Open a folder in default browser

The way URL opening in Mac OS X is actually more complicated than you would think. When you click a URL, Mac OS X does not just pass the browser the URL to open; instead, it sends it an Apple Event, with the ID kAEGetURL, containing the URL.

I never really used Automator (it's just way too slow and limited for my typical use), so I'm not sure about this, but I doubt it has the ability to handle Apple Events. Therefore you won't be able to use Automator to achieve what you want.

You'll therefore have to resort to a normal Objective-C app in Xcode.

The two basic things you need to do are:

1. register your app for receiving the kAEGetURL event, and set the CFBundleURLTypes in your app's Info.plist to include http and https.

2. Implement a method handling the kAEGetURL event, and make it copy the URL to the clipboard.

These two things are relatively straightforward to do in Objective-C; to illustrate, I've created a sample application that does this. You can view it at https://github.com/houbysoft/short/tree/master/Copy%20URL%20to%20Clipboard. The most important file is https://github.com/houbysoft/short/blob/master/Copy%20URL%20to%20Clipboard/Copy%20URL%20to%20Clipboard/AppDelegate.m, there you can see how to register for the event (this is done in the applicationWillFinishLaunching: method) and how to copy it to the clipboard (this is done in the getUrl:withReplyEvent: method).

If you're feeling lazy and just want to see that this works, grab this file, extract the application from it, set that as the default web browser (open Safari Preferences, and browse for that app in the Default web browser field). Then click on your link in Skype, and it should be copied straight to your clipboard.

It would be great, IMO lack of tabs and bookmarking has always been a little bit of a failure for the iTunes store. Now, unfortunately, the iTunes store is difficult for browsers to interpret, because it was written in a wacky XML format instead of a browser standard HTML.

About three years ago it emerged that a coder had written an app that decodes this XML into HTML, and therefore could be viewed in the browser etc.

This is the link for it, but unfortunately, for me anyway, it seems to be dead.

Apple released 'iTunes Preview,' where you can browse content, as a web based store with links over the iTunes, but I don't think this is quite what you were looking for.

iTunes Preview

Someone else may have a solution, but sorry I can't help more!

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