Launching a URL from an Eclipse plugin

Question

I'd like to have my Eclipse plugin cause a URL to be opened by the users' default browser. This seems like pretty standard behavior, but I haven't been able to find any docs on how to do this.

Can anyone help?

Answer 1

If you want it in an external browser, you don't need to create one. This is the way:

PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getBrowserSupport().getExternalBrowser().openURL(new URL("http://www.example.com/"));

Answer 2

Use Program.launch(String) from the SWT API.

(Alternatively, Java 6 introduced the Desktop class.)