#237 Browser won't launch

[Mark Goldey]

Java has the ability to launch a web browser when the
user clicks a hyperlink (e.g., in the news section) or
when the code instructs it to (e.g., click on Help >
Submit Bug Report).

The client does not do a good job of fiquring out the
default web browser. In Linux, the default is set to
Netscape (probably should be Firefox). I don't know
about other platforms.

The solution would be some combination of the following:

1) The client can figure out the default browser
properly (e.g., a Java function that polls the OS)

2) The user selects the web browser of choice in the
program setup

3) The client always launches IE (blech) by default or
as a failsafe.

A related feature would be the ability to click a http
link in chat and have it open in the browser (see chat
improvements, feature request 888439)

[Mark Goldey]

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Java does not have a cross-platform method of launching a
web browser:
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=590640&messageID=3073201

Furthur currently uses a pre-made class called
browserlauncher.java which comes from
http://browserlauncher.sourceforge.net/. It's old (coded
for JDK 1.1) and relies on lots of OS features that may be
outdated, it's clunky and assumes that *nix comes w/
Netscape. It could be recoded for Firefox, but there's
probably a better way.

The following thread shows one way to determine the default
browser: http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=440187

The prior thread suggests several ways to call a new
browser. The basic concept seems to lie in either issuing a
system command Runtime.exec() or through another java
function that passes parameters to the OS like: /c start
-remote Netscape [URL]

[Thilo Pfennig]

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For users who want a easy solution it would be to make a
softlink from firefox to /usr/local/bin/netscape.

[sam]

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This should be fixed as of a couple of weeks ago.
Implemented BrowserLauncher2 (http://browserlauncher2.sf.net).

[Thilo Pfennig]

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I think on Linux this is more and issue of KDE and GNOME and
not the OS.