custom protocol handler

[Mitch Claborn]

How can I define a custom protocol handler in Thunderbird to call an
external program when a specially formatted link is clicked in an HTML
email?

I generate some HTML reports that are emailed. I want to have clickable
links in the reports that will take various actions on a web server
without opening a browser. My thought was to create a link like
abcd://localhost:9999/do_something
so that when user clicks the link it will call the external program
which can do whatever I want (like a wget to call the webserver). So I
need to somehow tell Thunderbird to call a specific external program to
handle the abcd protocol.

Any ideas?

Mitch

[Dan Mosedale]

On 6/15/09 8:51 AM, Mitch Claborn wrote:
> My thought was to create a link like
> abcd://localhost:9999/do_something
> so that when user clicks the link it will call the external program
> which can do whatever I want (like a wget to call the webserver). So I
> need to somehow tell Thunderbird to call a specific external program to
> handle the abcd protocol.
>
> Any ideas?
>

Thunderbird just asks the OS about protocol handlers, so you need to
have your program register itself as a handler for a specific URL scheme
with the appropriate system service API in Windows, OS X, or GNOME.

Dan

[Ben Bucksch]

As dmose said, TB looks at the OS for URL schemes it doesn't know, like
abcd:. In Windows, it's in the registry, next to the file extensions.

[Ben Bucksch]

On 15.06.2009 17:51, Mitch Claborn wrote:

As dmose said, TB looks at the OS for URL schemes it doesn't know, like

[Mitch Claborn]

Here is what worked for me (Linux / Suse)

gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/mmmm/command 'mm_launch_app
%s' --type String
gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/mmmm/enabled --type Boolean true
gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/mmmm/needs_terminal --type
Boolean false

gconftool-2 -a /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/mmmm