Desktop.getDesktop().browse Hangs

Question

I\'m working on an application in which if a user clicks on a link, I want it to open in their default browser. From what I\'ve read, this should in theory work, however, when r

Answer 1

I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 and I have the same hang when using Desktop.getDesktop().browse(). Here is the workaround that I'm using:

public void browseURL(String urlString) {

    try {
        if (SystemUtils.IS_OS_LINUX) {
            // Workaround for Linux because "Desktop.getDesktop().browse()" doesn't work on some Linux implementations
            if (Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] { "which", "xdg-open" }).getInputStream().read() != -1) {
                Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] { "xdg-open", urlString });
            } else {
                showAlert("Browse URL", "xdg-open not supported!", true);
            }
        } else {
            if (Desktop.isDesktopSupported())
            {
                Desktop.getDesktop().browse(new URI(urlString));
            } else {
                showAlert("Browse URL", "Desktop command not supported!", true);
            }
        }

    } catch (IOException | URISyntaxException e) {
        showAlert("Browse URL", "Failed to open URL " + urlString , true);
    }
}

Answer 2

What do you get from this?:

if (Desktop.isDesktopSupported()) {
  System.out.println("Desktop IS supported on this platform ");

  if (Desktop.getDesktop().isSupported(Desktop.Action.BROWSE)) {
    System.out.println("Action BROWSE  IS supported on this platform ");
  }
  else {
    System.out.println("Action BROWSE  ISN'T supported on this platform ");
  }
}
else {
  System.out.println("Desktop ISN'T supported on this platform ");
}

Also, have a look at this and this answers here at stackoverflow.

Answer 3

You are not alone. This is a bug that appears to happen in some versions of JDK 1.6 and 1.7. I haven't seen it occuring in JDK 1.8.

It can occur on Windows too and all you can do is either update the JVM or not use the Desktop class (which sucks).