Opening links from menus, the right way
Here’s what I currently do to open a link from a menu, respecting what the user actually wants to happen and without repeating code.
<!-- ... -->
<menuitem oncommand="myExtension.foo(event)" onclick="checkForMiddleClick(this, event)"/>
<!-- ... -->/* ... */
foo: function(event) {
myExtension.openURL(event, "theKey");
},
openURL: function(event, key) {
openUILinkIn(myExtension.urlStrings.getString(key), whereToOpenLink(event));
},
/* ... */What to take note of:
- openUILinkIn, whereToOpenLink, and checkForMiddleClick are part of Firefox’s utilityOverlay.js. This file is included in browser.xul so its functions are available to browser overlays.
- oncommand handles regular clicks, but isn’t fired for middle-clicks. We make use of Firefox’s checkForMiddleClick, which will call our oncommand function for middle clicks and do nothing otherwise.
- whereToOpenLink figures out the appropriate place to open of the new link (current tab, new tab, new window, etc.) based on the mouse button and/or keys pressed and/or user preferences. We pass it as openUILinkIn’s second parameter.
- The functions are in a wrapper.
- The function foo only needs to know the key of the URL property. This reduces repetition if you have do create bar, baz, etc.
- The URL is stored in a properties file (urlStrings is a reference to a stringbundle). This properties file should be stored under content, not locale, as it doesn’t change for different languages.
Any additional suggestions?
Updates
- Feb 8, 2007: I forgot about middle clicks!
- Feb 17, 2007: Changed to use Firefox’s checkForMiddleClick function, thanks LouCypher!
- May 22, 2007: Now available at developer.mozilla.org.
February 15th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Very good explanation… thanks a lot!
I only think that for a complex menu is more practice to insert urls directly in the menuitems in the xul file as a parameter for the function, for example:
and then modify a little the openURL function.
What do you think about?
February 15th, 2007 at 9:02 am
The code is not showed, was:
February 15th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Last retry…
menuitem oncommand=”myExtension.openURL(event, ‘url’)” onclick=”myExtension.openURL(event, ‘url’)”
February 15th, 2007 at 9:42 am
I usually use
oncommand="openUILink(url, event, false, true)"andonclick="checkForMiddleClick"on menuitems for browser overlay.February 15th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Oops… it’s
onclick="checkForMiddleClick(this, event)"Also on toolbarbuttons.
February 15th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Tucana, storing the URLs separately makes it easier to make changes, for example if your server changes or you’re rebranding your extension. If you’re only doing this for one URL, I don’t see anything wrong with including it directly in the XUL.
February 15th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
LouCypher, that function looks like it going through the same process as I am (doing the command on middle click and making sure to close the menu). I’ll try it out and if it works, I’ll update the code I posted to use it instead to reduce repetition. Thanks!