Opening path in browser or external app

How To
1

I am trying to open an arbitrary path in an external browser (from JavaScript). I tried:

ko.browse.openUrlInDefaultBrowser(uri);

But this seems to work only if uri is a standard protocol (http, ftp, …). My protocol is “thunderlink://…”.

I also tried by directly calling an external app, like Firefox, from the JavaScript code, but I cannot find the way to make it work (maybe it is not possible to call an external program?). I tried using komodo.runCommand(), also with doCommand(…), and even with open(…), but with no success.

My final purpose is to be able to open a Thunderbird email from Komodo Edit, whose link has been obtained by using Thunderlink (https://addons.mozilla.org/es/thunderbird/addon/thunderlink/). This implies loading Firefox (or directly Thunderbird) with a URI that looks like thunderlink://… I want to do it with a Komodo Edit’s script in JavaScript to automate the opening of some links from the editor. This would be very useful.

Thank you very much for any tip!

2

If you’re under linux, you can use xdg-open. (since the instruction on the add-on page says that you have to register a xdg handler) to open these links. You can invoke it with require('ko/shell').run('xdg-open', ['your_url']). I believe you can invoke thunderbird in the same way:

require(`ko/shell`).run('thunderbird', ['-thunderlink', 'thunderlink://...'])
3

I think it’d be easier just to create a command through your toolbox, no sense using a userscript for this.

4

Uhh I forgot about them. That’s a good idea!

5

Thank you for all the suggestions. Regarding the option 1, unfortunately I use Windows: is there any alternative solution for Windows?

Regarding the option 2, I am not sure about what you mean. Could you please clarify it? Maybe the proposed solution is not applicable for my specific case, but I am not sure. What I want to do is to be able to select a thunderlink hyperlink in Komodo Edit, to open the link in Firefox or Thunderbird. For this, I intend to use the proposed solution at http://docs.activestate.com/komodo/7.0/hyperlinks.html (section “Custom”, about the PEPRegexHandler). The function to call should be the one I am trying to implement now, that I call “test”:

function test(theStringOriginal, theStringReplacement)
{
ko.browse.openUrlInDefaultBrowser(theStringReplacement);
}

(this one does not work if theStringReplacement is a URI with a protocol different from the typical ones: http, ftp, etc.)

Thank you for any idea.

6

Yes, it’s in my post, second code example. Just find the path to the thunderbird binary.

Here’s an example macro that will register a handler for thunderlink links.

let Ci = Components.interfaces;
let RGB = (r, g, b) => r + g * 256 + b * 256 * 256;
let thunderlinkHandler = new ko.hyperlinks.RegexHandler(
    "Thunderlink handler",
    /(thunderlink:[^\s]+)/,
    (original, replacement) => {
        require('ko/shell').run('C:\\path\\to\\thunderbird.exe', ['-thunderlink', replacement]);
    },
    "$1",
    null,
    Ci.ISciMoz.INDIC_PLAIN,
    RGB(0x60, 0x90, 0xff)
);
let handler = ko.hyperlinks.getHandlerWithName("Thunderlink handler");
while (handler !== null) {
    ko.hyperlinks.removeHandler(handler); // remove existing handlers just in case
    handler = ko.hyperlinks.getHandlerWithName("Thunderlink handler");
}
ko.hyperlinks.addHandler(thunderlinkHandler);

This should work.

1 Like
7

Thanks a lot, this works perfectly! (just maybe a little slow when calling Thunderbird.exe).

Best regards.