Rainer M Krug wrote:
Hi
Is it possible to insert into a document (class: beamer) a hyperlink via
URL which launches a program?
Thanks
Rainer
I can think of one way, but I don't know whether it generalizes beyond
Windows (I suspect it works on Macs, not sure on Linux). Suppose that
you have a data file whose extension is associated (either in the OS or
within your default web browser) with a particular application. If you
use file://path/to/target/myfile.ext in the hyperlink, clicking the
hyperlink in the PDF file launches the web browser, which then asks you
whether you want to open the target file or save it. You pick open and
the application launches and opens the file.
If you want to launch an application without a target file, you can try
the following. First, associate in Windows some extension with a shell
processor. For instance, I have .sh associated with MinSYS sh.exe
(which emulates sh on a *nix system). To launch app.exe from a Beamer
presentation, I first write a script (app.sh) that launches app.exe.
(The script will likely need an absolute path to app.exe, since at least
with Firefox it will be launched from whatever Firefox thinks is your
default download directory.) In the Beamer presentation, I use
file://path/app.sh. When I click the link, Beamer invokes Firefox to
process the link, Firefox asks me what do with the link (default being
to run it under sh, since that's the association in Windows), I select
the default, Firefox runs sh, which runs app.sh, which runs app.exe.
<pause to catch breath>
Note that this is not particularly transportable.
HTH,
/Paul
