Launching a URL from an Eclipse plugin

Question

I\'d like to have my Eclipse plugin cause a URL to be opened by the users\' default browser. This seems like pretty standard behavior, but I haven\'t been able to find any d

Answer 1

You are looking for:

final IWebBrowser browser = PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getBrowserSupport().createBrowser( ... );
browser.openURL(url);

Answer 2

If you want it in an external browser, you don't need to create one. This is the way:

PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getBrowserSupport().getExternalBrowser().openURL(new URL("http://www.example.com/"));

Answer 3

Do you mean launch an external windows (IE, FireFox, ...) outside eclipse, or opening an internal "Browser" composite ?

Because on the internal side, the org.eclipse.help.ui.internal.browser.embedded.EmbeddedBrowser seems to be able to define any kind of major browser.

To open the default user's browser (as an internal or external window) is a preference defined in General/Web browser.

Answer 4

Use Program.launch(String) from the SWT API.

(Alternatively, Java 6 introduced the Desktop class.)