Intent to implement: Remove plugin exception for tiny content

[Rachel Blum]

Contacts

Eng: gr...@chromium.org

PM: rsc...@chromium.org

Summary

In September 2015, we made "Detect and run important plugin content" the default plugin setting in Chrome, automatically pausing any cross-origin plugin content smaller than 400px in width or 300px in height. This behavior has an exception for any plugin content that is 5x5 or smaller or is an undefined size, because there was no canonical way of detecting viewability until Intersection Observer was standardized and implemented.

We would now like to remove this exception and instead not load tiny, cross-origin content. If the user has their plugin setting set to the default of "Detect and run important plugin content", the browser will not instantiate cross-origin plugin content that is roughly 5x5 or smaller or has an undefined size. An icon will be displayed in the URL bar indicating that plugin content is not running, allowing the user to reload the page with plugin content running or open settings to add a site-wide exception. Other choices of the plugin content setting are unaffected by this launch.

For more details, see the design doc.

Spec

The behavior of plugin content is not standardized, but this removal is designed to move toward a more standards-based approach. It is a follow-on to intersection observer, which implements a standardized version of the viewability detection, a very common use case for this tiny cross-origin plugin content.

[Brett Wilson]

Hooray!

Brett

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[Stefan Zager]

Yay!

Comments are not enabled on the design doc, so here are a couple of questions:

- How confident are you that *all* tiny plugin content is functionally replaceable by IntersectionObserver?

- Do you have a timeframe for doing this?  IntersectionObserver is in M51, which is maybe just beginning to hit stable, and the polyfill is not done.  We probably ought to let it bake a bit and give developers some time to start using it.

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[PhistucK]

On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 9:07 PM, 'Stefan Zager' via Chromium-dev <chromi...@chromium.org> wrote:

- How confident are you that *all* tiny plugin content is functionally replaceable by IntersectionObserver?

Sounds like this is the only use case that caused it not to be blocked in the first place. Any other use case does not matter, like the rest of the 6x6 - 400x300​ cross origin Flash objects. The user can start them anyway, so this is not a big deal.

☆PhistucK

[Stefan Zager]

OK, but with this change, "tiny" plugin content would *never* run.  There would be no "play" button or any other way for the user to allow it to run.  It would be effectively banned in all circumstances.  That's very different from the current treatment of medium-sized plugin content.

[PhistucK]

Just like 6x6 content - was 6x6 content able to run?

☆PhistucK

[Joe Mason]

The first post in the thread mentions an icon in the url bar to allow plugins with no visible target to run.

[Stefan Zager]

On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 1:25 PM Joe Mason <joenot...@chromium.org> wrote:

The first post in the thread mentions an icon in the url bar to allow plugins with no visible target to run.

Ah, I see you're right; I think that's just missing from the design doc.

[Rachel Blum]

See section "UI treatment" :) (Granted, docs wordbreaks the crucial content on the next page...)

[Eltoro Pepe]

[Michał Gołębiowski]

The code handling tiny content is still there even on master; has the decision been delayed?

https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/master/content/renderer/peripheral_content_heuristic.cc#18

[wax miguel]

[swapna iyer]

Hi,

The design doc does not talk about plugins which do not have a defined size or are not viewable. What happens in those cases? From the explanation here, it seems like, they will be blocked and there will not be a way to load them, unless user chooses to re-load the whole page with 'all plugins enabled'. Is that correct? 

I am interested in knowing about analytics plugins, which do not occupy any space on the DOM. 

Thanks,

Swapna

On Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 10:53:14 AM UTC-7, Rachel Blum wrote:

[Octavian Naicu]

Is it not clear from the 1st post in this thread?

> the browser will not instantiate cross-origin plugin content that is roughly 5x5 or smaller or has an undefined size

[Ryan Schoen]

Hi Swapna,

Yes, your understanding is correct. Those plugins will be blocked and the only way to load them is if the user takes an action to enable plugins.

Thanks,

Ryan

[swapna iyer]

Ryan, Thank you!

[Rob McQuaid]

Something else is replacing it right? and how do we get it? what is it? im kinda confused

[PhistucK]

For the viewability tracking use case, yes, there is a JavaScript based replacement -  intersection observer.

What other use cases do you have that cannot be achieved without Flash?

☆PhistucK

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[george ehrlinger]

On Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 1:53:14 PM UTC-4, Rachel Blum wrote:

[george ehrlinger]

On Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 1:53:14 PM UTC-4, Rachel Blum wrote:

[المعلمة الصغيرة‎]

[المعلمة الصغيرة‎]

بتاريخ الأربعاء، 25 مايو، 2016 7:53:14 م UTC+2، كتب Rachel Blum:

[المعلمة الصغيرة‎]

hèyyy

بتاريخ الأربعاء، 25 مايو، 2016 7:53:14 م UTC+2، كتب Rachel Blum: