Re: adding new protocol handler in firefox

[Sebastian Rose <sebastian_rose@gmx.de>]

Robin Green <greenrd@greenrd.org> writes:
> At Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:09:21 +0100,
> Sebastian Rose wrote:
>> Well, anyway, editing RDF files by hand is not the way to go.
>
> Indeed. This was the method that worked for me (thanks to "goncheff"
> for discovering it):
>
> 1. In about:config, create a boolean key
> "network.protocol-handler.expose.org-protocol" and set it to False
> 2. Create a simple web page containing a link to the URL org-protocol://test
> 3. Open the web page you just created
> 4. Click on the link
> 5. Choose emacsclient as the associated application in the dialog box
> that appears
>
> and no other method worked (although I didn't know about the "edit the RDF
> file" method).


I guess you use a HG version of FF? Or 3.6?

Please, detailed information is necessary. Browser brand and version,
operating system, version, Org-mode version. Just saying "It did just
work like that" does not help - neither you nor us.

You know, it's quite a bit of work to verify the installations. I have
to remove the handlers, and add them again. I wanted to this, but it's
not possible in FF 3.5 on Ubuntu without research, which I will postpone
now in favor of finding a general solution.

Since there were no complaints about the installation procedure on worg,
I guess that it still is up to date for FF up to 3.5. At least it worked
for me on Debian testing and Ubuntu, with different FF versions up to
3.5.



> It isn't, of course, necessary to create a web page - you can use an
> existing one with such a link - but it *is* necessary to click on a
> link in a web page - selecting a bookmarklet no longer works in the
> latest Firefox release, at least on Ubuntu 9.10 and on Mac OS X, and
> probably elsewhere too.

Is it?
Well, there are two links for testing on worg:
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-protocol.php#test-org-protocol

Could be more prominent I guess....


> -- cut here --
>
> I guess I should create a patch to worg to include the above
> instructions for newer versions of Firefox. Unless people think the
> RDF editing method is better?

>> Instead, we should link to descriptions on how install the handlers
>> system wide.
>
> Nice idea, but unfortunately on Linux (as far as I know) there is no
> standard way to do that.

As for Mime types,
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec?action=show&redirect=Standards%2Fshared-mime-info-spec
states:

   The specification is now quite stable and not expected to change in
   incompatible ways. Integration with icon themes has not been
   finalized (and is not currently part of the specification).

    * ROX has used the system since ROX-Filer 1.3.3 (July 2002).
    * GTK has support since version 2.4 (Mar 2004).
    * GNOME uses the system since version 2.8 (Sep 2004).
    * XFCE uses the system since version 4.2.0 (Jan 2005).
    * KDE uses the system since version 4.0 (Jan 2007).
    * LXDE has used the system since the initial release of PCManFM (2005).
    * EDE uses the system since version 2.0-alpha (Apr 2009, but implemented in May 2007). 


Sounds general and standard enough. Hackers will help themselves (and
hopefully publish the solution on this list or worg).

Applications since years install themselves as handlers for certain Mime
types (e.g. the annoying Adobe products - sorry, product. They did not
manage to port more than the "Reader" to Linux yet). Something like this
should be possible for protocols, too.

What we need here is a general solution. The general solution, the
Mozilla people are willing to go, obviously. And I guess the solution
can be found at the X Desktop Group, e.g. on freedesktop.org, or simply
by asking the Mozilla guys. Not sure yet how Mime relates to protocols,
but I'm sure we will find a solution that works for 99% of GNU/Linux
users.



  Sebastian