LiveConnect

LiveConnect is a feature of Web browsers that allows Java and JavaScript software to intercommunicate within a Web page. From the Java side it allows an applet to invoke the embedded scripts of a page or to access the built-in JavaScript environment, much as scripts can. Conversely, from the JavaScript side, it allows a script to invoke applet methods, or to access the Java runtime libraries, much as applets can.^[1][2]

LiveConnect was used in Netscape 4 to implement scriptability of NPAPI plugins.

It is currently used in Rhinohide to implement a DOM interface for applets, that allows each applet to manipulate its containing Web page, using a standard Java binding of the DOM.^[3]

The Open Java Interface-dependent implementation of LiveConnect was removed from the Mozilla source code tree in late June 2009 as part of the Mozilla 2 cleanup effort.^[4] It is no longer needed with the release of a redesigned Java Runtime Environment from Sun Microsystems. However the old implementation was restored for Gecko 1.9.2, as Apple had yet to port the newer JRE over to Mac OS X.^[5]

The Java–JavaScript functionality supported by the redesigned Java Runtime Environment is still called "LiveConnect", despite the Open Java Interface-specific approach having been abandoned.^[6]

References