[sf-lug] Zoom in browser (no plug-ins or the like): /j/ --> /wc/join/ Re: Sandboxing Zoom (etc.)

[Michael Paoli]

> From: "Akkana Peck" <akkana at shallowsky.com>
> Subject: Re: [sf-lug] Sandboxing Zoom (etc.)
> Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2020 10:54:42 -0600

> Michael Paoli writes:
>> One can run Zoom strictly in browser, no plugins on the like needed.
>> Some(/many?) computer-based conferencing systems do, or allow, likewise.
>
> That sounds better: I like the way jitsi is contained inside
> chromium. But how? Every time I try loading a zoom meeting link
> in a browser, it either tries to run Zoom (if it's installed)
> or xdg-open (otherwise). There's never a "run in browser" button
> shown anywhere I can see it. Do I have to have some plug-in
> installed first? I tried it just yesterday with an uncustomized
> chromium in incognito mode, so I'm pretty sure this isn't some
> personal setting like noscript getting in the way. But I've tried
> in Firefox in the past and that didn't work either.

So, partially repeating what I'd done earlier and experiments thereof ...
and results may vary a bit, not only depending upon browser, but version,
mode, configuration ...
Anyway, what I had earlier when doing/attempting Zoom, ... I didn't want
to do any downloads of plugins for it.  And I managed to, ... with a slight
bit of difficulty / non-intuitive steps.
First of all (wasn't actually what I'd tried first, at that time), when
I did it in Firefox, I wasn't able to get it to give me the
join from your browser
link ... however I was able to get Chromium (with slight bit of coercion)
to give me that link.  At least at the time, I was having issues with
it crashing (tab, or whole browser) in Chromium ... so I thought I'd
try it in Firefox ... but Firefox wouldn't give me the desired
join from your browser link ... so ... I just copied that link
from Chromium, put that in the address bar for Firefox, and off I went,
running it in Firefox, in browser, no plugins or downloads needed.

Anyway, poking at it a bit more ...
So, the meeting invites look, e.g. like:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83576007520?pwd=SlRjVGlUdjVGTldmd1JmVGw5M0pKUT09
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89437831015?pwd=dkJ3M1hRTjEvdkdPaDdwWjZROGNlZz09
The domain portion, however, does vary, e.g.:
https://zoom.us/j/83576007520?pwd=SlRjVGlUdjVGTldmd1JmVGw5M0pKUT09
https://zoom.us/j/89437831015?pwd=dkJ3M1hRTjEvdkdPaDdwWjZROGNlZz09

So, what about "join from your browser" links?
They may want to run one thorough a redirector/tracker first, but in any case
they then go to URLs like:
https://zoom.us/wc/join/83576007520?pwd=SlRjVGlUdjVGTldmd1JmVGw5M0pKUT09
https://us02web.zoom.us/wc/join/83576007520?pwd=SlRjVGlUdjVGTldmd1JmVGw5M0pKUT09
Again, the domain portion may change (and probably doesn't matter much,
other than perhaps for load balancing and/or geographic optimizations),
but what's key, is what's between the domain portion,
and the part after the final / character.
Just change that, e.g. from:
/j/
to:
/wc/join/
And then it'll go from wanting to download or do plugin or whatever,
to just running in browser.

Oh, also, to get the "join from your browser" link in Chromium
I'd often/generally, have to click "Cancel" first, before seeing that
link (or to be able to get to it).  Then I could see and
access the "join from your browser" link - in Chromium.
Haven't quite figured out how to get Firefox to cough up that link.

So ... /j/ --> /wc/join/ ... that seems that will do it for now,
at least as far as I can tell.