Network Manager Autologin

[Slokunshialgo <slokun belligero org>]

Hello all,

I know I posted something about this awhile ago, but thinking about it a
bit more, a couple of questions and ideas have arisen in my mind.  For
those who may not have read this before, the idea is to have something
using NetworkManager to automatically log in to web-authenticated
networks (ie: hotspots in a cafe) when it connects to specific networks.

I have three ideas on how to implement this, but they all revolve around
the idea of having a Firefox extension that would listen to dbus signals
being sent by nm, and when told to, would go to a specific webpage to
log in, using Firefox's password storage.

1) Have nm check to see if Firefox is open, if not, open it and send the
signal
2) Make nm have nothing to do with the extension, but merely sending its
regular signals and FF picking them up
3) Make nm send modified signals specifically for the autologin, letting
any program pick them up (such as network name, URL to visit, etc)

Judging by before, I doubt #1 would be the best idea (forcing FF to be
installed is not good), #2 may or may not work, but I think #3 would be
best.  To get around whether FF is open or not, a small program could be
written to start on login (separate from nm) that would listen for the
signals, start FF, and pass it along.

As for the technical side of this, it's primarily, what sort of
information does nm send through dbus, and are multiple programs able to
pick up on it?

Opinions, ideas, information?

--Slokunshialgo