Launch IPython notebook with selected browser

Question

I am trying to start IPython with a non default browser (in my case Firefox) and thought I could replicate the replicate the script given in this blog

I am on Windows 7

I put the following code in a file say "module.py"

import subprocess
subprocess.call("ipython notebook --no-browser", shell=True)
subprocess.call([r'C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox.exe', '-new-tab', 'http://127.0.0.1:8888/'])

However when I run it from the command line

 python C:\Users\mugabal\Desktop\module1.py

It execute the first line but not the second one (both lines work fine individually)

My question (in a more general term) how can I launch a process and tell it not to highjack the console window?

I apologize in advance if I have overseen an obvious explanation but I looked both in the subprocess documentation and on this platform

----- UPDATE -----

I should have added that I tried to launch IPython with selected browser but could not figure out how to get it work

>ipython notebook --browser='C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox.exe'
... 
[NotebookApp] The IPython Notebook is running at: http://127.0.0.1:8888/
...
**[NotebookApp] No web browser found: could not locate runnable browser.**

To be precise, the following command in a Windows command prompt window works as expected:

start firefox

but

ipython notebook --browser=firefox

does not work (same error as above).

If you just want a separate icon in windows taskbar, login as guest in Chrome and launch jupyter notebook — user3226167, Sep 08 '17 at 08:11

score 74 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 01 '13 at 17:54

74

I had the same problem on windows and got it work this way:

Create a config file with command ipython profile create default
Edit ipython_notebook_config.py file, search for line

#c.NotebookApp.browser =''

and replace it with

import webbrowser
webbrowser.register('firefox', None, webbrowser.GenericBrowser('C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe'))
c.NotebookApp.browser = 'firefox'

then it works for me.

Hope it will help you.

JPG

answered Apr 01 '13 at 17:54

JPG

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I had to add use u'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe' to make it work – Norfeldt Jul 18 '13 at 08:19
Yes! It works for jupyter notebook. only set "c.NotebookApp.browser = '/usr/bin/google-chrome' " doesn't work for chrome, but works well for firefox, which is really strange bug. Your solution solves the issue! Thanks! – oracleyue Aug 27 '17 at 22:29
1

Just a note for those who are using macOS: this works, but of course the path is different. You can link to the applications folder: `/Applications/Opera.app/Contents/MacOs/Opera`. – sodiumnitrate Jun 05 '18 at 19:34
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For Jupyter notebook, create config with command `jupyter notebook --generate-config` and edit the jupyter_notebook_config.py file as stated above – zeeshan khan Mar 08 '19 at 10:03

score 37 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 04 '16 at 19:20

37

On my mac, I got the following command to use Firefox instead of my default Chrome:

jupyter notebook --browser firefox

answered Oct 04 '16 at 19:20

JBWhitmore

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Thanks! **Windows notice:** This works if the path to firefox is set in your `PATH` environment variable. – S3DEV Mar 06 '20 at 12:47

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 04 '17 at 17:30

This is not a real answer. I just want to share with the less computer savvy what JPG's answer looks like step-by-step. Presumably, on Windows Explorer (screen capture attached below), the file jupyter_notebook_config.py is listed:

In my case, the directory for the file (on top menu of Explorer) was C:\Users\My_name\.jupyter

The second part of the answer can be implemented by simply pasting:

import webbrowser
webbrowser.register('firefox', None, webbrowser.GenericBrowser('C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe'))
c.NotebookApp.browser = 'firefox'

in the space on the space seen on the screen capture below, corresponding to the jupyter_notebook_config.py opened within PyCharm:

... only that I set it up to open in Opera:

import webbrowser
webbrowser.register('opera', None, webbrowser.GenericBrowser('C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Opera\\launcher.exe'))
c.NotebookApp.browser = 'opera'

score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 26 '13 at 09:32

9

Why not use

--browser=<Unicode> (NotebookApp.browser)
    Specify what command to use to invoke a web browser when opening the
    notebook. If not specified, the default browser will be determined by the
   `webbrowser` standard library module, which allows setting of the BROWSER

answered Mar 26 '13 at 09:32

Matt

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Thanks Matt. I could not this to work (see update). How should the command look exactly ? – user1043144 Mar 26 '13 at 09:57
IIRC, and looking at the code, you should use the same syntax as webbrowser get : http://docs.python.org/2/library/webbrowser.html#webbrowser.get so just ipython notebook --browser='firefox' on windows I guess – Matt Mar 26 '13 at 10:12
Did you tried escaping backslash and space ? We just forward the option to webbrowser.get, so if you achieve to make it work, you'll know the command you need to use – Matt Mar 26 '13 at 10:34
from this : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1532884/open-ie-browser-window I would say that indeed you need to escape backslash, but not space. – Matt Mar 26 '13 at 10:37
Thanks. escaping do not work either. actually the problem could be the configuration of the PC when I run import webbrowser, print webbrowser._browsers, it shows only explorer – user1043144 Mar 26 '13 at 11:03
I've no clue as of why then. Good Luck – Matt Mar 26 '13 at 13:42
As Matt said, this solution works just fine: `--browser=` But be carefull. If you try for example: `--browser=u'firefox'` it doesn't work, you need to use double quotes: `--browser="firefox"` – Hachi Manzur Oct 21 '13 at 22:04

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 30 '13 at 10:25

I uncomment this line and change into False, not to make ipython notebook open a web browser at start, so we can point the ipython notebook address in an active web browser.

# Whether to open in a browser after starting. The specific browser used is
# platform dependent and determined by the python standard library `webbrowser`
# module, unless it is overridden using the --browser (NotebookApp.browser)
# configuration option.
c.NotebookApp.open_browser = False

Better still, I pin the address in my Firefox to make it active everytime I open the browser.

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 05 '21 at 16:04

to make it work with brave and chrome you need to append a %s param that represents the URL. Tested the following on Linux terminal and works great:

jupyter notebook --browser="google-chrome %s"
jupyter notebook --browser="brave-browser %s"

firefox doesn't need %s

jupyter notebook --browser=firefox

user1843683 · Answer 7 · 2015-02-20T16:33:57.680

I set the environment variable BROWSER to the the executable of the browser (in my case Google Chrome), and Ipython Notebook started in the browser I liked.

PS H:\> $env:BROWSER = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"
PS H:\> $env:BROWSER
C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
PS H:\>
PS H:\> ipython notebook
2015-02-19 14:05:01.690 [NotebookApp] Using existing profile dir: C:\\Users\\abc\\.ipython\\profile_default'
2015-02-19 14:05:01.832 [NotebookApp] Using MathJax from CDN: http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js
2015-02-19 14:05:01.901 [NotebookApp] The port 8888 is already in use, trying another random port.
2015-02-19 14:05:01.908 [NotebookApp] Serving notebooks from local directory: H:\
2015-02-19 14:05:01.908 [NotebookApp] 0 active kernels
2015-02-19 14:05:01.910 [NotebookApp] The IPython Notebook is running at: http://localhost:8889/
2015-02-19 14:05:01.910 [NotebookApp] Use Control-C to stop this server and shut down all kernels (twice to skip confirmation).

sanketec87 · Answer 8 · 2019-03-22T13:13:22.873

1

When you execute the below code in command prompt it gives the result link which you can copy in any browser to open Jupiter notebook.

jupyter notebook --browser firefox

edited Mar 22 '19 at 13:13

answered Mar 22 '19 at 13:06

sanketec87

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 03 '13 at 00:19

I tried what JPG and norfeldt suggested. It worked perfectly on my Windows 7 computer. Here is a copy of the modified section of ipython_notebook_config.py (located under C:\Users\'your username'\.ipython to use Safari as the default browser for notebook. As norfeldt said, please notice the u before 'C:\...)

# c.NotebookApp.certfile = u''

import webbrowser
webbrowser.register('safari', None, webbrowser.GenericBrowser(u'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Safari\\safari.exe'))
c.NotebookApp.browser = 'safari'

score -2 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 09 '16 at 14:10

-2

Without coding, you can just set your default browser to Chrome or Firefox etc. It works for my windows system.

answered Sep 09 '16 at 14:10

Ye Xu

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Launch IPython notebook with selected browser

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