[solved] Projects in C:\lazarus\examples - openbrowser

[PeterX]

Interesting way to open the browser 
.. if it would work.

By reading GetEnvironmentVariableUTF8('PATH')
in function SearchExecutable()
the program tries to find and start - for example - FIREFOX

function SearchExecutable(const ShortFilename: string; var Filename: string
  ): boolean;
begin
  Filename:=SearchFileInPath(ShortFilename,'',
                      GetEnvironmentVariableUTF8('PATH'),PathSeparator,[]);
  Result:=Filename<>'';
end;

On my computer, here, Windows 7, the firefox.exe is not (or no more ?) in the Windows' PATH var.

So does the whole example still make sense ?

[taazz]

firefox was never in path and it should never be. Selecting start\run and typing firefox in the dialog should open firefox. from a command window (cmd) typing firefox should not start it. Firefox adds it self in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\" registry key. This key is used to find and start the application from the run dialog.
You can use the same settings from a command line using the start command. eg

Code: Text  [Select][+][-]

1. start firefox
2.  

this will use the registry as well as the path to find and execute firefox. I'm not user but I think that its an internal command of the windows console application.

[PeterX]

Screenshot

[wp]

I am not sure about the intention of this example, and therefore, I will not touch it. The recommended way to open a URL with the system browser is OpenURL(url:string) in LclIntf; there is also a FindDefaultBrowser which does more careful searching than just looking in the path, it could replace the GetBrowser of the sample, but I did not investigate how this would fit into the shell scripts provided.

Probably, the sample is just outdated...

[PeterX]

Probably, the sample is just outdated...

I agree, looks curious, the whole thing.

This is the content of one of the .sh files:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

firefox -remote "openurl($1)" || firefox $1 &

Is this maybe a UNIX only example ?

[wp]

Is this maybe a UNIX only example ?

Yes, but it can certainly be rewritten as a batch file for Windows.

I asked in the developers mailing list about this sample, the author is still active.

[wp]

Mattias answered that the example is obsolete, and he has removed it.

[PeterX]

Cleaned up ..