[gNewSense-users] Solution for watching video clips in web pages without flash - Linterna Mágica

[Ivaylo Valkov]

Dear free software users,

I am glad that finally I am making this announcement.

Since April I am working on a userscript for the Greasemonkey [1][2]
extension that makes it possible to watch video clips on variety of web
sites without Gnash/Swfdec plugin. After one rewrite from the ground up
and several partial design changes, it is finally starting to look like
a program.

Anton Katsarov [4] was a great help, by making the visual design of the
program and the website, a lot of testing and ideas. I will try to keep
the rest of this message as short as possible, because there is more
information at the project web site. [3]

The script searches web pages for flash objects and examines them for
links to video clips.  After all the information is extracted it
replaces them with an <object> tag, that can be played by vlc, totem,
xine or gecko-mediaplayer plugin for the browser (at the same place they
should show up on the page).

The script relays heavily on regular expressions, patterns and a lot of
similarities between sites. This way it works with sites that I do not
even know they existed. It is programmed in such a way that
site-specific things are limited.

It is possible to use the script with or without Swfdec/Gnash
installed. When there is no plugin installed at all, the JavaScript code
provided by the page is parsed as data. This is needed because most of
the web sites use some library that do not create flash objects when
there is no plugin installed.

For the moment there are more then 30 web sites that are known to
work. With few exceptions they are not strictly programed to work. Here
is a short list of working sites:

   * vimeo.com
   * youtube.com
   * video.google.com
   * dailymotion.com
   * blip.tv 
   * metacafe.com

The script uses pure JavaScript (no Greasemonkey API), so it works with
Epiphany (the browser I use), free software versions of Firefox and
Midori. Probably with anything that can execute userscripts.

Userscripts are good in that they can work in a lot of browsers, but
have their limitations (especially without the Greasemonkey API). The
script itself is getting bigger (156KB; this includes embedded images),
it is not very configurable and have some limitations. Because of all
that I am investigating a migration to browser extensions. As far as I
know only Epiphany and Firefox can have extensions written in
JavaScript. The idea is to have a core, and browser specific (extension
registration; configurations) stuff around it. Ideas how to move to and
support browser extensions and keep (most of) the current JavaScript
code are appreciated.

You will not find the script in userscripts.org, because I have some
doubts about it.

The script is named "Linterna Mágica" (and no I do not speak Spanish).
Of course it is free software, distributed under the terms of the GNU
GPL version 3 or later.

So if you are interested, visit the web site, [3] download, install and
enjoy what you are watching.

You don't need a glint, 
    the magic lantern is ignited!

P.S. If someone is interested in more technical details, just ask.

Regards,
Ivaylo Valkov

[1] http://greasespot.net
[2] http://wiki.greasespot.net/FAQ#What_does_Greasemonkey_do.3F
[3] http://e-valkov.org/linterna-magica
[4] http://katsarov.org