Browser Selector

version 0.3 - 2009-08-13


== Introduction ==

Browser Selector is a Python script that allows you to choose what
browser you want to launch for each URL. It is intended to be used as
a default URL handler.


== Motivation ==

When I click on a link at some program, like instant messenger or
Google Earth, the URL will be opened in the desktop default browser.

I have several browsers installed on my system, but I don't want to
set one specific browser as the default, because I don't use only one.
Depending on the situation, I want to choose between one browser or
another.

For instance, I use Opera as my primary browser and I've disabled
both Java and Flash. They are too slow and buggy, and they usually
make the browser crash. Thus, although I prefer to open most URLs in
Opera, some of them I prefer to open in Firefox. After all, if Firefox
crashes, I won't lose anything important, since my main browsing (with
lots of open tabs) happens in Opera.

However, sometimes I haven't started my browser yet, or I've just
closed it and don't want to start it again. In these cases, if I need
to open a URL, I prefer to choose a browser that would start up as
fast as possible. In these cases I prefer Links.

I've cited 3 different browsers so far, and, believe me, I do use all
of them.


Since I can't choose one browser to set as default, I need something
that allows me to choose which browser to run whenever a browser would
be called.

Thus, browser-selector was born!


== Features ==

* Small, simple, straight-forward.
* Everything you need in only one executable Python script.
* Python and PyGTK are the only required dependencies.
* Easy to setup, easy to use.
* Automatically generates a sample configuration file on first use.
* Remembers the previously selected browser for next time.
* Allows the user to edit the URL before calling the browser.

And also the following great non-features:

* No fancy GUI to edit the configuration file! You must use your own
  text editor!
* No buggy browser auto-detection! You must manually list all browsers
  you want to use.


== Installation ==

1. Put the 'browser-selector' file somewhere in the $PATH.
   I personally like to place it at my ~/bin directory, just remember
   to add it to the $PATH (if needed).

2. Set the executable bit: chmod +x browser-selector

3. Configure your desktop to use 'browser-selector' as the default
   browser. (see how_to_set_the_default_browser.txt)

4. When running for the first time, it will write (after user
   confirmation) a sample configuration file at
     ~/.config/browser-selector/conf.xml
   Just edit this file to suit your needs.


== Usage ==

Run:
  browser-selector http://www.example.com/

The only accepted parameter is the URL itself.
There are no extra command-line parameters.

Running without parameters will open the info dialog.


== Configuration file ==

The configuration file is stored by default at:
  ~/.config/browser-selector/conf.xml

It is a simple XML file that is easy to edit in a text editor. It is
also pretty self-explanatory, so I won't describe it completely here.
Anyway, here are a few notes about conf.xml:

* If "cmd" contains the substring "%s" (without quotes), then that
  substring will be replaced by the URL itself.
* If "cmd" does not contain "%s", then the URL will be appended as the
  last parameter to the command.
* The URL will be directly passed as a parameter to the command, so
  you don't need to worry about shell expansion or quotes.

* The "icon" attribute is optional.
* No path completion is done, so you need to write the full absolute
  path to the image file.
* If the image pointed by "icon" is not found, or if this attribute is
  missing, then no image will be loaded and no icon will be displayed.
* If the image pointed by "icon" is found but can't be loaded, then
  GTK+ will display a "broken image" icon.

* The "save_last_selection" option will prevent this program from
  writing the "<confdir>/last_selected" file, but it always reads from
  that file if it exists.


== Credits ==

Author:
  Denilson Figueiredo de Sá <[email protected]>

Contributions:
  Dalton Matos Coelho Barreto <[email protected]>

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