillaPlugins\YourPluginName that contains the following values : Description , Path , Product , Vendor and Version (all REG_SZ). I don't know if this is what you want , but you could take a look at this approach.