IE 5.5SP2 / IE 6 and the Xara plugin

[williama]

As of the latest versions of IE, there is no longer any support for Netscape-style plugins. Fair enough I suppose, as Netscape never bothered to include ActiveX support in their browser.
The result of this, is that the Xara plugin won't work for IE users in Windows XP, or on any systems that keep their IE browsers up to date.
Apple's Quicktime had this problem for a while, but they just released a fix for it (Apple's QT Fix). (An ActiveX control that can load the Quicktime plugin.)
Maybe Xara will be able to follow suit. I've noticed a number of personal sites that use the WEB format, so this will definately affect them.
Do many people use this format? Or is the need for the viewer to download the extra plugin more effort than most web surfers can handle?
I guess that we need to justify the extra development to fix this problem, by showing Xara that the plugin's benefits outweigh it's costs.

[lucx]

You could probably count the number of websites that use the xara plugin with your fingers. At most, there are tens of sites, not hundreds or thousands. I’m highly doubtful that such few users would justify the cost and time of development.

[Sean Sedwards]

The XAR / WEB format isn't widely used at the moment, but the situation won't improve if nobody can read it. No third party will write an interpreter, so it will pay Xara Ltd to write a freeware ActiveX module that can be incorporated into browsers, viewers and bitmap apps. I see no commercial disadvantage to Xara Ltd doing this.

Regards - Sean

[Michael]

Maybe it would be better for Xara to release a minor update which enables X to export to SVG (as was indicated during the period before X was finally released ...)

IMHO SVG has many advantages over FLASH, not in the last place because it's an open standard

[lucx]

The Xara plugin had, what is it, 3 years to catch on, probably even longer than that. It wasn't widely used 3 years ago, it isn't now, and it won't be 3 years from now. The introduction of SVG (if and when it does come) will only serve to kill the plugin. The commercial disadvantage is that it costs money and time to do something like this, it won't come overnight.

If Xara does decide to do an ActiveX module that can be embedded into other apps, hey, I'm all for it. I'm just saying is it doesn't seem like this is their highest priority.

[Sean Sedwards]

I agree that the plug-in is now unlikely ever to be a threat to Flash and that Xara may not be giving it a high priority for that reason. My point is that comparing the plug-in with Flash or SVG is taking too narrow a view of its worth and that it can be used to promote the brand by making it easier to import and display XAR / WEB files. By saying there was no commercial disadvantage I meant to imply that Xara Ltd would gain a commercial advantage which would pay for the work.

IMO the XAR / WEB format (and therefore Xara X) will remain on the sidelines until the mainstream (bitmap) apps. can import it. Corel, JASC and Adobe aren't going to do anything about it, so it's up to Xara Ltd. A module that takes a XAR file as input and returns a bitmap could be adapted to suit just about every graphics app., making the format more widely accepted and the Xara name more widely known. IMO (again) the long term brand awareness will justify the cost of development.

Regards - Sean

[a4hire]

It seems that the only solution for this , is if you want to view these files on the web is to export them in .swf , Flash format from xara. I.E. and Netscape will work with that. At least with Netscape 6.1 and I.E. 6 the flash plugin works great. I am using those browsers now and they work. Like with my Xara users Flash map.
http://artist4hire.net/map.swf