Linux – Picasa:// links in Google Chrome (Linux)

google-chromelinuxpicasaurlxdg

When I go to Picasa Web to see another user's album, I can download pictures using Picasa with it. This launched a URL like

picasa://downloadfeed/?url=http%3A...

In Firefox, when I click this, I can choose to open it with /usr/bin/picasa and it works fine.

In Chrome however, it doesn't suggest to choose an application to open it, but sends it to xdg-open instead, which fails. When I try to launch such a URL with xdg-open in a console, I get :

$ xdg-open picasa://foobar
   kio (KRun): ERROR: #### NO SUPPORT FOR READING!

I've found a post on a forum that says that you can configure xdg-open associations in ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list :

$ cat ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
   [Default Applications]
   text/html=google-chrome.desktop

but I have no idea what to use for Picasa links. Furthermore, man xdg-open indicates that

xdg-open supports file, ftp, http and https URLs.

I've also tried editing the file associations in KDE's System Settings to add a "picasa" entry in the "uri" group. I logged out and in again (just in case), but it still won't work.

Does anybody know how I can get Google Chrome to manage these URLs properly?

Best Answer

On KDE4, you can add a protocol handler under $HOME/.kde4/share/kde4/services/. On Earlier versions I believe this directory is $KDEDIR/share/services/. Create a file called picasa.protocol and place this in it:

[Protocol]
exec=/usr/bin/picasa "%u"
protocol=picasa
input=none
output=none
helper=true
listing=false
reading=false
writing=false
makedir=false
deleting=false

You may need to tweak the options a bit, but I think that should work. This is the same method for setting up the spotify handler in chrome, as well as a handler for last.fm.

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Well, it appears nobody encountered this situation before. Since someone could have the same issue some time in the future, I decided not to delete my own question, but to answer it.

I fixed the issue by adding -- "%1" switch, so the registry entry looks like this:

[Computer\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeHTML\shell\open\command] "C:\Users\Witchunter\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --user-data-dir="c:\Users\Witchunter\AppData\Local\ChromeUserData\shortcut-1311099461053" -- "%1"

It is very important that "%1" switch is the last one and that there is a space character between -- and "%1". I am not sure why is this particular switch used this way, but it is crucial to have a space character in between. If this character is not present, new Chrome window will open up displaying "New Tab".

Hope someone finds this useful.

Google-chrome – Open chrome and launch the settings page

OK, so I finally figured out a "hack". This hack requires creating an extension to handle the request. I already tried quite a few attempts to "hijack" Chrome with an easier way but seems that Chrome is secure enough to stop me from doing that and this is the closest I can get.

First, create an empty directory somewhere accessible on the hard drive.

Create a file manifest.json with the following content:

{
    "name": "Open Chrome URLs",
    "version": "1.0",
    "manifest_version": 2
}

Create a file open.html with the following content:

<html>
<head>
<title>Open Chrome URLs</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="open.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Create a file open.js with the following content:

window.addEventListener("load", function(){
    var key = "secretKey"; // replace "secretKey" with your own secret key
    if(window.location.search == "?key=" + key && window.location.hash.length > 1){
        chrome.tabs.update({
            'url': "chrome://" + window.location.hash.substr(1) + "/"
        });
    }else{
        document.body.appendChild(document.createTextNode("Invalid"));
    }
});

Replace the secret key with your own if wanted.

Then, open the Extensions page (chrome://extensions/).

Check the "Developer mode" checkbox and click "Load unpacked extension" and select the directory that you just created.

You should now see a new extension appeared.

New extension

Copy the extension id.

Finally, start Chrome with the following URL as the parameter.

chrome-extension://nihlceAnywayPutTheExtensionIdHere/open.html?key=secretKey#settings

Replace the first part with the extension id with the one you just copied.

Also replace the secretKey with the one you set above.

You can also use most of the other Chrome URLs instead of settings.

Note: you need a shortcut to Chrome instead of an Internet link.

Good luck!

Best Answer

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