Launch a webpage on a Firefox (win) tab using Python

Question

I'm trying to launch a website url in a new tab using python in that way, but it didn't worked in these both ways:

Method 1:

os.system('C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox.exe -new-tab http://www.google.com/');

and Method 2:

os.startfile('C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox.exe -new-tab http://www.google.com/');

If I don't add the parameters (-new-tab http://www.google.com/) it works, opening the default page.

Solution 1

You need to use the webbrowser module

import webbrowser
webbrowser.open('http://www.google.com')

[edit]

If you want to open a url in a non-default browser try:

webbrowser.get('firefox').open_new_tab('http://www.google.com')

Solution 2

If you want to start a program with parameters the subprocess module is a better fit:

import subprocess
subprocess.call([r'C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox.exe',
    '-new-tab', 'http://www.google.com/'])

Solution 3

Use os.startfile() passing only the url. This will cause the URL to be opened in a new tab/window in the user's default browser, which is much nicer to your user.

Solution 4

there are multiple way of opening URL in python using different packages-
using selenium package-

from selenium import webdriver
browser = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path = '/Users/abcarp/bin/chromedriver')
browser.get('https://in.linkedin.com/')
sleep(10)
browser.close()

download firefox driver and placed at user/username/bon location and change the name to firefox.

using sub-process package-

import subprocess
p = subprocess.Popen([r"/Volumes/Firefox/Firefox.app", "http://www.google.com"]) 
p.kill()

using mechanize package-

import mechanize
br = mechanize.Browser()
br.open("http://machinelearningstories.blogspot.com/")
br.close()

using web-browser package-

import webbrowser
webbrowser.get('firefox').open_new_tab('http://www.google.com')

closing opened web page-

import os
os.system("taskkill /im chrome.exe /f")    #( windows)
os.system("pkill -f Chrome")    # mac

same information in some more detail is mentioned here- http://pythonfordatabuggers.blogspot.com/2020/04/automatically-open-and-do-some-actions.html

Solution 5

You might want to try:

import os
os.spawnl(os.P_NOWAIT, r'C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox.exe',
          r'FireFox', '-new-tab', 'http://www.google.com/')

View more solutions

Comments

[Leandro Ardissone]

Yes, but what if my default browser is not Firefox?

[Leandro Ardissone]

Same issue, I need to open it in Firefox instead of the default browser.

[Sheep]

If the user's default browser is not Firefox, should you force them to use it?

[Leandro Ardissone]

Nice tip. Thanks. But still don't open the page in a new tab instead of new window. Thanks.

[Leandro Ardissone]

@John: I'm trying to provide a .xpi extension from an URL, so I need the user to open it with Firefox (no Flock or any other associated app).

[Nadia Alramli]

what if firefox was not installed? what if it was installed in a different directory? this is not the right way to do. Even if it works in some cases

[Nadia Alramli]

@Leandro I changed the call to open_new_tab it should open a new tab now

[michelson]

Interesting... I've never played with the webbrowser module before. I'll have to stash that one off in the back of my brain for future use. Thanks Nadia.

[Leandro Ardissone]

@Nadia, awesome! Really easy solution!

[Leandro Ardissone]

Ah, I've noticed that it doesn't work on Windows, get this error: "could not locate runnable browser"

[Nadia Alramli]

hmm, here is someone asking about the same issue echochamber.me/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=23436 the module itself is supposed to work on windows

[Leandro Ardissone]

Cool, I've added the firefox to the BROWSER env var, but no luck, I'll check with the PATH. Thx.

[martineau]

FWIW, I only needed to add the mozilla\firefox installation directory to my PATH -- no other env vars were needed to make webbrowser work with firefox and Python 2.7.

[Sree]

Is it possible to launch firefox having no menubar, no status bar and no toolbar through python?

[Louis Yang]

@Leandro Ardissone Add %s to the end of the path to open it by Firefox. webbrowser.get('C:/Program Files (x86)/Mozilla Firefox/firefox.exe %s')

[alan.elkin]

Please be more descriptive with your answer, not just code.