Python browser shortcuts

browser_utils.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

"""Some utilities for working with the web browser

function call_browser(url) opens url in the user's default browser

function browser_render(html) sends HTML to the user's default browser for display
"""

import tempfile
import time
import commands
import thread

# Jython doesn't have this
if 'java' not in os.name:
    import webbrowser

def call_browser(url="http://www.example.com"):
    '''Calls the user's default web browser to upen the URL.
    
    Tries to use cross-platform xdg-open tool first.  If that fails
    (xdg-utils not installed or some other error), falls back to Python's
    built-in, but less-than-optimal solution.
    
    (From rnghelpers.py in Reportbug-NG (GPL) by Bastian Venthur)
    http://blog.venthur.de/2007/07/01/python-osfork-webbrowser-and-debbugs/
    
    '''
    status, output = commands.getstatusoutput('xdg-open "%s"' % url)
    if status != 0 and 'java' not in os.name:
        print("xdg-open %s returned (%i, %s), falling back to python's "
              "webbrowser.open" % (url, status, output))
        thread.start_new_thread(webbrowser.open, (url,))

def browser_render(html="<h1>nothing supplied to function</h1>"):
    '''Displays a string of HTML in the user's default browser
    
    The HTML is stored in a temporary file and opened with call_browser()
    
    (If the browser doesn't open within 5 seconds, the temporary file will be 
    deleted before it can be opened)
    '''
    
    f = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(suffix=".html")
    f.write(str(html))
    f.flush()
    call_browser(f.name)
    
    # Since the tempfile is erased IMMEDIATELY and the browser doesn't have time to open it.
    time.sleep(5) 

def main():
    print "Sending test HTML to default browser..."
    page = '''<h3>If you can see <u>this</u>,</h3> <code>browser_render()</code>
              and <code>call_browser()</code> are <i>working</i>'''
    browser_render(page)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()