SoC 2008/GUI interfaces for the browsers plug-ins

This project is part of Google Summer of Code 2008. Student: Vladimir Belousov Mentor: Pavlov Konstantin

Thanks to everyone who pays attention to my project. I received several letters concerning the idea and I see that it excites many people. I am open to your suggestions.

About the project “GUI interfaces for the browsers plug-ins”

The goal is to add GUI to the Firefox plug-in “in order to have, in the web pages embedded mode, buttons to control VLC media player as in WMP or Youtube player”. Next step is to develop similar plug-in for Internet Explore. Also “a replacement for all preconfigured media players embedded in web pages” should be provided. More detailed description (but a little bit outdated) can be found at the application information page http://code.google.com/soc/2008/videolan/appinfo.html?csaid=CD2BD85FF24811F4.

Some requirements to note:

• toolbar at the bottom of the video drawing area
• toolbar vissible by default
• toolbar should be possible to disable by webdesigner with JS API.
• toolbar should not be autohiding (think users won't understand)
• toolbar should have nicely designed buttons
• toolbar should work under Firefox windows
• toolbar should work under Firefox linux
• toolbar should work under Mozilla windows?
• toolbar should work under Safari MacOS X (pdherbemont)
• toolbar should have same JS API on all browsers (IE/Firefox)

The idea is that we need to use native code to design it:
On linux, there is already a code that uses libX11 to show a toolbar on top of the video.
On windows, GDI is the way to go (as the demo shows it).
On mac, well, :D
There are two things to show: a toolbar and a left-click menu.
Most of the code must be cross platform, except the drawing part, which means that controls should be common, and drawing may not be.
For designers that design explicitely a page for VLC, they must be able to deactivate menu and toolbar. The JS to control that has to be the same on ActiveX and Netscape/Mozilla.

Who I am

My name is Vladimir Belousov. I’m third-year university student of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (http://phystech.edu).

Timeline (planning)

May 26	Coding begins
May 26	Test of English (state exam)
May 30	Examination in Equations of Mathematical Physics (written form)
June 5	Examination in Equations of Mathematical Physics
June 10	Examination in theoretical physics
June 14	Examination in general physics
June 21-24	Sorry, unable to work (making a trip to home town)
July 7-14	Mid-term evaluation
End of July - August	Some short trips are planned (exact dates are still unknown)
August 11-18	"Pencil down"
August 18 - September 1	Final evaluation
September 3	Submitting required code samples to Google

Please, give me three days of free time before each exam to get prepared for it.