From owner-ntemacs-users@june Fri Sep 13 13:00:31 1996 X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil "" "13" "September" "1996" "15:09:10" "-0400" "Richard Pieri" "ratinox@unilab.dfci.harvard.edu" nil "31" "Re: NTEmacs & Internet Explorer" "^From:" nil nil "9" nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from joker.cs.washington.edu (joker.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.42]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.2ju) with SMTP id NAA05906 for ; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 13:00:31 -0700 Received: from june.cs.washington.edu (june.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.4]) by joker.cs.washington.edu (8.6.12/7.2ws+) with ESMTP id NAA25548 for ; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 13:00:23 -0700 Received: from unilab.dfci.harvard.edu (unilab.dfci.harvard.edu [155.52.46.57]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.2ju) with ESMTP id MAA00862 for ; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 12:11:19 -0700 Received: (from ratinox@localhost) by unilab.dfci.harvard.edu (8.7.5/8.7.3) id PAA18909; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 15:11:12 -0400 (EDT) References: <199609131522.LAA28540@abwh.cincom.com> <9609131857.AA01364@amber.ssd.hcsc.com> Message-ID: In-Reply-To: tom@amber.ssd.hcsc.com's message of Fri, 13 Sep 96 14:57:18 -0400 Lines: 31 X-Mailer: Gnus v5.2.40/Emacs 19.34 From: Richard Pieri To: ntemacs-users@cs.washington.edu Subject: Re: NTEmacs & Internet Explorer Date: 13 Sep 1996 15:09:10 -0400 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >>>>> "TH" == Tom Horsley writes: TH> I played with START myself, and on NT4.0b2 anyway, I never got START to TH> always work correctly with all URLs I tried, but the shelex program did TH> work. Perhaps this is something that varies from win95 to NT, etc. Here's the deal. I can get START and SHELEX to work when the URL includes a file with extension, such as The browser is invoked with the command line arguments and Does The Right Thing. But if a directory is specified, such as neither will work because there is nothing in the registry for such a URL for Windows to "grab". -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3 Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBMjmxV56VRH7BJMxHAQGSpgP+NUMwQcDx9w/uR9mLlDnSjylapWopQePv e/bu4GFY6XIhVFNkfUW1o6kNH6CkPYijAdDmjfeIlkiv+gaJlUMAXp+Oa5WJqcmL lYzjtoSmV/OZPUwqAVPA4XYcomM+TTt71R8oF7M0S46p9i6LZ/+WdRJVGn+/6GSY IE7K3Nx8OxA= =+C+J -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Richard Pieri/Information Services \ When in doubt, cop an attitude. -A cat's \ guide to life http://www.dfci.harvard.edu/ \ From owner-ntemacs-users@june Fri Sep 13 14:55:14 1996 X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil "Fri" "13" "September" "1996" "16:58:34" "-0400" "Tom Horsley" "tom@amber.ssd.hcsc.com" nil "28" "Re: NTEmacs & Internet Explorer" "^From:" nil nil "9" nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from joker.cs.washington.edu (joker.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.42]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.2ju) with SMTP id OAA18477 for ; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 14:55:14 -0700 Received: from june.cs.washington.edu (june.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.4]) by joker.cs.washington.edu (8.6.12/7.2ws+) with ESMTP id OAA15598 for ; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 14:55:05 -0700 Received: from hawk.hcsc.com (ns.ccur.com [207.49.146.1]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.2ju) with SMTP id NAA12213 for ; Fri, 13 Sep 1996 13:58:38 -0700 Received: from amber-36.ssd.hcsc.com by hawk.hcsc.com (5.61/harris-5.1) id AA23930; Fri, 13 Sep 96 16:58:36 -0400 Received: by amber.ssd.hcsc.com (5.61/CX/UX-5.0) id AA02297; Fri, 13 Sep 96 16:58:34 -0400 Message-Id: <9609132058.AA02297@amber.ssd.hcsc.com> In-Reply-To: References: <199609131522.LAA28540@abwh.cincom.com> <9609131857.AA01364@amber.ssd.hcsc.com> Reply-To: Tom.Horsley@hawk.hcsc.com Mime-Version: 1.0 From: tom@amber.ssd.hcsc.com (Tom Horsley) To: Richard Pieri Cc: ntemacs-users@cs.washington.edu Subject: Re: NTEmacs & Internet Explorer Date: Fri, 13 Sep 96 16:58:34 -0400 >Here's the deal. I can get START and SHELEX to work when the URL >includes a file with extension, such as > >The browser is invoked with the command line arguments and Does The >Right Thing. But if a directory is specified, such as > >neither will work because there is nothing in the registry for such a >URL for Windows to "grab". That's wierd. Thats exactly the sort of thing that shelex works on for me when start fails (according to some arcane documentation I dug up on an MSDN cdrom once, there is a url.dll file that has something to do with how the shell extensions decide how to recognize a url - perhaps there are different versions of this dll on different systems and that's why we all see different things - I seem to recall that new versions of netscape and msie came with new versions of this dll). >Does anyone know if Netscape supports some kind of DDE interface so that we >could write something to talk to it? That's exactly what the ShellExecute() API function (which the shelex program calls) is supposed to take care of automagically. -- Tom.Horsley@mail.ccur.com or Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net Work: Concurrent Computers, 2101 W. Cypress Creek Rd. Ft. Lauderdale FL 33309 The 2 most important political web sites: http://www.vote-smart.org (Project Vote Smart), and http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/TomHorsley (Me!) From owner-ntemacs-users@june Mon Sep 16 09:15:44 1996 X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil "" "16" "September" "1996" "11:12:10" "-0400" "Richard Pieri" "ratinox@unilab.dfci.harvard.edu" nil "43" "Re: NTEmacs & Internet Explorer" "^From:" nil nil "9" nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from joker.cs.washington.edu (joker.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.42]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.2ju) with SMTP id JAA05449 for ; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 09:15:43 -0700 Received: from june.cs.washington.edu (june.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.4]) by joker.cs.washington.edu (8.6.12/7.2ws+) with ESMTP id JAA19290 for ; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 09:15:42 -0700 Received: from unilab.dfci.harvard.edu (unilab.dfci.harvard.edu [155.52.46.57]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.2ju) with ESMTP id IAA28590 for ; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 08:12:24 -0700 Received: (from ratinox@localhost) by unilab.dfci.harvard.edu (8.7.5/8.7.3) id LAA04073; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 11:12:22 -0400 (EDT) References: <199609131522.LAA28540@abwh.cincom.com> <9609131857.AA01364@amber.ssd.hcsc.com> <9609132058.AA02297@amber.ssd.hcsc.com> <199609161323.JAA06976@volte.i-kinetics.com> Message-ID: In-Reply-To: Peter Breton's message of Mon, 16 Sep 1996 09:23:07 -0400 Lines: 43 X-Mailer: Gnus v5.2.40/Emacs 19.34 From: Richard Pieri To: ntemacs-users@cs.washington.edu Subject: Re: NTEmacs & Internet Explorer Date: 16 Sep 1996 11:12:10 -0400 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Just for the record, I am doing this under Windows95, but I think that similar applies to some versions of NT. >>>>> "PB" == Peter Breton writes: PB> Yes. But the "ddeexec" key is the one that sends commands to a PB> running process. (Specifically for Netscape, it uses the WWW_OpenURL PB> command). And there is a ddeexec key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/http/shell/open/ddeexec/Application "Netscape" HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/http/shell/open/ddeexec/Topic "WWW_OpenURL" I have tried several versions of URL.DLL (Plus!, NS2.x, NS3.x), and regardless of which I use, 'START http://www/' returns an error (cannot find file 'http://www/') and 'SHELEX http://www/' does nothing. Also, Navigator 1.22 does not like the newer versions of URL.DLL. In parallel news, while the temporary .URL file (Internet Shortcut) trick works consistantly with the various URL types, I have been consistantly unable to make the browser run asynchronously if it is launched by Emacs. There are no problems if it is already running. Maybe SHELEX needs to be rewritten to fork() itself and have one fork launch Netscape while the other terminates, which hypothetically should satisfy the DOS 'API' for termination of the inferior process. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3 Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBMj1uS56VRH7BJMxHAQFtnwP/eyQ1O0b4QwWMOh4HstkTgzyliUylGr6y b64S5iKuadJQhcE0QPOOLygRcNiBReN9T9ClC5vJy56+vzRhxIBYLbzwlwhy9a5Y rA4+yCDa4xq8ocZr52/eq1z5AFBjC5y/hN8loiAmuB0RAF7PvXfvmTsEAG8HbyUu WRyO72FV0UQ= =McmI -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Richard Pieri/Information Services \ Variety is the spice of life: one day \ ignore people, the next day annoy http://www.dfci.harvard.edu/ \ them. -A cat's guide to life From owner-ntemacs-users@june Mon Sep 16 12:41:58 1996 X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil "Mon" "16" "September" "1996" "14:33:13" "-0400" "Caleb Deupree" "cdeupree@abwh.cincom.com" nil "26" "Re: NTEmacs & Internet Explorer" "^From:" nil nil "9" nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from joker.cs.washington.edu (joker.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.42]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.2ju) with SMTP id MAA07262 for ; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 12:41:57 -0700 Received: from june.cs.washington.edu (june.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.4]) by joker.cs.washington.edu (8.6.12/7.2ws+) with ESMTP id MAA19101 for ; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 12:41:55 -0700 Received: from cincom.com (wormhole.cincom.com [199.18.3.4]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.2ju) with ESMTP id LAA27731 for ; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 11:40:29 -0700 Received: from abwh.cincom.com by cincom.com (1.39.111.2/3.1.090690-Cincom Systems Inc.) id AA018459330; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 14:42:10 -0400 Received: by abwh.cincom.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id OAA00714; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 14:33:13 -0400 Message-Id: <199609161833.OAA00714@abwh.cincom.com> In-Reply-To: (Robertson.Davenport@bailey.com) Reply-To: cdeupree@cincom.com From: Caleb Deupree To: Robertson.Davenport@bailey.com Cc: pbreton@i-kinetics.com, ntemacs-users@cs.washington.edu Subject: Re: NTEmacs & Internet Explorer Date: Mon, 16 Sep 1996 14:33:13 -0400 >>>>> "Robertson" == Robertson G Davenport writes: Robertson> How does a ddeexec key get invoked? The Robertson> START/Shelex(ShellExecute) methods seem to use the file Robertson> associations which use the "open" command. According to the MSKB article Q122787, 'ShellExecute() checks the Registration Database for an entry that associates that file extension with a particular application. ... If the registry specifies to use DDE commands, ShellExecute() attempts to establish a DDE conversation with that application using the application topic. If an application responds to the DDE connections, ShellExecute() sends a DDE Execute command, as specified in the registry. It is up to the application to define the specifics on this conversion.... However, if attempts to establish the conversation fail, ShellExecute() launches the application specified in the registry and tries to establish the DDE connection again.' The url.dll in 40b2, in winnt40/system32, is also version 4.70.0.1117. -- Caleb T. Deupree Cincom Systems, Inc. ;; opinions are mine and mine alone cdeupree@cincom.com http://www.cincom.com/ http://atg.cincom.com/users/cdeupree From owner-ntemacs-users@june Mon Sep 16 14:37:38 1996 X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil "Mon" "16" "September" "1996" "13:46:38" "-0700" "David C. Burgess" "dcb@aicorp.com" nil "51" "Re: NTEmacs & Internet Explorer" "^From:" nil nil "9" nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from joker.cs.washington.edu (joker.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.42]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.2ju) with SMTP id OAA27775 for ; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 14:37:38 -0700 Received: from june.cs.washington.edu (june.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.4]) by joker.cs.washington.edu (8.6.12/7.2ws+) with ESMTP id OAA19129 for ; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 14:37:36 -0700 Received: from aicorp.com (smog.aicorp.com [206.24.123.10]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.2ju) with SMTP id NAA18407 for ; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 13:47:04 -0700 Received: from cult.aicorp.com by aicorp.com (5.65/1.35) id AA23876; Mon, 16 Sep 96 13:46:38 -0700 Message-Id: <9609162046.AA23876@aicorp.com> X-Mailer: Pronto E-Mail [version 2.01] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: dcb@aicorp.com (David C Burgess) To: ntemacs-users@cs.washington.edu Subject: Re: NTEmacs & Internet Explorer Date: Mon, 16 Sep 96 13:46:38 -0700 I don't know if this is relevant but .... I work on Win95 and set up the following DDE link yesterday for Netscape. (Explorer/View/Options/File Types) URL: HyperText Transfer Protocol Open action: Application used to perform action: ".. path name ...\Netscape.exe " - h DDE Message: %1 Application: Netscape Topic: WWW_OpenURL So it would seem: 1) netscape -h starts a copy unless one is already running .. (except this doesn't seem to be true from the command line) 2) The DDE topic string netscape needs is WWW_OpenURL 3) The parameter passed is the URL Now none of this has anything to do with emacs, (or IE come to that!) but thought I'd share in the hope it may be some use. Eudora mail can talk to it, and now my screensaver too http://www.halcyon.com/pixel/psych.htm (for getting the latest updates) > I can't seem to get this to work. (Win95, Netscape 3.0b6, emacs 19.33) > > To those that have: are you using Peter's code to construct a temporary .URL > > file which can then be 'started' to start the associated browser? > > I'm not using that code, but just browse-url.el and the best I get is it > launching netscape but netscape never appearing (actually staying hidden - > only saw it with pview) and had to 'kill them' before exiting emacs. > > But even if that was working, it'd start up new copies of the browser. > Does anyone know if Netscape supports some kind of DDE interface so that we > > could write something to talk to it? > > Rob > > Dave "When the program is being tested e-mail: dcb@aicorp.com it is too late to make design changes" Dave "When the program is being tested e-mail: dcb@aicorp.com it is too late to make design changes" From owner-ntemacs-users@june Fri Nov 1 05:28:36 1996 X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil "Fri" " 1" "November" "1996" "07:54:39" "EST" "Kent E. Holsinger" "kent@darwin.eeb.uconn.edu" nil "54" "Re: browse-url" "^From:" nil nil "11" nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from joker.cs.washington.edu (joker.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.42]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.6/7.2ju) with SMTP id FAA00521 for ; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 05:28:36 -0800 Received: from june.cs.washington.edu (june.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.4]) by joker.cs.washington.edu (8.6.12/7.2ws+) with ESMTP id FAA25697 for ; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 05:28:35 -0800 Received: from UConnVM.UConn.Edu (uconnvm.uconn.edu [137.99.26.3]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.6/7.2ju) with SMTP id EAA29030 for ; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 04:54:50 -0800 Received: from darwin.eeb.uconn.edu by UConnVM.UConn.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP; Fri, 01 Nov 96 07:54:33 EST Received: from WALLACE (wallace.eeb.uconn.edu) by darwin.eeb.uconn.edu (4.1/SMI-SVR4) id AA01831; Fri, 1 Nov 96 07:54:39 EST Message-Id: <9611011254.AA01831@darwin.eeb.uconn.edu> In-Reply-To: <9610311953.AA13472@pulsar.htc.honeywell.com> (hadden@htc.honeywell.com) Reply-To: kent@darwin.eeb.uconn.edu From: "Kent E. Holsinger" To: hadden@htc.honeywell.com Cc: ntemacs-users@cs.washington.edu Subject: Re: browse-url Date: Fri, 1 Nov 96 07:54:39 EST >>>>> "George" == George D Hadden writes: George> oops, i should have added that if i setq George> browse-url-browser-function to browse-url-netscape George> (instead of shell-execute-url), it will load netscape, but George> it seems to immediately stop without loading any url's. George> THIS was when reg.ini was requested. George> thanks again, The following works fine for me (or rather it did *after* I recompiled shelex.exe from the sources). -- Kent ;; browser configuration (autoload 'browse-url-at-point "browse-url" "Ask a WWW browser to load the URL at or before point." t) (autoload 'browse-url-at-mouse "browse-url" "Ask a WWW browser to load a URL clicked with the mouse." t) (autoload 'browse-url-of-buffer "browse-url" "Ask a WWW browser to display BUFFER." t) (autoload 'browse-url-of-file "browse-url" "Ask a WWW browser to display FILE." t) (autoload 'browse-url-of-dired-file "browse-url" "In Dired, ask a WWW browser to display the file named on this line." t) ;; Bind the browse-url commands to keys with the `C-c C-z' prefix ;; (as used by html-helper-mode): (global-set-key "\C-c\C-z." 'browse-url-at-point) (global-set-key "\C-c\C-zb" 'browse-url-of-buffer) (global-set-key "\C-c\C-zu" 'browse-url) (global-set-key "\C-c\C-zv" 'browse-url-of-file) (add-hook 'dired-mode-hook (function (lambda () (local-set-key "\C-c\C-zf" 'browse-url-of-dired-file)))) ; Hook it to Rmail (add-hook 'rmail-mode-hook (function (lambda () (define-key rmail-mode-map [mouse 2] 'browse-url-at-mouse) (define-key rmail-mode-map "\r" 'browse-url-at-point)))) ; Hook it to Gnus (add-hook 'gnus-article-mode-hook (function (lambda () (define-key gnus-article-mode-map [mouse 2] 'browse-url-at-mouse) (define-key gnus-article-mode-map "\r" 'browse-url-at-point)))) (defvar shell-execute-helper "shelex.exe") (defun shell-execute-url (url &optional new-window) "Invoke the shell-execute-helper program to call ShellExecute and launch or re-direct a web browser on the specified url." (interactive "sURL: ") (call-process shell-execute-helper nil nil nil url)) (setq browse-url-browser-function 'shell-execute-url) (setq gnus-button-url 'shell-execute-url) ; GNUS From owner-ntemacs-users@june Fri Nov 1 06:04:39 1996 X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil "Fri" " 1" "November" "1996" "13:25:44" "GMT" "Andrew Innes" "andrewi@harlequin.co.uk" nil "297" "Re: browse-url" "^From:" nil nil "11" nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from joker.cs.washington.edu (joker.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.42]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.6/7.2ju) with SMTP id GAA01606 for ; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 06:04:38 -0800 Received: from june.cs.washington.edu (june.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.4]) by joker.cs.washington.edu (8.6.12/7.2ws+) with ESMTP id GAA25200 for ; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 06:04:38 -0800 Received: from holly.cam.harlequin.co.uk (holly.cam.harlequin.co.uk [193.128.4.58]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.6/7.2ju) with SMTP id FAA00396 for ; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 05:26:09 -0800 Received: from propos.long.harlequin.co.uk by holly.cam.harlequin.co.uk; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 13:25:47 GMT Received: from elan.long.harlequin.co.uk (elan [193.128.93.78]) by propos.long.harlequin.co.uk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id NAA22988; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 13:25:44 GMT Message-Id: <199611011325.NAA22988@propos.long.harlequin.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <199610312214.OAA15660@june.cs.washington.edu> (message from David Jeffers on Thu, 31 Oct 1996 14:14:44 -0800) From: Andrew Innes To: jeffers@redrose.net Cc: hadden@htc.honeywell.com, ntemacs-users@cs.washington.edu Subject: Re: browse-url Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 13:25:44 GMT On Thu, 31 Oct 1996 14:14:44 -0800, David Jeffers said: >>>>>>"George" == George D Hadden writes: > George>has anyone gotten the browse-url described in the new George>(10/10) ntemacs web page to work with w95? it bombed out George>asking for George>"/ProgramFiles/Netscape/Navigator/Program/reg.ini" i George>provided a blank one, but the system still doesn't work. George>if i try to execute shelex.exe at the command line, it George>tells me that it can't run in dos, which make me think George>that it's bombing out the same way when emacs calls it George>with call-process. The shelex.exe/shell-execute-url method does work (I am using it successfully with IE3), but there is a bug in the Netscape installation program which means that Netscape doesn't register itself correctly as the system handler for URLs. Someone on comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32 recently posted about precisely this problem using ShellExecute to control Netscape. The problem is that Netscape creates the correct registry key, but in the wrong location - HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. I've appended the post below - do an AltaVista search of Usenet for "shellexec +url +final +solution" to get more details on the follow-up to this post. AndrewI ----------------------------------------------------------------- ShellExecuting a URL: Final Solution (?) & Bug Fix ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >From jagrant@emr1.NRCan.gc.ca (John Grant) Organization Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa Date Mon, 21 Oct 1996 05:42:58 GMT Newsgroups comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.winhelp Message-ID ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Synopsis: -------- ShellExecuting a URL on Windows '95 will work for either Win16 or Win32 apps, if your browser installed URL.DLL with the correct registry keys. Netscape does it wrong, so you have to fix it first. HCW breaks the ShellExecute() macro, so use the ExecFile() macro instead. Introduction ------------ I'm finally getting around to posting this information. It concerns the use of ShellExecute() to 'run' a URL on Windows '95 (not 3.x). There are 5 parts: 0. requirement 1. false solutions 2. the real solution 3. Netscape installation bug 4. WinHelp & ShellExecute + HCW bug 0. Requirement ----------- A long time ago, the question of ShellExecuting a URL came up. Several solutions were posted. Raymond Chen (unofficial Microsoft guru here) said something like: "just use ShellExecute(hwnd,0,"http://your.web.page/here",0,0,SW_NORMAL)" There were also several other answers. So I tried ShellExecute() on a Windows '95 system and I could *not* get it to work. So I asked again. 1. False Solutions --------------- Several solutions were posted here and I received some by e-mail. But Ray Chen had stated quite clearly that ShellExecute() would work. Here are Ray's comments (marked RC) on some of the answers that appeared here: (a) "Create a .url file that looks like: [internetShortcut] URL=http://your.web.page/here" RC: Don't do this. The format of an internal shortcut file may change in the future. If you need to access the contents of .URL files, use the IUniformResourceLocator interface. But if all you want to do is exec a URL, just pass the URL to ShellExecute(). (b) "Use ShellExecuteEx instead" RC: ShellExecuteEx() also works, but isn't required (c) "it only only works if you have Plus! or Internet Explorer" & "It will only launch Microsoft Internet Explorer, not Netscape" RC: Microsoft Internet Explorer installs URL.DLL, but is hardly the only program that does so. Internet Explorer 1.0 came with Plus! (d) "You need wininet.dll" RC: red herring (e) "It only works if you execute a shortcut" RC: it works with a shortcut, but it also works with a plain URL (f) "You have to look up HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command to get "c:\program files\plus!\Micros~`\iexplorer.exe -nohome %1" and then fiddle with that" RC: This is one of the registry steps that is supposed to have been done by the browser. This is one of the places where the default browser is registered, and it's one of the places where URL.DLL looks (you also register the browser in the DDEExec section of the http\shell\open key if your browser supports DDE). Normal applications shouldn't care. (g) "You have to look up .html or .htm or http in the registry and WinExec it yourself" RC: sheer desperation 2. The Real Solution ----------------- Here's what Ray said in earlier comments here: "ShellExecute recognizes the http://, ftp://, telnet://, news://, etc. prefixes and runs the program that is recorded in the registry as "the program that handles this type of URL". (Actually, ShellExecute asks URL.DLL to do this work, so if you don't have URL.DLL on your system, then ShellExecute'ing a URL won't work. But all the popular web browsers install URL.DLL, so there shouldn't be a problem there)" and here he provides much more detail: "The file that teaches ShellExecute how to handle URLs is URL.DLL. URL.DLL is a redistributable DLL that IE and Netscape both install. URL.DLL weasels into the ShellExecute function by adding itself to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ShellExecuteHooks. None of this information is supposed to concern you. The basic answer is: Any browser that is designed for Windows 95 (or Windows NT 4.0) will install URL.DLL and do the magic registry goo. At which point, ShellExecute of a URL will launch the browser. If this isn't working, then it means that some step in the installation procedure isn't working." --- Ok, so I had installed Netscape and sure enough URL.DLL was there. But it *still* would *NOT* work for me. Why not? Well, because Netscape put the magic key in the wrong place! Read on. 3. Netscape Installation Bug ------------------------- Fire up Regedit and do a search for ShellExecuteHooks. If you have installed Netscape you will find it in: HKEY_CURRENT_USER HKEY_USERS But Ray clearly states that the key must be located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. If you have installed Plus!, Internet Explorer or possibly Microsoft Office?), you will probably also find it in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. If this works for you: c:\> start http://www.microsoft.com then you probably have the key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE where Ray says it is supposed to be. If not, then you need to fix it by putting the same key you find in HKEY_CURRENT_USER in the correct location, i.e. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. I don't know what this looks like on a single-user Netscape setup, but for our network-licenced version, the file containing the error is in ...netscape\_istmp0.dir\reg.url There are 4 HKEY_CURRENT_USER keys in there. I don't know about all of them, but ShellExecuteHooks should be in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. I have tried out several W95 systems around here. Some of them were ok (had installed Microsoft Office which probably fixed it), but most were broken because of this key. When I fixed it, everything worked ok, including: - a Win16 program calling ShellExecute(.."http://...") - a Win32 program calling ShellExecute(.."http://...") c:\> start http://... where *NONE* of these worked before. 4. WinHelp, ShellExecute & HCW Bug ------------------------------- First of all, none of this URL.DLL magic works on Windows 3.x. There are ways around that which involve a custom DLL function, but they do not concern me here (apparently there is a recent article in DDJ on doing this magic in Windows 3.x). I'm only concerned about Windows '95 & URL.DLL (a) for a Win16 .HLP file on Windows '95 add this to your .hpj: [config] RegisterRoutine("shell","ShellExecute","USSSSi") and in your .HLP file, just call the ShellExecute API function like so: !ShellExecute(hwndApp,"open","http://...","","",1) For some reason, "" doesn't work - use "open". The docs for the ShellExecute() API function say that NULL will give you the default verb which is "open", but they don't say that "" will also give you "open". NULL is not the same as "": it all depends on how ShellExecute() is written. Anyway the explicit "open" works. *IF* you have the ShellExecuteHooks key in the correct HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, you should be able to click on that link and run the browser. It works for me. (b) for a Win32 .HLP file on Windows '95 Remove any RegisterRoutine for ShellExecute from your .HPJ. You don't need it because there is a built-in ShellExecute() macro. This is where I had a lot of problems. I tried all combinations that I could imagine for ShellExecute() args and I couldn't even get it to ShellExecute() a 'hello.wri' file(!), let alone get it to work with a URL. Everytime I clicked on it, I got a runtime error: "missing ')' 1031". BaDge helped me out on this one. He pointed out the following bug (#19) from the WH 4 buglist: "Internal ShellExecute commands that use the 4th, 5th or 6th parameters (operation, path or topic ID) do not work. Only the first three parameters can be used. Reported by Microsoft" Well, not quite. I couldn't even get it to work using a single argument... My problems weren't related to incorrect operation of ShellExecute. The problems are caused by HCW screwing up when it compiles the code. It adds bogus `' arguments at the end of the macro call. For example, if I used: !ShellExecute("hello.wri") the .HLP file ended up containing: SE(`hello.wri'`'5) (HCW translates it to SE) No compilation errors, but when you click on it, you get something like "missing ')' (1031)". I wasted several days on that before BaDge looked in the .HLP file and found it. HCW had inserted '`' and effectively trashed the .HLP file. I'm not sure if that's what bug #19 is referring to or not. If you're really a mechanic, you can fix the .HLP by using a hex editor on it, *if* you're really careful and know what you're doing. Not recommended. My solution? I discarded ShellExecute() & ended up using ExecFile() instead. Presumably it calls the ShellExecute API function which is what the ShellExecute() macro would do anyway. Once again: it won't work unless ShellExecuteHooks is in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE I shold note here that this is version 4.00.0950 of HCW that came with the Watcom compiler. What is the current version? Is there a way to obtain a newer version? From Watcom or Microsoft? Summary: ------- 1. check your registry and make sure ShellExecuteHooks() is in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. If not, copy it and insert it there. 2. c:\> start http://... should work ok 3. your Win16 or Win32 .exe apps can now ShellExecute() a URL directly 4. your Win16 .HLP files can also ShellExecute a URL directly (use RegisterRoutine in your .hpj) 5. your Win32 .HLP files can also 'shellexecute' a URL, but HCW is broken and generates bogus code for the ShellExecute() macro, so use the ExecFile() macro instead. Thanks to Ray Chen and BaDge for their help. Of course, I could be entirely wrong. If so, please set me straight. -- John A. Grant * I speak only for myself * jagrant@nrcan.gc.ca Airborne Geophysics, Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa If you followup, please do NOT e-mail me a copy: I will read it here. From owner-ntemacs-users@june Fri Nov 1 13:00:26 1996 X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil "Fri" " 1" "November" "1996" "14:03:00" "CST" "George D. Hadden" "hadden@htc.honeywell.com" nil "23" "Re: browse-url" "^From:" nil nil "11" nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from joker.cs.washington.edu (joker.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.42]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.6/7.2ju) with SMTP id NAA05756 for ; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 13:00:25 -0800 Received: from june.cs.washington.edu (june.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.4]) by joker.cs.washington.edu (8.6.12/7.2ws+) with ESMTP id NAA26395 for ; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 13:00:23 -0800 Received: from moon.htc.honeywell.com (moon.htc.honeywell.com [129.235.16.32]) by june.cs.washington.edu (8.7.6/7.2ju) with SMTP id MAA28291 for ; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 12:03:05 -0800 Received: from nirvana.htc.honeywell.com by moon.htc.honeywell.com (4.1/smail2.6.3/SRCv0.25); Fri, 1 Nov 96 14:03:02 CST id AA15229 for ntemacs-users@cs.washington.edu at cs.washington.edu Posted-Date: Fri, 1 Nov 96 14:03:00 CST Received: by nirvana.htc.honeywell.com (4.1/SMI-3.2) id AA17064; Fri, 1 Nov 96 14:03:00 CST Message-Id: <9611012003.AA17064@nirvana.htc.honeywell.com> In-Reply-To: <9611011254.AA01831@darwin.eeb.uconn.edu> (kent@darwin.eeb.uconn.edu) From: hadden@htc.honeywell.com (George D. Hadden) To: kent@darwin.eeb.uconn.edu Cc: ntemacs-users@cs.washington.edu Subject: Re: browse-url Date: Fri, 1 Nov 96 14:03:00 CST >>>>> "KEH" == Kent E Holsinger writes: >>>>> "George" == George D Hadden writes: George> oops, i should have added that if i setq George> browse-url-browser-function to browse-url-netscape George> (instead of shell-execute-url), it will load netscape, but George> it seems to immediately stop without loading any url's. George> THIS was when reg.ini was requested. George> thanks again, KEH> The following works fine for me (or rather it did *after* I recompiled KEH> shelex.exe from the sources). KEH> -- Kent recompiling for w95 did the trick. it seems to work like a charm now. thanks, -geo