webbrowser — Convenient web-browser controller

Source code: Lib/webbrowser.py

The webbrowser module provides a high-level interface to allow displaying web-based documents to users. Under most circumstances, simply calling the open() function from this module will do the right thing.

Under Unix, graphical browsers are preferred under X11, but text-mode browsers will be used if graphical browsers are not available or an X11 display isn’t available. If text-mode browsers are used, the calling process will block until the user exits the browser.

If the environment variable BROWSER exists, it is interpreted as the os.pathsep-separated list of browsers to try ahead of the platform defaults. When the value of a list part contains the string %s, then it is interpreted as a literal browser command line to be used with the argument URL substituted for %s; if the part does not contain %s, it is simply interpreted as the name of the browser to launch. [1]

For non-Unix platforms, or when a remote browser is available on Unix, the controlling process will not wait for the user to finish with the browser, but allow the remote browser to maintain its own windows on the display. If remote browsers are not available on Unix, the controlling process will launch a new browser and wait.

On iOS, the BROWSER environment variable, as well as any arguments controlling autoraise, browser preference, and new tab/window creation will be ignored. Web pages will always be opened in the user’s preferred browser, in a new tab, with the browser being brought to the foreground. The use of the webbrowser module on iOS requires the ctypes module. If ctypes isn’t available, calls to open() will fail.

The script webbrowser can be used as a command-line interface for the module. It accepts a URL as the argument. It accepts the following optional parameters:

  • -n/--new-window opens the URL in a new browser window, if possible.

  • -t/--new-tab opens the URL in a new browser page (“tab”).

The options are, naturally, mutually exclusive. Usage example:

python -m webbrowser -t "https://www.python.org"

Availability: not WASI, not Android.

The following exception is defined:

exception webbrowser.Error

Exception raised when a browser control error occurs.

The following functions are defined:

webbrowser.open(url, new=0, autoraise=True)

Display url using the default browser. If new is 0, the url is opened in the same browser window if possible. If new is 1, a new browser window is opened if possible. If new is 2, a new browser page (“tab”) is opened if possible. If autoraise is True, the window is raised if possible (note that under many window managers this will occur regardless of the setting of this variable).

Returns True if a browser was successfully launched, False otherwise.

Note that on some platforms, trying to open a filename using this function, may work and start the operating system’s associated program. However, this is neither supported nor portable.

Raises an auditing event webbrowser.open with argument url.

webbrowser.open_new(url)

Open url in a new window of the default browser, if possible, otherwise, open url in the only browser window.

Returns True if a browser was successfully launched, False otherwise.

webbrowser.open_new_tab(url)

Open url in a new page (“tab”) of the default browser, if possible, otherwise equivalent to open_new().

Returns True if a browser was successfully launched, False otherwise.

webbrowser.get(using=None)

Return a controller object for the browser type using. If using is None, return a controller for a default browser appropriate to the caller’s environment.

webbrowser.register(name, constructor, instance=None, *, preferred=False)

Register the browser type name. Once a browser type is registered, the get() function can return a controller for that browser type. If instance is not provided, or is None, constructor will be called without parameters to create an instance when needed. If instance is provided, constructor will never be called, and may be None.

Setting preferred to True makes this browser a preferred result for a get() call with no argument. Otherwise, this entry point is only useful if you plan to either set the BROWSER variable or call get() with a nonempty argument matching the name of a handler you declare.

Changed in version 3.7: preferred keyword-only parameter was added.

A number of browser types are predefined. This table gives the type names that may be passed to the get() function and the corresponding instantiations for the controller classes, all defined in this module.

Type Name

Class Name

Notes

'mozilla'

Mozilla('mozilla')

'firefox'

Mozilla('mozilla')

'epiphany'

Epiphany('epiphany')

'kfmclient'

Konqueror()

(1)

'konqueror'

Konqueror()

(1)

'kfm'

Konqueror()

(1)

'opera'

Opera()

'links'

GenericBrowser('links')

'elinks'

Elinks('elinks')

'lynx'

GenericBrowser('lynx')

'w3m'

GenericBrowser('w3m')

'windows-default'

WindowsDefault

(2)

'macosx'

MacOSXOSAScript('default')

(3)

'safari'

MacOSXOSAScript('safari')

(3)

'google-chrome'

Chrome('google-chrome')

'chrome'

Chrome('chrome')

'chromium'

Chromium('chromium')

'chromium-browser'

Chromium('chromium-browser')

'iosbrowser'

IOSBrowser

(4)

Notes:

  1. “Konqueror” is the file manager for the KDE desktop environment for Unix, and only makes sense to use if KDE is running. Some way of reliably detecting KDE would be nice; the KDEDIR variable is not sufficient. Note also that the name “kfm” is used even when using the konqueror command with KDE 2 — the implementation selects the best strategy for running Konqueror.

  2. Only on Windows platforms.

  3. Only on macOS.

  4. Only on iOS.

Added in version 3.2: A new MacOSXOSAScript class has been added and is used on Mac instead of the previous MacOSX class. This adds support for opening browsers not currently set as the OS default.

Added in version 3.3: Support for Chrome/Chromium has been added.

Changed in version 3.12: Support for several obsolete browsers has been removed. Removed browsers include Grail, Mosaic, Netscape, Galeon, Skipstone, Iceape, and Firefox versions 35 and below.

Changed in version 3.13: Support for iOS has been added.

Here are some simple examples:

url = 'https://docs.python.org/'

# Open URL in a new tab, if a browser window is already open.
webbrowser.open_new_tab(url)

# Open URL in new window, raising the window if possible.
webbrowser.open_new(url)

Browser Controller Objects

Browser controllers provide these methods which parallel three of the module-level convenience functions:

controller.name

System-dependent name for the browser.

controller.open(url, new=0, autoraise=True)

Display url using the browser handled by this controller. If new is 1, a new browser window is opened if possible. If new is 2, a new browser page (“tab”) is opened if possible.

controller.open_new(url)

Open url in a new window of the browser handled by this controller, if possible, otherwise, open url in the only browser window. Alias open_new().

controller.open_new_tab(url)

Open url in a new page (“tab”) of the browser handled by this controller, if possible, otherwise equivalent to open_new().

Footnotes