zeitgeist team mailing list archive

[Steve Dodier-Lazaro <1406636@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have ported the extension, see https://code.launchpad.net/~sidi
/zeitgeist-datasources/chromium-native.

Please note you will need to adjust the authorised extensions in the
JSON file of the host based on whatever extension id is given to you by
Chromium when loading the extension. This problem should disappear once
the extension is published and the host packaged for your distribution.


** Changed in: zeitgeist-datasources
       Status: New => In Progress

** Changed in: zeitgeist-datasources
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Steve Dodier-Lazaro (sidi)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1406636

Title:
  chrome/ium data-source plugin uses no-longer-supported api (NPAPI)

Status in Zeitgeist Data-Sources:
  In Progress

Bug description:
  When I go here: 
  https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/zeitgeist-plugin/cckhkmhbknngejnoepfopckjlbnpookg

  to install the Chromium plugin for Zeitgeist, after confirming the
  installation/permissions, a yellow info bar says "NPAPI plugins are
  not supported."

  No history from my Chromium use seems to be logged in the Activity
  Journal.

  I use Chromium as my primary web browser -- my version info (major
  version 39):

  Chromium:	39.0.2171.65 (Developer Build) Built on Ubuntu 14.04, running on LinuxMint 17.1
  Revision:	b853bfefba0da840f4574eb3b5c7ad6e9b8573b5
  OS:	Linux 
  Blink:	537.36 (@185325)
  JavaScript:	V8 3.29.88.17
  Flash:	16.0.0.235
  User Agent:	Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Ubuntu Chromium/39.0.2171.65 Chrome/39.0.2171.65 Safari/537.36

  REASON:

  See here: http://www.chromium.org/developers/npapi-deprecation

  chrome://flags doesn't seem to have the Enable NPAPI flag anymore; the
  api seems to be not only deprecated but, in recent versions, well and
  truly gone.

  SUGGESTED FIX:

  This is what the Chromium devs suggest for a replacement for communication with native apps: 
  https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/nativeMessaging

  Replacing the data-source would probably entail building a browser
  extension to watch activity, and then building a zeitgeist sub-process
  of some sort that can communicate over JSON w/ the extension. It will
  also be necessary to put a file describing how to start the "host"
  (i.e. native, zeitgeist-side) process in a Chrome/ium subdirectory.

  Other alternatives (probably not relevant) are described here: 
  http://www.chromium.org/developers/npapi-deprecation#TOC-Alternatives-to-NPAPI

  IMPACT:

  For me, and I think for many users, the vast majority of my computing
  is on the internet. There are many days when I don't open a single
  desktop application besides Chromium. While I can still get benefit
  out of Zeitgeist by using Synapse, it won't be possible/worthwhile to
  form the habit of accessing the desktop primarily through the Activity
  Journal or suchlike until Chrome/ium is supported. Also, it feels like
  a huge hole in Synapse for it to ignore my web usage -- especially
  when it *doesn't* ignore the few pages I've visited in Firefox. So,
  for my use case, this bug is moderately severe.

  I'm willing to do some work in making this happen; I have general
  programming experience, although I haven't any experience with Chrome
  Extensions or any of the relevant languages except JS and Python, and
  I'm not sure I feel confident taking on this whole project by myself
  because I've never successfully built an app or plugin of any size on
  my own, and only once in a group. Get in touch and tell me what you
  need done!

  Thank you.  
  -- Robbie Eginton

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