[kepler-dev] [Bug 3107] - http links don't work: Unsupported file type or connection not supported

[bugzilla-daemon@ecoinformatics.org]

http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3107





------- Comment #3 from berkley at nceas.ucsb.edu  2008-03-17 14:35 -------
This looks like a bug in the somewhat sketchy class
ptolemy.actor.gui.BrowserLauncher.  This class was written in 2001 and attempts
to find a default browser on a system.  In its locateBrowser() method, it
attempts to somewhat smartly figure out where the browser is, but if it fails,
it defaults to some pretty basic commands for launching a browser.  On Windows,
it tries to use command.com or cmd.exe and on *nix it tries 'firefox'.  On my
linux machine, my /usr/bin/firefox symlink was pointed to an older version of
ff, so it did not work.  after fixing the link, it did launch the link
correctly.  On windows, if a default browser is not set for the system (as was
the case on my parallels install) cmd.exe or command.com will not be able to
find an app to open the html document.  

It looks like the original authors of this class went to great pains to figure
this problem out.  It does not appear that sun has made an easy way to open a
browser from Java 1.5.x, although there is a launcher in java 1.6 
(http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/awt/Desktop.html#browse(java.net.URI)). 

There are several other solutions out there that people have written since
BrowserLauncher was written.  We could try one of those solutions to see if
they work better.
http://www.centerkey.com/java/browser/

Any input on this issue is appreciated.