I'm writing an application using Node.js.
One of the functions I want to create is to open the default web browser and navigate to a specific URL.
I want it to be portable so that it runs on Windows/Mac/Linux.
var url = 'http://localhost';
var start = (process.platform == 'darwin'? 'open': process.platform == 'win32'? 'start': 'xdg-open');
require('child_process').exec(start + ' ' + url);
node-open is deprecated. Now use opn:
const opn = require('opn')
opn('http://sindresorhus.com') // Opens the url in the default browser
//opn('http://sindresorhus.com', {app: 'firefox'}) // Specify the app to open in
You may need to implement a switch using the value of ...
require('os').type()
And then use spawn("open")
or spawn("xdg-open")
depending on the platform?
The easiest and neatest way, IMHO is using an npm package called openurl. Do a npm install openurl
. You could try this real quick in your Nodejs REPL
require("openurl").open("http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8500326/how-to-use-nodejs-to-open-default-browser-and-navigate-to-a-specific-url")
You could also send emails with it if the need arises like so;
require("openurl").open("mailto:[email protected]")
Use opn because it will handle the cross platform issue. To install:
$ npm install opn
To use:
var opn = require('opn');
// opens the url in the default browser
opn('http://sindresorhus.com');
// specify the app to open in
opn('http://sindresorhus.com', {app: 'firefox'});
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