Method and apparatus for providing plug in media decoders

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for providing a plug-in component, said computer program product comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to initiate a data acquisition request for data, said data acquisition request initiated by an application;
• computer readable program code configured to cause a computer to download said data from a source location on a network to be processed by said application;
• computer readable program code configured to cause a computer to determine a data type of said data;
• computer readable program code configured to cause a computer to determine a plug-in component associated with said data type by extracting header information from said data;
• computer readable program code configured to cause a computer to search for said plug-in component;
• and
• computer readable program code configured to cause a computer load said plug-in component into transient memory for use by said application for a transient duration.

A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave and representing sequences of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause said processor to provide plug-in components by performing the steps of:

• initiating a data acquisition request for data, said data acquisition request initiated by an application residing at a destination location;
• downloading said data from a source location;
• determining a data type of said data by extracting header information from said data;
• determining a plug-in component associated with said data type;
• searching for said plug-in component, said search comprising a search of a persistent storage at said source location;
• obtaining said plug-in component;
• loading said plug-in component into transient memory at said destination location for use by said application.

A method of providing a plug-in component comprising:

• executing an application on a first computer having transient memory, said application configured to initiate a data acquisition request for data having a data type;
• downloading said data from a second computer;
• determining said data type of said data by extracting header information from said data;
• searching for a plug-in component capable of processing said data type;
• obtaining said plug-in component for use by said application;
• loading said plug-in component into said transient memory of said first computer for a transient duration.

A method of providing a plug-in decoder comprising:

• initiating a data acquisition request for data, said data acquisition request initiated by an application;
• downloading said data from a source location on a network, said data to be processed by said application;
• determining a data type of said data by extracting header information from said data;
• determining a plug-in component associated with said data type;
• searching for said plug-in component;
• obtaining said plug-in component;
• and
• loading said plug-in component into said application.

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for providing a plug-in component, said computer program product comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to initiate a data acquisition request for data, said data acquisition request initiated by an application;
• computer readable program code configured to cause a computer to download said data from a source location on a network to be processed by said application;
• computer readable program code configured to cause a computer to determine a data type of said data;
• computer readable program code configured to cause a computer to determine a plug-in component associated with said data type by extracting header information from said data;
• computer readable program code configured to cause a computer to search for said plug-in component;
• and
• computer readable program code configured to cause a computer load said plug-in component into said application.