java - 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 run on Linux (specifically Linux Mint 17.1), it hangs until the program is force-quit. I'm not particularly interested in having it open in WebView. Any alternatives or fixes that you all can think of? Thanks in advance.

if(Desktop.isDesktopSupported()){
    try{
       Desktop.getDesktop().browse(new URI(url));
    }catch (IOException | URISyntaxException e){
       log.debug(e);
    }
}

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);
    }
}