Bug 396297

Description Tim Buschtoens 2012-12-11 11:53:38 EST

The ExternalBrowser API should be deprecated (see Bug 393662), as it is confusing to use (using ids instead of instances), hardly useful (most browser block popups), and not a client service (as it should be). There is also rarely any need to manipulate a popup after creating it.

As a successor a simpler URLLauncher client service will be created. For now the only method it needs is "openURL" (names are debatable). It should handle any given URL the best way the client is able to. There are three usecases that need to be supported:

-> open a non-file (http[s]/ftp[s]) URL like mailto, (in another application)
-> view a file/website in a (new) browser 
-> download a file and save it to disk or open it in an external application

It's not possible to control how a browser reacts to opening an http URL (though other clients could), therefore the last two cases don't need to be distinguished right now. The non-file URL should always handled by an external app, so there is also no need to handle that differently somehow.