It’s a kludge, but it works well, and I’ll bet many of you are using it.Ĭonfusion sets in when you see that there also exists a “ClickToFlash” extension for Safari 5 - a project by Marc Hoyois that duplicates most of the features of the ClickToFlash plugin using the new extension API instead of the long-standing plugin API. Thus, Flash Player is there, and works, but it only loads after the user clicks on a Flash content box to load it.
If the user clicks that box, ClickToFlash hands the content over to the actual Flash Player plugin. Instead of actually loading the Flash content, ClickToFlash instead draws a box with a nice little “Flash” logo. So when you load a web page containing Flash, the browser lets the ClickToFlash plugin handle the embedded Flash. It masquerades as a plugin that claims to be able to play Flash content, and overrides the actual Flash Player plugin. The original ClickToFlash was possible before the Safari 5 extension API even existed because it (the original ClickToFlash) is a plugin.
E.g., if you have the QuickTime plugin installed, then your browser can play embedded QuickTime movies. Web content plugins are not new - they date back to Netscape in the mid-1990s. Safari extensions are the things Apple lists here, and which you manage via the Extensions tab in Safari’s preferences window. They’re written using JavaScript (and HTML and CSS for presentation, if they present a user interface). These Safari extensions are much like Firefox extensions. Earlier this year, Safari 5 introduced a new, officially supported extension API. That sounds pedantic, perhaps, but bear with me. The original ClickToFlash is a plugin, not an extension. Previously, I used and recommended the excellent ClickToFlash plugin for Safari. I’m really happy with this setup, so I thought I’d document it here. Last week I mentioned that, following Steven Frank’s lead, I’d completely disabled Flash Player on my Mac. But I have a cheat, for web pages with Flash content with no non-Flash workaround.
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Going Flash-Free on Mac OS X, and How to Cheat When You Need It Thursday, 4 November 2010
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