Open link in Firefox via contextual menu using Applescript - macos

Question

I'm new to use Applescript to create services in Snow Leopard. I found myself often trying to open a link in Safari with Firefox. I know there are ways to open a page url with FF but I want to open any link inside a page with FF. I think using Applescript to create a service might be a good idea and so far I found this:
openFirefoxURL("http://www.apple.com/")
on openFirefoxURL(x)
return do shell script "open -a Firefox" & space & quoted form of x
end openFirefoxURL
This creates a new tab in FF nicely. Any advice to adapt it to open a link on a page?
UPDATE: I found a solution through trial and error:
tell application "Safari"
set myURL to (do JavaScript "(getSelection().anchorNode.parentNode.href)" in document 1)
end tell
do shell script "open -a Firefox" & space & myURL
Now that the script serves my purpose, I don't know if there are better ways to do it, e.g. getting the selection via Applescript rather than javascript. Let me know if you have better solutions. Thanks!

Answer 1

There is another approach I just wrote after searching the web for a while an not finding a suitable solution.
It is a service in AppleScript that will open any URL in Firefox from any other application URL field. Just select the text in the URL of Chrome, for instance, and choose the service from the list.
To create the service:
Choose service in the main Automator dialog.
Choose "service receives selected" [URLs]
Choose "in" [any application]
Choose "input is" [only URLs]
Then add the action "Run Shell Script" dragging it to the script sequence.
Choose "Shell" [/bin/bash]
Choose "Pass input" [as arguments]
And paste the following script:
for f in "$#"
do
echo "$f"
if [ ${f:0:4} = "http" ]; then
open -a Firefox "$f"
else
prefix="http://"
prefix+=$f
open -a Firefox "$prefix"
fi
done
The script checks if the "http" prefix is added, as Chrome does not pass it by default, and opens Firefox with the OSX 'open' command.
Save this Service with the name "Open URL in Firefox" and you are done. The service will be available at the services list menu after a right click over any URL field selection.
Done.
The service is saved at ~/Library/Services. This directory is hidden by default in Lion, to see it just issue this command at terminal:
# chflags nohidden ~/Library/

Answer 2

You don't need a special program to do this. Safari already does it. You have to first enable the "Develop" menu in Safari. Go to Safari's preferences, go to the advanced section, and check the box at the bottom called "Show Develop menu in menu bar". Now that you have the Develop menu, you can open any page from Safari in another browser by going to Develop --> Open Page With menu.
So doing that will open the current page in Firefox, then just click on whatever link you want in Firefox.

Answer 3

I'm not sure if I entirely understand what you are trying to do, but if you wish to use Firefox as your default browser, then you don't need Applescript. Just go into Safari, open Preferences, then select Firefox as the default browser at the top of the first tab.

Answer 4

As Safari’s AppleScript dictionary does not provide any way to access the DOM, the JavaScript solution is a pretty good one. If it annoys you to have a service (“Show URL in Firefox”) available even when there is no link in the selected text, I’d recommend Choosy, a helper application / Preference pane by George Brocklehurst which will give you a user prompt for browsers (and much more, up to pattern based selection rules). There is a companion Safari extension which provides the contextual menu option you are looking for.