Type: String
The Plugin_Custom property allows you to detect whether a custom plug-in is installed. This plug-in can be one that you have developed, or most other plug-ins available. It can detect ActiveX plug-ins for IE, as well as Netscape plug-ins.
Before checking the Plugin_Custom property to determine whether the plug-in is installed, you first need to tell BrowserHawk what plug-in to look for. This is done by setting the PluginCustomID property.
The format to use when setting this property is:
extOptions.PluginCustomID = "x,y";
where x = the ActiveX plug-in ProgID, and y = a keyword or term that is present in the plug-in array Name or Description field for the plug-in.
To determine the ActiveX ProgID, contact the developer of the component and ask for this value. You may also be able to determine this value by searching the registry for the DLL or OCX file associated with the component. This value is typically in a format such as "Company.Product.1".
To determine the keyword or term that should be passed in for the plug-in array Name or Description field (item "y" in the syntax listed above), enter "about:plugins" in a Netscape browser that has the plug-in installed, and choose a keyword or phrase (case sensitive) that appears in the output associated with the plug-in you wish to detect.
For example, assume we want to check whether the Executive Viewer plug-in is installed. The ActiveX version of this plug-in has a ProgID of "IVIEWER.IViewerCtrl.1" and the Netscape plug-in has "Executive Viewer" contained in its description property of the plug-in array.
Based on this, we instruct BrowserHawk how to identify this plug-in using the following code:
extOptions.PluginCustomID = "IVIEWER.IViewerCtrl.1,Executive Viewer"
After setting the PluginCustomID property, you must call GetExtendedBrowser with "Plugin_Custom" set by AddProperties. Then check the Plugin_Custom property to determine whether the plug-in is installed. See the Plugin_Custom property for sample code.
Note: It is fairly common to need to check for either an ActiveX control in IE, or a plug-in in Netscape, but not both. In this case you should just specify the value that corresponds to the plug-in type you wish to detect, but you must be sure to include the comma when setting the PluginCustomID property so that BrowserHawk knows whether this single value represents the ActiveX or Netscape plug-in value. For example, to check for only the ActiveX plug-in of the Executive Viewer plug-in, you would specify:
extOptions.PluginCustomID = "IVIEWER.IViewerCtrl.1, "; // (note the trailing comma)
Likewise to check for only the Netscape plug-in, specify:
extOptions.PluginCustomID = ",Executive Viewer"; // (note the leading comma)
Note: Custom plug-in detection requires the Enterprise Edition of BrowserHawk.
Example:
See the Plugin_Custom Property (.NET) topic for an example.
See Also: