Single NPAPI Plug-In

In this release, a single fixed symlink to the JavaPlugin2_NPAPI.plugin is present in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins for all browsers to use. To toggle between the old in-process plug-in (Plugin1) and the new out-of-process plug-in (Plugin2) in Safari, the Java Preferences application creates or removes a symlink to JavaPluginCocoa.bundle. Because Safari loads Cocoa plugins before NPAPI plugins, the presence of this symlink toggles which plug-in is used. Other browsers that use the Java Embedding Plug-in (JEP) will have to disable it to use the NPAPI Plugin2.

Plugin2 Graphics Rendering

Plugin2 now renders cooperatively with the browser via CoreGraphics, which allows Java content to be seamlessly integrated with other DOM elements on a webpage. Previous versions of Plugin2 used an overlay window which was clipped and repositioned to make the Java applet track the browser window. The older model couldn't allow page elements to float above Java content, and also captured events which would often result in the browser application inadvertently deactivating.

Because rendering now occurs off-screen, hardware-accelerated technologies like JOGL and Java3D are no longer able to attach their content by grabbing a pointer to the underlying window. Further work is continuing to allow Plugin2 and the Java AWT to render into a CoreAnimation layer and vend an OpenGL context backed by a sublayer. As of this release, these 3D technologies are not supported.

Opening Windows, the Foreground Application, and the Dock

When an applet hosted via Plugin2 creates a new top-level window, a Dock icon is created for the applet host process. This allows the user to bring the applet's windows to the foreground, because the windows exist in a process separate from the browser. The browser’s windows and the applet's windows are in separate processes to Exposé, Spaces, and the window menus of each application's Dock icon.