CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptfacebook
Akshat Goel
Akshat Goel

Reputation: 528

Facebook like messenger starting script

I am not sure if many of you have noticed it yet but facebook is popping up a dialog box in bottom right of the screen (Near chat list) which asks you to start facebook messenger if it's installed on your system but not running right now. If you click on it, the messenger starts. I want to know how can a script on facebook access our file system to start the messenger process? For the detection process, we have assumed that it must be tracking it via cookies but not sure of it too.

Operating system : Microsoft Windows 7 Browser : Mozilla Firefox 14

Upvotes: 2

Views: 948

Answers (1)

desbest
desbest

Reputation: 4896

The script is not accessing your file system. Instead it is accessing a URL with a unique protocol, and if it is recognised, the prompt appears.

For example, on the iTunes Preview, the View in iTunes links begin with itms://

If itms:// is recognised by your computer (or web browser) a prompt appears in your web browser (most likely Firefox) asking you if you want to open the site in iTunes.

What you have to do is make up your own protocol for your computer program, like skype:// has one.

Upvotes: 3

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