I did some debugging of the embedded object created in the javascript and found a property ‘isInstalled’. Using the script debugger, this value seems to be returning appropriate results in IE7 instances with and without .NET 3.x installed. See the following screenshots:

http://motyka.org/images/misc/isinstalled1.jpg
http://motyka.org/images/misc/isinstalled2.jpg

This script element also gets mentioned in the guide for supporting infocards in browsers and webapps: http://www.identityblog.com/?page_id=412#infocardg_topic11

This approach seems far more reliable than checking the issuerPolicy for ‘undefined’.

I’m making my next detection script a tad more sloppy, to catch the uppercase C problem.

Actually, I’m pretty sure I can detect Chuck’s (and the unanounced one I spoke of) a different way anyway. Hmm. maybe not Chuck’s. I don’t think he used XBL. I’ll have to talk to Chuck to make sure that I can detect his.

G

It’s true. The detection of information card support is…tricky at best. Every browser *may* implement the support in a different way. I’ve got one cross-browser detection script working, but I know that there is an upcoming FireFox extension (not related to Chuck’s, and we should see by the first week of December, I’m told) that provides pluggable support for an Identity Selector, including CardSpace. When that actually makes itsef known, I’ll have to account for that.

The trouble is, that to gracefully detect information card support, you always have to know how it is going to be implemented on that particular client. I like your idea of it being plugable at the OS level (and trust me, we’re looking at how to implement that), but that doesn’t answer the how at the browser level.

We’ll get there sooner or later :D

G