Open URL in Specific Browser

[Peter Lehrack]

Smart People,

I need to open specific URL's in specific browsers due to website compatibility issues. All of my users are running FM in OSX and Windows via Fusion, probably 75% of the 100 or so websites are going to have to open in IE (esh!). I am able to launch IE after making an alias on the OSX side but I need to get IE to go to the specific URL. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Peter

[Vaughan]

Applescript, perhaps? Or set IE as the default browser on each machine. 75% of the problem is instantly solved.

[Peter Lehrack]

Can Applescript control IE under Windows? I want to use IE only when the website being visited absolutely requires it so setting it as my default browser is not an option.

Thanks for your reply.

Peter

[Lee Smith]

Do you have one of the windows emulator such as Virtual PC, Boot Camp, or Parallels?

[Peter Lehrack]

Yes, Sir. IE is running on Windows XP under VMware Fusion 3.0. My other required browsers are OSX Firefox and OSX Safari.

I deal with government websites, a few work under our preferred browser, OSX Safari... some work on OSX Firefox which is the second most preferred, but the majority require IE on XP.

Our current workflow is to click a button in FM to bring up the website in Safari, then copy and paste the URL into Firefox or IE. It's not very efficient, my users are going on and on about having a way to open the url on the required browser with a single click, I am trying to oblige them.

Peter

[Peter Lehrack]

I launched IE XP under Fusion, it's app icon appeared in my dock. I set it to 'Keep in Dock' and then command dragged it out of the dock which made an alias that I can use to launch IE from FM, specifying the URL is the part I'm stuck at.

Peter

[Vaughan]

The issue is the default that is set into the operating system.

I think an OS script will need to be written to pass the url directly to the desired browser application. not just to the OS to decide what to open it with.

IMHO the first step would be to just copy the url to the clipboard and instruct the user which browse to open with a dialog box. That will reduce some of the user's pain. Then spend time developing something more elegant.