No http handler under linux by default

I found that the http protocol was not set up with a handler under linux. Its possible that with a more recent version of GNOME this would 'just work', however I used the following trick (similar to the mailto: protocol handler in MozillaFirefoxNotes)

Note, that I use MozillaFirefox as my browser, so its this that I wish to set up as the handler for http:

First of all, I created a handler script to run firefox. It can be found at http://www.wlug.org.nz/archive/firefox-helper.sh

I put this under /bin, made it executable, and tested it with '/bin/firefox-helper.sh http://www.wlug.org.nz/' - the wlug homepage opens in a new tab.

I then added the following entry to my prefs.js under my thunderbird profile dir

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/home/dhtrl1/bin/firefox-helper.sh");

and restarted thunderbird.

Try putting it in user.js not prefs.js as Thunderbird will just over-write this... -- ReneBartosh

• Close Thunderbird before you edit, and you won't have that problem -- DrewBroadley

With Firefox 0.9, since they changed the way URL handling goes, you'll need to add -a firefox to your firefox-helper.sh script.

${FIREBIRD_PATH}/firefox -a firefox -remote "openURL($@,new-tab)"

instead of

${FIREBIRD_PATH}/firefox -remote "openURL($@ ,new-tab)"

--YacinNadji? (MarC corrected the space left bewteen $@ and new-tab)

I have an alternative:

${FIREFOX_PATH}/mozilla-xremote-client -a firefox "openURL($@,new-tab)"&

!! VERY IMPORTANT (YacinNadji? didn't say it and I had some trouble with it...): Note that there should be no space between the the comma and the command after the url or you get a "Error: Failed to send command: 509 internal error".

--MarC

By the way, I've developped an evolution to the firefox-helper.sh script.

It works with KDE, gnome, graphical console, opens new windows or new tab when necessary, etc... (solves zcat(1) problem, below this)

download it at: http://www.iespana.es/infogeneral_es/contrib/mozz

don't forget to modify variable FIREFOX_PATH to put your firefox path

(and if you use firefox under 0.9 you may have change the call of firefox and uncomment one line)

enjoy! - MarC

I've just spend the last couple of hours trying to figure out a fairly similar problem! Under KDE3, Thunderbird opens URL links with Konquerer (the default browser for opening a URL), and I wanted to use Firefox. So I figured the easiest way would be somewhere in kde's config, changing the default browser that it uses to open URL's..

Honestly, even Microsoft doesn't make it THIS HARD to change your default browser!!

The easy solution was to change the browser Thunderbird uses. You don't need any shell script however. I'm using this;

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/bin/firefox");

I'd still like to know if there's a way of changing the default web browser for everything in KDE though.

• zcat(1)

In addition, so Thunderbird can redirect some additional protocls (FTP and HTTPS) add the following

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https", "/location/to/firefox"); user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.ftp", "/location/to/firefox");

Aswel as that, you can define another FTP program to handle the FTP transactions (though Mozilla handles them just fine, try the following

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.ftp", "/location/to/ftpprogram");

• DrewBroadley