Archive:It IT/Releases/12/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: Fedora 12
• Last updated: 2009-09-24
• Percentage of completion: 100%

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

User Experience

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

Dependencies

PackageKit 0.5.1 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