Features/PackageKitBrowserPlugin

PackageKit Browser Plugin

Summary

The PackageKit browser plugin allows people browsing online to install missing applications.

Owner

• Name: Richard Hughes
• email: <richard@hughsie.com>

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora12
• Last updated: 2009-07-16
• Percentage of completion: 90%

Detailed Description

The PackageKit-browser-plugin package installs a browser plugin that can be used to install specified software.

Benefit to Fedora

This feature will add the facility to install packages from websites, in a secure way, rather than telling users to run various yum commands as the root user or describing how to use the PackageKit tools.

Scope

This is a very small change in comps, so that the PackageKit-browser-plugin package gets included in the default package set.

How To Test

• Install PackageKit-browser-plugin package using yum install PackageKit-browser-plugin
• Restart any browser windows
• Open a web browser (epiphany, firefox, etc) and visit http://people.freedesktop.org/~hughsient/temp/test.html
• Verify the plugin works correctly

This plugin does not yet work correctly with WebKit based browsers such as midori. We're working on the problem and hope to solve this soon.

User Experience

Users can install applications directly from web pages, in a secure and cross-distro way.

Dependencies

PackageKit 0.5.1 (requires new release to be put into rawhide, expected 2008-08-03) nspluginwrapper-1.3.0-5 (in F11 updates)

Contingency Plan

Drop PackageKit-browser-plugin from comps, and revert back to not shipping the browser plugin.

Documentation

• http://cgit.freedesktop.org/packagekit/plain/contrib/browser-plugin/README

Release Notes

• PackageKit now installs a browser plugin handler so that web pages can install software in a secure environment.

Comments and Discussion

• See Talk:Features/PackageKitBrowserPlugin