Make webbrowser support Chrome on Mac OS X

[nedbat]

BPO	24452
Nosy	@ronaldoussoren, @orsenthil, @nedbat, @ned-deily, @dhellmann, @PedanticHacker, @Mariatta
PRs	[Do Not Merge] Convert Misc/NEWS so that it is managed by towncrier #552
Files	issue24452.patch

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/orsenthil'
closed_at = <Date 2016-10-13.20:31:28.103>
created_at = <Date 2015-06-14.21:33:25.968>
labels = ['OS-mac', 'type-bug', 'library', '3.7']
title = 'Make webbrowser support Chrome on Mac OS X'
updated_at = <Date 2017-03-31.17:12:04.962>
user = 'https://github.com/nedbat'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2017-03-31.17:12:04.962>
actor = 'Mariatta'
assignee = 'orsenthil'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2016-10-13.20:31:28.103>
closer = 'gvanrossum'
components = ['Library (Lib)', 'macOS']
creation = <Date 2015-06-14.21:33:25.968>
creator = 'nedbat'
dependencies = []
files = ['44978']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 24452
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 17.0
messages = ['245351', '245355', '245359', '278167', '278257', '278585', '278588', '278589', '278590', '278591', '278592', '278605', '278607', '278608', '281155', '290924', '290926']
nosy_count = 9.0
nosy_names = ['ronaldoussoren', 'orsenthil', 'nedbat', 'ned.deily', 'doughellmann', 'python-dev', 'jbmilam', 'PedanticHacker', 'Mariatta']
pr_nums = ['552']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue24452'
versions = ['Python 2.7', 'Python 3.5', 'Python 3.6', 'Python 3.7']

[nedbat]

This doesn't work on Python 3.4 on a Mac with Yosemite and Chrome installed:

import webbrowser
webbrowser.get("chrome")

This patch makes it work:

*** /usr/local/pythonz/pythons/CPython-3.4.1/lib/python3.4/webbrowser.py	2014-09-21 16:37:46.000000000 -0400
--- /Users/ned/foo/webbrowser.py	2015-06-14 17:31:28.000000000 -0400
***************
*** 605,614 ****
--- 605,615 ----

      # Don't clear _tryorder or _browsers since OS X can use above Unix support
      # (but we prefer using the OS X specific stuff)
      register("safari", None, MacOSXOSAScript('safari'), -1)
      register("firefox", None, MacOSXOSAScript('firefox'), -1)
+     register("chrome", None, MacOSXOSAScript('chrome'), -1)
      register("MacOSX", None, MacOSXOSAScript('default'), -1)


  # OK, now that we know what the default preference orders for each
  # platform are, allow user to override them with the BROWSER variable.

[PedanticHacker]

I must add that it doesn't work on Windows 7, Python 3.4.3, either. I do have chrome.exe on the %PATH% and executing 'chrome' in Windows Command Prompt opens up the Chrome browser nicely, but it doesn't work so nicely by doing this:

import webbrowser
webbrowser.get("chrome")

I get this error message:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Program Files\Python 3.4\lib\webbrowser.py", line 51, in get
    raise Error("could not locate runnable browser")
webbrowser.Error: could not locate runnable browser

[jbmilam]

Boštjan Mejak the windows issue has been addressed in bpo-8232 and recently patched for 3.5. http://bugs.python.org/issue8232

[Mariatta]

Well... I created a patch based on Ned's code :)

This now works in the default branch

Python 3.7.0a0 (default:f2204eaba685+, Oct  5 2016, 20:43:44) 
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 7.3.0 (clang-703.0.31)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import webbrowser
>>> webbrowser.get("chrome")
<webbrowser.MacOSXOSAScript object at 0x10adc7398>
>>> webbrowser.open_new("https://www.python.org")
True

Please review :)

[orsenthil]

The patch looks good to me.

(The test coverage for chrome browser can be improved. But that seems a like a different change than the current one).

[gvanrossum]

OK, this seems to work for me. I'm, applying this to 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7 (default).

[python-dev]

New changeset bd0f502c5eea by Guido van Rossum in branch '3.5':
Issue bpo-24452: Make webbrowser support Chrome on Mac OS X.
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/bd0f502c5eea

New changeset 64a38f9aee21 by Guido van Rossum in branch '3.6':
Issue bpo-24452: Make webbrowser support Chrome on Mac OS X (merge 3.5->3.6)
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/64a38f9aee21

[python-dev]

New changeset 4e2cce65e522 by Guido van Rossum in branch 'default':
Issue bpo-24452: Make webbrowser support Chrome on Mac OS X (merge 3.6->3.7)
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/4e2cce65e522

[gvanrossum]

I applied this to 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7. I'm not sure we should also apply this to 2.7 -- optinions? Bug or feature?

[Mariatta]

The documentation seems to indicate that chrome MacOS is supposed to work in 2.7, which makes this a bug.

https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/webbrowser.html?highlight=webbrowser#module-webbrowser

But... it could also be a documentation bug.