Launching a URL in a Java Swing application

Question

How do I launch a URL in the user's default browser, in code from a Java Swing application?

There is this Netbeans library, but the jar dont seem to contain the classes mentioned in the example.

And there seems to be a number of old bespoke examples around.

But are there any killer solutions?

Answer 1

If you're running on JDK 1.6, you java.awt.Desktop.

Desktop.getDesktop().browse(new java.net.URI("www.google.com"));

If running on an earlier JDK, I believe that you can download the JDIC library. Or hack something together by spawning processes.

Answer 2

To expand upon kdgregory's answer, the The Java Desktop API, available from Java 6, provides integration with the desktop with functionality such as launching default web browsers and mail clients.

Launching a web browser can be achieved by using the Desktop.browse method.

For example, launching http://stackoverflow.com can be acheived by the following:

Desktop.getDesktop().browse(new URI("http://stackoverflow.com"));

More information:

• Using the Desktop API in Java SE 6
• How to Integrate with the Desktop Class