CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netgoogle-chromegoogle-chrome-extensionclickonce
James Orr
James Orr

Reputation: 5135

ClickOnce for Chrome now that NPAPI is not supported?

The application I work on integrates with Microsoft's ReportBuilder 3.0 (part of SQL Server Reporting Services.) ReportBuilder is a Microsoft ClickOnce application. Our official supported browsers are Firefox, Chrome and certain versions of IE.

Microsoft provides an official Firefox plugin (the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant) but nothing for Chrome. Until recently we've instructed users to install the open source extension that you can see here: https://github.com/rajkosto/ChromeClickOnce

That extension has since been removed from the Chrome Web Store and my understanding is that Chrome is removing all NPAPI functionality from the browser. Our users can no longer use ReportBuilder when they use our product in Chrome, which is a big problem for us.

Is there any way to get ClickOnce working in Chrome again? We can't be the only ones suffering from this problem. Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 7101

Answers (4)

James Orr
James Orr

Reputation: 5135

A new ClickOnce extension has appeared in the Chrome Web Store from a company called Meta4.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/meta4-clickonce-launcher/jkncabbipkgbconhaajbapbhokpbgkdc/reviews

Requires you to download and run an executable. Otherwise works great! Tested on Chrome 38 and everything is good.

Upvotes: 2

Steve Buchok
Steve Buchok

Reputation: 179

I have spent several hours researching this and have come up with the following solution. I warn you this is hacky at best.

Create a registry file that creates a URI Scheme on the client machine: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/aa767914(v=vs.85).aspx

For the program that you execute, you can use a custom exe that strips the Scheme (in my case I called it ReportBuilder and the link would look like <a href="ReportBuilder:http://...">test</a>) or I used a batch file (see below) and then call internet explorer with the url:

set str=%1
set str=%str:ReportBuilder:=%
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" %str%

So ultimately when the link is click, it calls this batch file and that batch file calls internet explorer which opens the link for the ClickOnce application.

So far, this is the only way I've been able to get it to work. I have tried using two different ClickOnce extension, both of which no longer work. I have also tried using IE tabs, however that is also not working.

Hope this helps someone.

Upvotes: 5

Hasani Blackwell
Hasani Blackwell

Reputation: 2056

I use the IETab extension (http://www.ietab.net/) for chrome to view the clickonce as IE.

Upvotes: 2

Xan
Xan

Reputation: 77531

Is there a way to get NPAPI working again?

Very few ways (enterprise install only, 32-bit only) and it's going away anyway. Not worth the effort.

Is there a way other than NPAPI to talk to [Native app here]?

Yes, though it would require a complete rewrite. You have Native Messaging as a replacement of NPAPI for that.

The basic idea is to have a "proxy" native app, called in this terminology a Native Host, that Chrome can start and that can talk to your [Native app here] on its behalf. Chrome will only talk over standard input/output in JSON-encoded messages, but your proxy can interface with the original app by any means.

For more information, see the docs and

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions