How to open browser from Visual Studio Code API

Question

I am just exploring a way in order to open the default browser from Visual Studio Code API used for developing extensions.

Following is my code :

var dis         


        

Answer 1

You don't need to install an external dependency. Opening an URL can be simply done with just the Node.js libraries and system commands. For e.g. use the child_process.exec to open an URL.

Declare a function like so:

const exec = require('child_process').exec;

function openURL(url) {
  let opener;

  switch (process.platform) {
    case 'darwin':
      opener = 'open';
      break;
    case 'win32':
      opener = 'start';
      break;
    default:
      opener = 'xdg-open';
      break;
  }

  return exec(`${opener} "${url.replace(/"/g, '\\\"')}"`);
}

and then call it from your code

openURL('http://stackoverflow.com');