Subj : Re: How to launch an external application from Mozilla
To   : netscape.public.mozilla.jseng
From : Martin Honnen <Martin.Honnen@t-online.de>
Date : Tue Mar 11 2003 06:24 pm

Gary Lin wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to implement my system in such a way that when user opens
> my page in Mozilla and click on a particular link, Mozilla will launch
> an external application, say xemacs.  Since this document will always
> be located on the local filesystem and my system will include Mozilla
> internally, so security won't be such a big issue for me (I can tweak
> Mozilla in anyway I wanted to).  I understand Mozilla, like rest of
> the browsers, can open application based on MIME type.  But since I do
> not want to mess with the exisiting mime type and I am only caring
> about opening the application (not opening a document), this doesn't
> look so promising to me.  After some research, I discover some posts
> suggest me to use javascript to achieve this:
> 
>   netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.enablePrivilege('UniversalExecAccess');
>   java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
> 
> But this doesn't seem to work for me on Mozilla (I am running 1.2.1). 
> I can get the privlege warning dialog, but after I say Yes, the
> command is not getting executed.  Any body know why?  Or if you have a
> better alternative, please share your insight with me too.  Thank you
> all in advance!
> 


You need Java installed for that and Liveconnect (calling Java from 
Javascript) has to work. Unfortunately liveconnect has been troubled 
with security exceptions for a long time with Mozilla, I currently have 
no access to a system with the latest Sun Java JRE to check whether the 
above works with it.
Anyway, check the Java console, it should show error messages if the 
code doesn't work.

-- 

	Martin Honnen
	http://javascript.faqts.com/

.