Nautilus should launch the browser from .URL files

[Endolith]

Binary package hint: nautilus

.URL files are used in Windows to launch the browser to go to a URL. Internet Explorer saves Favorites as .url files, for instance, and Firefox creates .URL files when dragging a web page to the Desktop. (In KDE and Gnome, this functionality is supplied by .desktop files.)

Currently, double-clicking a .url file in Nautilus opens it in a text editor. It should launch the user's default browser instead.

The file format is simple, starting with

    [InternetShortcut]

and then containing a string like:

    URL=http://www.example.com/webpage.html

For launching the URL in a browser, no more functionality is required than identifying the file format (.url glob and magic word as above) and then finding this "URL=" key.

There are other keys that can be included in the file, like an icon with an absolute Windows path. If we wanted to implement advanced things like finding the icon, Bug 136714 is relevant.

http://www.cyanwerks.com/file-format-url.html

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for taking time to report this bug. unfortunately I cannot reproduce it. I use epiphany and I can not remember telling epiphany to open such files.

[Endolith (endolith)]

Here's a Perl script for launching the files and instructions for creating a MIME type:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3276774#post3276774

I guess this isn't really a Nautilus problem, since Nautilus is just going to call a script based on the MIME type. Not sure what it should be filed under, though.

[Trey Brown (trey.brown)]

Thank you for taking the time to make Ubuntu better. Since what you submitted is not really a bug, or a problem, but rather an Feature Request to improve Ubuntu, you are invited to post your idea in Ubuntu Brainstorm at [WWW] https://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ where it can be discussed, voted by the community and reviewed by developers. Thanks for taking the time to share your opinion!

[Trey Brown (trey.brown)]

Actually it seems this bug is a duplicate of bug 185165, marking this a duplicate.

[Endolith (endolith)]

Thanks for finding the dupe.

And yes, Launchpad is for feature requests, too.