NPAPI

Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) is a deprecated application programming interface (API) for web browser plugins, initially developed for Netscape Navigator 2.0 in 1995 and subsequently adopted by other browsers.

In the NPAPI architecture, a plugin declares content types (e.g. "audio/mp3") that it can handle. When the browser encounters a content type it cannot handle natively, it loads the appropriate plugin, sets aside space within the browser context for the plugin to render and then streams data to it. The plugin is responsible for rendering the data. The plugin runs in-place within the page, as opposed to older browsers that had to launch an external application to handle unknown content types. NPAPI requires each plugin to implement and expose approximately 15 functions for initializing, creating, deleting and positioning plugin content. NPAPI also supports scripting, printing, full-screen plugins, windowless plugins and content streaming.

NPAPI was frequently used for plugins which required intensive, low-level performance such as video players, including Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight, as well as platforms for web applications such as the Java Runtime Environment.

NPAPI support among major browsers started to wane since 2015 and it was gradually deprecated over the following 7 years. All major web browsers have removed support for 3rd party NPAPI plugins for security and maintenance reasons while superior technology exists.