Re: NPAPI plug-in use case: certified medical devices

[Jorge Villalobos]

Add-ons that use those APIs can pass review, yes. They would also need
to be signed, unless they're using one of the Firefox versions that can
disable signing.

Jorge

On 8/29/15 10:50 AM, Tim Guan-tin Chien wrote:
> Will either js-ctypes or child process-calling add-on passes AMO
> review? With signing requirement those add-ons would not be allow to
> run in Firefox without signing from AMO at all right?
> 
> On Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 11:42 PM, Benjamin Smedberg
>  wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 8/28/2015 10:25 AM, Tony wrote:
>>>
>>> Our product makes use of a 3rd party medical device that requires a C
>>> library for usage.  We created a NPAPI plugin that wraps this C library so
>>> we can access the device from JavaScript.
>>>
>>> Here's where the lawyers get involved...
>>>
>>> The medical device, **including** the software included with the device
>>> are FDA certified.  We (as an user of the device) are not allowed to provide
>>> our own software to access the device (which we could do without much
>>> effort).  We have to use the "certified" C library.
>>>
>>> The manufacture of the device (and its library) do not wish to share their
>>> Intellectual Property (IP) with us so that we could create a "modern"
>>> browser extension.  As most of their customers use their product with native
>>> OS clients, not browser based clients.
>>
>>
>> I recommend that you write this as a Firefox addon in the following way:
>>
>> * construct a shim program which links the C library and communicates with
>> the addon on stdin/stdout
>> * use the addon SDK and system/child_process to launch your shim program and
>> communicate with it
>>
>> See
>> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/SDK/Low-Level_APIs/system_child_process
>> for a description of system/child_process.
>>
>> I'm going to contradict Ehsan here: ctypes is a powerful-but-dangerous API
>> and I wouldn't recommend it unless you have no other choice. We may decide
>> to stop supporting it in the future.
>>
>> --BDS
>>
>>
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Re: NPAPI plug-in use case: certified medical devices

[Tim Guan-tin Chien]

Will either js-ctypes or child process-calling add-on passes AMO
review? With signing requirement those add-ons would not be allow to
run in Firefox without signing from AMO at all right?

On Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 11:42 PM, Benjamin Smedberg
benja...@smedbergs.us wrote:


 On 8/28/2015 10:25 AM, Tony wrote:

 Our product makes use of a 3rd party medical device that requires a C
 library for usage.  We created a NPAPI plugin that wraps this C library so
 we can access the device from JavaScript.

 Here's where the lawyers get involved...

 The medical device, **including** the software included with the device
 are FDA certified.  We (as an user of the device) are not allowed to provide
 our own software to access the device (which we could do without much
 effort).  We have to use the certified C library.

 The manufacture of the device (and its library) do not wish to share their
 Intellectual Property (IP) with us so that we could create a modern
 browser extension.  As most of their customers use their product with native
 OS clients, not browser based clients.


 I recommend that you write this as a Firefox addon in the following way:

 * construct a shim program which links the C library and communicates with
 the addon on stdin/stdout
 * use the addon SDK and system/child_process to launch your shim program and
 communicate with it

 See
 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/SDK/Low-Level_APIs/system_child_process
 for a description of system/child_process.

 I'm going to contradict Ehsan here: ctypes is a powerful-but-dangerous API
 and I wouldn't recommend it unless you have no other choice. We may decide
 to stop supporting it in the future.

 --BDS


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Re: NPAPI plug-in use case: certified medical devices

[Benjamin Smedberg]

On 8/28/2015 10:25 AM, Tony wrote:

Our product makes use of a 3rd party medical device that requires a C library 
for usage.  We created a NPAPI plugin that wraps this C library so we can 
access the device from JavaScript.

Here's where the lawyers get involved...

The medical device, **including** the software included with the device are FDA 
certified.  We (as an user of the device) are not allowed to provide our own software to 
access the device (which we could do without much effort).  We have to use the 
certified C library.

The manufacture of the device (and its library) do not wish to share their Intellectual 
Property (IP) with us so that we could create a modern browser extension.  As 
most of their customers use their product with native OS clients, not browser based 
clients.


I recommend that you write this as a Firefox addon in the following way:

* construct a shim program which links the C library and communicates 
with the addon on stdin/stdout
* use the addon SDK and system/child_process to launch your shim program 
and communicate with it


See 
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/SDK/Low-Level_APIs/system_child_process 
for a description of system/child_process.


I'm going to contradict Ehsan here: ctypes is a powerful-but-dangerous 
API and I wouldn't recommend it unless you have no other choice. We may 
decide to stop supporting it in the future.


--BDS

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Re: NPAPI plug-in use case: certified medical devices

[Ehsan Akhgari]

On 2015-08-28 10:25 AM, Tony wrote:

Our product makes use of a 3rd party medical device that requires a C library 
for usage.  We created a NPAPI plugin that wraps this C library so we can 
access the device from JavaScript.


Have you considered creating an extension that calls into the C library 
using js-ctypes, and provides the functionality to the web page?


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NPAPI plug-in use case: certified medical devices

[Tony]

Our product makes use of a 3rd party medical device that requires a C library 
for usage.  We created a NPAPI plugin that wraps this C library so we can 
access the device from JavaScript.

Here's where the lawyers get involved...

The medical device, **including** the software included with the device are FDA 
certified.  We (as an user of the device) are not allowed to provide our own 
software to access the device (which we could do without much effort).  We have 
to use the certified C library.

The manufacture of the device (and its library) do not wish to share their 
Intellectual Property (IP) with us so that we could create a modern browser 
extension.  As most of their customers use their product with native OS 
clients, not browser based clients.

--Tony
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Re: NPAPI plug-in use case: certified medical devices

[David Rajchenbach-Teller]

While this sounds like a good solution to this specific use case, and
while I agree that js-ctypes is horribly fragile, I'm not certain that
this solution can be generalized to AMO-released add-ons that need
access to OS-specific features, since we don't really like add-ons that
ship native code.

So if we ever decide to stop supporting js-ctypes, I vote that we first
get in touch with add-on authors who make use of it, gather them in a
room, and come up with an alternative solution.

Cheers,
 David

On 28/08/15 17:42, Benjamin Smedberg wrote:
 
 I recommend that you write this as a Firefox addon in the following way:
 
 * construct a shim program which links the C library and communicates
 with the addon on stdin/stdout
 * use the addon SDK and system/child_process to launch your shim program
 and communicate with it
 
 See
 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/SDK/Low-Level_APIs/system_child_process
 for a description of system/child_process.
 
 I'm going to contradict Ehsan here: ctypes is a powerful-but-dangerous
 API and I wouldn't recommend it unless you have no other choice. We may
 decide to stop supporting it in the future.
 
 --BDS
 
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-- 
David Rajchenbach-Teller, PhD
 Performance Team, Mozilla



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