navigatorPlugins.plugins

Returns a PluginArray object, listing the Plugin objects describing the plugins installed in the application.

Syntax

var plugins = navigator.plugins;

plugins is PluginArray object used to access Plugin objects either by name or as a list of items.

The returned value is not a JavaScript array, but has the length property and supports accessing individual items using bracket notation (plugins[2]), as well as via item(index) and namedItem("name") methods.

Examples

The following example function returns the version of the Shockwave Flash plugin.

function getFlashVersion() {
  var flash = navigator.plugins.namedItem('Shockwave Flash');
  if (typeof flash != 'object') {
    // flash is not present
    return undefined;
  }
  if(flash.version){ 
    return flash.version;
  } else {
    //No version property (e.g. in Chrome)
    return flash.description.replace(/Shockwave Flash /,"");
  }
}

The following example displays information about the installed plugin(s).

var pluginsLength = navigator.plugins.length;

document.body.innerHTML = pluginsLength + " Plugin(s)<br>"
  + '<table id="pluginTable"><thead>'
  +'<tr><th>Name</th><th>Filename</th><th>description</th><th>version</th></tr>'
  +'</thead><tbody></tbody></table>';

var table = document.getElementById('pluginTable');

for(var i = 0; i < pluginsLength; i++) {
  let newRow = table.insertRow();
  newRow.insertCell().textContent = navigator.plugins[i].name;
  newRow.insertCell().textContent = navigator.plugins[i].filename;
  newRow.insertCell().textContent = navigator.plugins[i].description;
  newRow.insertCell().textContent = navigator.plugins[i].version?navigator.plugins[i].version:"";
}

Notes

The Plugin object exposes a small interface for getting information about the various plugins installed in your browser. A list of plugins is also available by entering about:plugins in the browser's Location bar.

Specification

This isn't defined in any specification.

Browser compatibility

In addition to listing each plugin as a pseudo-array by zero-indexed numeric properties, Firefox provides properties that are the plugin name directly on the PluginArray object.