Patent ID: 8626802

Claim:
A method, comprising: initiating, by a sandboxed preview process executing in a first sandbox within a data processing system, a sandboxed streaming preview process that executes in a second sandbox within the data processing system in response to a request for a preview of dynamic media content having a non-native content type, the sandboxed preview process comprising a designated plug-in for non-native content, wherein the request is received from a client application running within the data processing system, and wherein the request is originated from a user operating the data processing system to preview, via the client application, a file containing the dynamic media content stored in a storage device of the data processing system, the initiating including: determining a content type of the dynamic media content is the non-native content type; identifying a stream plug-in that is associated with the non-native content type; retrieving the stream plug-in by the designated plug-in; and launching the stream plug-in for execution within the sandboxed streaming preview process; converting, via the stream plug-in, the dynamic media content to a preview-specific format, including generating a stream of frames, the sandboxed streaming preview process representing a restricted operating environment having a set of resources exclusively allocated and utilized by the stream plug-in, wherein the sandboxed streaming preview process is separated from the client application, such that a failure of generating the stream of frames in a preview specific format within the sandboxed streaming preview process does not affect an operation of the client application; providing the stream of frames as the preview of the dynamic media content to the client application; and displaying, via the client application, the stream of frames on a display screen of the data processing system with limited user control functionality that is less than the user control functionality when the dynamic media content is displayed in a full view.