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A New Installer for Downloading Third-Party Components

With QuickTime 5, Apple introduces a new third-party software install mechanism, as shown in the dialog in Figure 1-37. The goal of this new mechanism is to provide support for automatically downloading third-party components on an as-needed basis. For example, if a user opens a movie that requires a particular third-party codec, QuickTime will offer to download and install it. To accomplish this goal, Apple will provide developers with a registry of QuickTime components on an Apple server.

While not all details have been finalized –– contact your representative in Apple Developer Relations for the latest information –– the process works tentatively as described in the next section.

General Submission Requirements for Third-Party Components

If you wish to include your component in the third-party component download mechanism, you need to follow certain guidelines and requirements. These include

1. An End User license agreement for your component (in the target language). The agreement should be in plain ASCII text (no formatting), and will be displayed in a scrollable dialog before installing your component. Line wrapping will be done by the dialog, so hard carriage returns should be used sparingly. There will be two buttons (“Agree”, “Disagree”) in the license dialog. You can specify what verbs you want in these buttons. If you do not specify, Apple will use appropriate verbs taken directly from your license agreement.

2. A Macintosh (OS 8/9) QuickTime Component File. This component file should have Macintosh file type of 'thng' and will be installed in the QuickTime Extensions folder in the Macintosh System’s Extension folder.

3. A Macintosh (OS X) QuickTime Component File. This component file (CFM or Mach-O format) should have a .qtx file name extension and will be installed in the /Library/QuickTime folder. It should be a traditional (not bundle-packaged) component file.

4. A Windows QuickTime Component File. This component file should have a .qtx file name extension and will be installed in the QuickTime folder inside the Windows System folder (“System32\QuickTime” for Windows NT/2000, “System\QuickTime” for Windows 95/98/Millenium).

   Important:  Apple will only install a single component file per platform (i.e., one file for Mac OS 9 or earlier, one file for Mac OS X, and one file for Windows). If you have multiple components for a single platform, you must build them into a single file.

5. Tests. You must provide Apple with test content files and a test procedure that verifies your component has been installed and works correctly. Apple will continue to use these tests as new versions of QuickTime are shipped, so a reasonably thorough set of test content will help ensure that your component continues to work in the future.

There is additional information that you may need to submit:

1. In the QuickTime Updater, your component will be listed as a selectable item in the “Custom” dialog. You can specify the component name you would like displayed there. You can also specify a short description of your component that will be displayed in the Item Description text box, if the user selects your component name in the list. If you do not specify this information, Apple will use your file name (minus the .qtx extension) as the displayed component name, and make up a short description something like “This component adds support for Your_Name_Here to QuickTime”. In either case, Apple will add an approximate download size to the description.

2. If your component is a Movie Importer or Graphics Importer, you should have a 'mime' resource in your component file that describes the file types, file extensions, and MIME types that your importer can handle.

This helps Apple download your component automatically when a Web page with your content is viewed through QuickTime’s browser plug-in.

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