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1Password 3

for Mac

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# System Integration

Sometimes our customers ask us about how 1Password really works, how it talks to the web browser. They may just be curious, or they may have had an interesting experience in the past with other utilities that integrate into OS X in some way.

## 1Password Integration History

Prior to 1Password for Mac version 3, 1Password used an input manager to load into Safari and other WebKit-based browsers. (Firefox and Flock have proper extension support so this wasn’t an issue there.) Most often the concern about input managers was that there wasn’t any way to discriminate. All input managers load into every process all the time. This is not an ideal situation.

In order to reduce these concerns, 1Password’s input manager essentially served as a loader, and all the “real code” was in another bundle. This way, the input manager loaded into every process, checked to see if it was a 1Password application and only loaded the actual 1Password code if so.

## What’s Different About Version 3?

In 1Password 3, we’re using the scripting additions technology to hook 1Password into other applications. With Snow Leopard, it’s clear that input managers are no longer appropriate as Apple has disallowed their loading into 64-bit applications such as 1Password. Scripting additions are Apple’s replacement for the old input manager technology. They allow for more specific targeting of applications where the extension should be loaded and provide a safer way to load additional code bundles through AppleScript.

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