Applet launching new browser window from Firefox 1.5

As of Firefox 1.5 Java's showDocument method is blocked by the Firefox popup
blocker. We deal with the similar issue in Internet Explorer by using a
Runtime.exe command (our applet is digitally signed). I'm having trouble
figuring out the command line argument to open a new Firefox window.

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" http://www.mozilla.org
opens the URL but it replaces the current page that was open, killing the
applet.

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -new http://www.mozilla.org
does not seem to work; it just opens a new browser window to your Home Page.

Does anyone know the proper syntax for opening a new Firefox window?

Mickey Segal

"Mickey Segal" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" http://www.mozilla.org
> opens the URL but it replaces the current page that was open, killing the
> applet.

The folks on netscape.mozilla.user.win32 had the answer - the URL needs
quotation marks. The following works:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" "http://www.mozilla.org"

Whether it opens in a new window or a new tab seems to be controlled by the
user settings.

The command line options page for Firefox is at:
http://www.mozilla.org/docs/command-line-args.html
I was having trouble finding it.

Mickey Segal

Mickey Segal wrote:

> "Mickey Segal" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" http://www.mozilla.org
>> opens the URL but it replaces the current page that was open, killing the
>> applet.
>
> The folks on netscape.mozilla.user.win32 had the answer - the URL needs
> quotation marks. The following works:
> "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" "http://www.mozilla.org"
>
> Whether it opens in a new window or a new tab seems to be controlled by the
> user settings.
>
> The command line options page for Firefox is at:
> http://www.mozilla.org/docs/command-line-args.html
> I was having trouble finding it.

How does that work for someone whose browser isn't running on Windows?

(If you don't care, why program in Java at all; you might as well be using a
Microsoft product which is tuned for Windows).

--
Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group,
University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
E-mail :
Phone : +44 (0)116 2523548, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555

Nigel Wade

"Nigel Wade" <> wrote in message
news:dn6ft2$m86$...
> How does that work for someone whose browser isn't running on Windows?
>
> (If you don't care, why program in Java at all; you might as well be using
> a
> Microsoft product which is tuned for Windows).

Our code checks for various browsers and operating systems and handles the
peculiarities of each as needed. The Windows code is only executed for the
Windows environment.

On my "to do" for today was checking Firefox 1.5 for Macintosh, and sure
enough it has become the first Macintosh browser to block showDocument.
Things were simpler in the days that one could count on Java methods
working.

Mickey Segal

Mickey Segal wrote:
> Our code checks for various browsers and operating systems and handles the
> peculiarities of each as needed.

Oh sure <sarcastic grin>. I live in an environment where there is more
than one browser available, most not in any of the common directories,
and on an operating system / desktop combination where there is no real
concept of a "default browser" (there is a something similar thing,
which everyone ignores). "default" is what you start ... How do you
intend to figure out which browser I use today?

> On my "to do" for today was checking Firefox 1.5 for Macintosh, and sure
> enough it has become the first Macintosh browser to block showDocument.
> Things were simpler in the days that one could count on Java methods
> working.

Java is still working and is not to blame. It is that users got sick and
tired of popups, redirections to their sites, and many other sorts of
massive abuse. So users demand from browser manufacturers to plug the
holes. And once one hole was plugged the spammers and abusers figured
out the next hole, until that was plugged, too.

The only one you have to blame are the abusers.

BTW: Why do you think you have the right to open another browser window
on your users' desktops? Probably your users don't want that you open
another window, and won't want your application that way.

/Thomas
--
The comp.lang.java.gui FAQ:
ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/NEWS.ANSWERS/...g/java/gui/faq
http://www.uni-giessen.de/faq/archiv....java.gui.faq/

Thomas Weidenfeller

"Thomas Weidenfeller" <> wrote in message
news:dn71s4$aq$...
> Why do you think you have the right to open another browser window on your
> users' desktops? Probably your users don't want that you open another
> window, and won't want your application that way.

We have the right to open another browser window since the applet is
digitally signed. We display further information on other Web sites such as
articles about a diagnosis being considered. Our users asked for this
content and tell us it is important to them. Displaying it in a frame in
the HTML page with the applet would be very clunky. Replacing the HTML page
running the applet stops the applet. If you are arguing that one should not
use applets for this computationally-intensive material and instead should
use server-based code this would make response time much slower than is
possible with a Java applet.

The showDocument method was put in Java for a good reason. It is too bad
that skuzzy marketers have abused it, but a digitally-signed applet should
be able to get back functionality that was included in Java from the very
early versions.

Mickey Segal