WebBroboard

WebBrowser + clipboard = WebBroboard

Why?

The problem

I tend to use many browsers or browser settings for different links. I prefer to launch some links in the private mode, some in the regular mode, some in a different browser profile. Until now I used to right-click and copy to clipboard most links in the external applications (like Thunderbird) to open them manually in whichever way I prefer. It was tedious and didn't help when the application launched some site by itself (example: pressing F1 in Thunderbird).

The solution

What if my clipboard was my web browser? Clicking a link would only copy it to my clipboard and then display an unobtrusive notification. This is exactly what WebBroboard is, a wrapper around xsel(1) and notify-send(1) + a .desktop file to hook it up as a browser.

How?

To use WebBroboard, copy the webbroboard file into a directory in your PATH and copy webbroboard.desktop into ~/.local/share/applications. Then run the following commands to set it as your default web browser:

xdg-mime default webbroboard.desktop x-scheme-handler/https
xdg-mime default webbroboard.desktop x-scheme-handler/http
xdg-mime default webbroboard.desktop text/html

If you run into issue that incorrect browser is selected (despite setting it correctly for xdg-open) check if your PATH contains webbroboard when you start X server (for example .zshenv is not sourced in .zlogin if you are using zsh).

Dependencies:

xsel(1)
notify-send(1)
Bash

Enjoy!

Who?

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.