Bug 1159

Summary:	AWT-free alternative to java.awt.Desktop.browse(URI)
Product:	[JogAmp] Newt	Reporter:	Julien Gouesse <gouessej>
Component:	core	Assignee:	Julien Gouesse <gouessej>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID
Severity:	enhancement	CC:	gouessej, sgothel
Priority:	P5
Version:	2.4.0
Hardware:	All
OS:	all
Type:	FEATURE	SCM Refs:
Workaround:	---

Description Julien Gouesse 2015-05-26 14:58:34 CEST

AWT has a method that allows to launch the default browser to display a URI. It doesn't work under GNU Linux with KDE. There is not yet any alternative to this method in NEWT.

The method org.lwjgl.Sys.openURL(String URL) of LWJGL 2 is a good source of inspiration:
https://github.com/LWJGL/lwjgl/blob/master/src/java/org/lwjgl/Sys.java#L232

It uses Java Webstart first and it has several platform-dependent fallbacks. I suggest to modify them a little bit:
- $BROWSER, "xdg-open", "gnome-open", "kde-open", "x-www-browser" or "sensible-browser" under GNU Linux
- "open" under Mac OS X (instead of com.apple.eio.FileManager.openURL())
- "rundll32 url.dll,FileProtocolHandler" under Microsoft Windows
- new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(String URL)) and startActivity(intent) under Android

Comment 1 Julien Gouesse 2015-05-26 15:44:56 CEST

XFCE uses exo-open, it should be called if the xdg-utils package isn't installed.

Maybe "cmd /c start" can be used under Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/start.mspx

Comment 2 Sven Gothel 2015-07-28 14:51:00 CEST

Why shall this feature be part of NEWT?

While I see the short-cut benefits of kicking off a native browser,
I would prefer seeing html[5]/css rendering via OpenGL/Graph
purely performed within Java.

Further, launching an external browser might also be considered a security
risk, since the launch requires privileged mode and the browser itself
cannot be considered secure.

If there are no others liking to introduce this features,
I would like to mark this entry invalid, while open a new bug report
introducing the need for a Java browser using OpenGL/Graph.

Comment 3 Julien Gouesse 2015-07-28 20:06:44 CEST

This kind of feature is commonly used by some major free softwares, for example Notepad++ and TortoiseGit. Numerous Android applications use it too in order to redirect the end users to a website.

Is there a way of providing a safe implementation of this feature? I can implement it (I need it for my own native update system) but I don't see why it wouldn't be part of NEWT.

Creating a Java web browser for such a rudimentary need is like using a nuclear bomb to kill a butterfly to me.

Comment 4 Julien Gouesse 2017-01-17 15:21:12 CET

I tried to use JCEF, the build files were half-broken, the source code contained a very few compile errors and there were so much problems that I gave up. It worked somehow in very simple cases but I didn't find a way of shutting it down cleanly.

I tried gngr too but it doesn't have enough features, it's a very poor web browser.

I ended up by using The DJ Project "Native Swing". It seems to launch a native browser embedded into a Swing component:
http://djproject.sourceforge.net/ns/index.html

If you don't need to embed a browser in your software, my first suggestions will be enough.

Sven is right, opening a website in the default web browser doesn't need to be a part of NEWT even though it's an AWT feature whereas displaying HTML/CSS content within JOGL with the Graph API would make sense.