How to open a url in Safari instead of the default browser (JavaScript)?

Question

I have loaded an html file in a webkit view inside my app. The html file acts like a search engine and has the following code which gets triggered when the users hits the search action:

function search() {
    var input = document.getElementById("search_form_input_homepage").value;
    window.open("https://duckduckgo.com/?q=" + input);
}

However, I need the result url to open in Safari. As of now, window.open loads up the url in the default browser. How do I achieve this?

I found this link that talks about different url schemes in Safari. But I am very new to JavaScript. This is in fact the first time I am working with JS. So I could not understand how to implement this. Can anybody help me with this, please?

You have no control over this. Why would you want to enforce a specific browser? — Mitya, Nov 30 '20 at 11:36
@Mitya Because it's a part of a safari extension. Ideally, I would do it in native code. But that is not possible in this current scenario as it has dependencies with the html file So I would like to do it using JS. — onetrueshady, Nov 30 '20 at 11:43
@evolutionxbox Because it's a part of a safari extension. Ideally, I would do it in native code. But that is not possible in this current scenario as it has dependencies with the html file So I would like to do it using JS. — onetrueshady, Nov 30 '20 at 11:44
Use a different protocol than `https`, which the browser will always open itself, and register safari as a protocol handler for that custom protocol with the operating system. — Bergi, Nov 30 '20 at 11:44
@onetrueshady Research "custom protocol handler" and/or study the extension API of Safari — Bergi, Nov 30 '20 at 11:52

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 28 '20 at 08:33

I managed to do this using Swift. I added the following webkit delegate method.

func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, createWebViewWith configuration: WKWebViewConfiguration, for navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, windowFeatures: WKWindowFeatures) -> WKWebView? {
        NSWorkspace.shared.open([navigationAction.request.url!], withAppBundleIdentifier: "com.apple.safari", options: .default, additionalEventParamDescriptor: nil, launchIdentifiers: nil)
    return nil
}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 30 '20 at 21:25

0

You can't control which browser to open via JavaScript code, it's related to the operating system / user default selection.

answered Nov 30 '20 at 21:25

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How to open a url in Safari instead of the default browser (JavaScript)?

2 Answers2