Exemple #1
0
static bool wxLaunchDefaultBrowserBaseImpl(const wxString& url, int flags)
{
    wxUnusedVar(flags);

#if defined(__WXMSW__)

#if wxUSE_IPC
    if ( flags & wxBROWSER_NEW_WINDOW )
    {
        // ShellExecuteEx() opens the URL in an existing window by default so
        // we can't use it if we need a new window
        wxURI uri(url);
        wxRegKey key(wxRegKey::HKCR, uri.GetScheme() + _T("\\shell\\open"));
        if ( !key.Exists() )
        {
            // try default browser, it must be registered at least for http URLs
            key.SetName(wxRegKey::HKCR, _T("http\\shell\\open"));
        }

        if ( key.Exists() )
        {
            wxRegKey keyDDE(key, wxT("DDEExec"));
            if ( keyDDE.Exists() )
            {
                // we only know the syntax of WWW_OpenURL DDE request for IE,
                // optimistically assume that all other browsers are compatible
                // with it
                static const wxString TOPIC_OPEN_URL = wxT("WWW_OpenURL");
                wxString ddeCmd;
                wxRegKey keyTopic(keyDDE, wxT("topic"));
                bool ok = keyTopic.Exists() && (keyTopic.QueryDefaultValue() = TOPIC_OPEN_URL);
                if ( ok )
                {
                    ddeCmd = keyDDE.QueryDefaultValue();
                    ok = !ddeCmd.empty();
                }

                if ( ok )
                {
                    // for WWW_OpenURL, the index of the window to open the URL
                    // in is -1 (meaning "current") by default, replace it with
                    // 0 which means "new" (see KB article 160957)
                    ok = ddeCmd.Replace(wxT("-1"), wxT("0"),
                                        false /* only first occurence */) == 1;
                }

                if ( ok )
                {
                    // and also replace the parameters: the topic should
                    // contain a placeholder for the URL
                    ok = ddeCmd.Replace(wxT("%1"), url, false) == 1;
                }

                if ( ok )
                {
                    // try to send it the DDE request now but ignore the errors
                    wxLogNull noLog;

                    const wxString ddeServer = wxRegKey(keyDDE, wxT("application")).QueryDefaultValue();
                    if ( wxExecuteDDE(ddeServer, TOPIC_OPEN_URL, ddeCmd) )
                        return true;

                    // this is not necessarily an error: maybe browser is
                    // simply not running, but no matter, in any case we're
                    // going to launch it using ShellExecuteEx() below now and
                    // we shouldn't try to open a new window if we open a new
                    // browser anyhow
                }
            }
        }
    }
#endif // wxUSE_IPC

    WinStruct<SHELLEXECUTEINFO> sei;
    sei.lpFile = url.c_str();
    sei.lpVerb = _T("open");
    sei.nShow = SW_SHOWNORMAL;
    sei.fMask = SEE_MASK_FLAG_NO_UI; // we give error message ourselves

    BOOL nExecResult = ::ShellExecuteEx(&sei);

    //From MSDN for wince
    //hInstApp member is only valid if the function fails, in which case it
    //receives one of the following error values, which are less than or
    //equal to 32.
    const int nResult = (int) sei.hInstApp;

    // Firefox returns file not found for some reason, so make an exception
    // for it
    if ( nResult > 32 || nResult == SE_ERR_FNF  || nExecResult == TRUE )
    {
#ifdef __WXDEBUG__
        // Log something if SE_ERR_FNF happens
        if ( nResult == SE_ERR_FNF || nExecResult == FALSE )
            wxLogDebug(wxT("SE_ERR_FNF from ShellExecute -- maybe FireFox?"));
#endif // __WXDEBUG__
        return true;
    }
#elif defined(__WXMAC__)
    OSStatus err;
    ICInstance inst;
    long int startSel;
    long int endSel;

    err = ICStart(&inst, 'STKA'); // put your app creator code here
    if (err == noErr)
    {
#if !TARGET_CARBON
        err = ICFindConfigFile(inst, 0, NULL);
#endif
        if (err == noErr)
        {
            ConstStr255Param hint = 0;
            startSel = 0;
            endSel = url.length();
            err = ICLaunchURL(inst, hint, url.fn_str(), endSel, &startSel, &endSel);
            if (err != noErr)
                wxLogDebug(wxT("ICLaunchURL error %d"), (int) err);
        }
        ICStop(inst);
        return true;
    }
    else
    {
        wxLogDebug(wxT("ICStart error %d"), (int) err);
        return false;
    }
#else
    // (non-Mac, non-MSW)

#ifdef __UNIX__

    // Our best best is to use xdg-open from freedesktop.org cross-desktop
    // compatibility suite xdg-utils
    // (see http://portland.freedesktop.org/wiki/) -- this is installed on
    // most modern distributions and may be tweaked by them to handle
    // distribution specifics. Only if that fails, try to find the right
    // browser ourselves.
    wxString path, xdg_open;
    if ( wxGetEnv(_T("PATH"), &path) &&
         wxFindFileInPath(&xdg_open, path, _T("xdg-open")) )
    {
        if ( wxExecute(xdg_open + _T(" ") + url) )
            return true;
    }

    wxString desktop = wxTheApp->GetTraits()->GetDesktopEnvironment();

    // GNOME and KDE desktops have some applications which should be always installed
    // together with their main parts, which give us the
    if (desktop == wxT("GNOME"))
    {
        wxArrayString errors;
        wxArrayString output;

        // gconf will tell us the path of the application to use as browser
        long res = wxExecute( wxT("gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/applications/browser/exec"),
                              output, errors, wxEXEC_NODISABLE );
        if (res >= 0 && errors.GetCount() == 0)
        {
            wxString cmd = output[0];
            cmd << _T(' ') << url;
            if (wxExecute(cmd))
                return true;
        }
    }
    else if (desktop == wxT("KDE"))
    {
        // kfmclient directly opens the given URL
        if (wxExecute(wxT("kfmclient openURL ") + url))
            return true;
    }
#endif

    bool ok = false;
    wxString cmd;

#if wxUSE_MIMETYPE
    wxFileType *ft = wxTheMimeTypesManager->GetFileTypeFromExtension(_T("html"));
    if ( ft )
    {
        wxString mt;
        ft->GetMimeType(&mt);

        ok = ft->GetOpenCommand(&cmd, wxFileType::MessageParameters(url));
        delete ft;
    }
#endif // wxUSE_MIMETYPE

    if ( !ok || cmd.empty() )
    {
        // fallback to checking for the BROWSER environment variable
        cmd = wxGetenv(wxT("BROWSER"));
        if ( !cmd.empty() )
            cmd << _T(' ') << url;
    }

    ok = ( !cmd.empty() && wxExecute(cmd) );
    if (ok)
        return ok;

    // no file type for HTML extension
    wxLogError(_T("No default application configured for HTML files."));

#endif // !wxUSE_MIMETYPE && !__WXMSW__
    return false;
}
long wxExecute(const wxString& cmd, int flags, wxProcess *handler,
               const wxExecuteEnv *env)
{
    wxCHECK_MSG( !cmd.empty(), 0, wxT("empty command in wxExecute") );

#if wxUSE_THREADS
    // for many reasons, the code below breaks down if it's called from another
    // thread -- this could be fixed, but as Unix versions don't support this
    // neither I don't want to waste time on this now
    wxASSERT_MSG( wxThread::IsMain(),
                    wxT("wxExecute() can be called only from the main thread") );
#endif // wxUSE_THREADS

    wxString command;

#if wxUSE_IPC
    // DDE hack: this is really not pretty, but we need to allow this for
    // transparent handling of DDE servers in wxMimeTypesManager. Usually it
    // returns the command which should be run to view/open/... a file of the
    // given type. Sometimes, however, this command just launches the server
    // and an additional DDE request must be made to really open the file. To
    // keep all this well hidden from the application, we allow a special form
    // of command: WX_DDE#<command>#DDE_SERVER#DDE_TOPIC#DDE_COMMAND in which
    // case we execute just <command> and process the rest below
    wxString ddeServer, ddeTopic, ddeCommand;
    static const size_t lenDdePrefix = 7;   // strlen("WX_DDE:")
    if ( cmd.Left(lenDdePrefix) == wxT("WX_DDE#") )
    {
        // speed up the concatenations below
        ddeServer.reserve(256);
        ddeTopic.reserve(256);
        ddeCommand.reserve(256);

        const wxChar *p = cmd.c_str() + 7;
#if defined(__INTEL_COMPILER) && 1 /* VDM auto patch */
#   pragma ivdep
#   pragma swp
#   pragma unroll
#   pragma prefetch
#   if 0
#       pragma simd noassert
#   endif
#endif /* VDM auto patch */
        while ( *p && *p != wxT('#') )
        {
            command += *p++;
        }

        if ( *p )
        {
            // skip '#'
            p++;
        }
        else
        {
            wxFAIL_MSG(wxT("invalid WX_DDE command in wxExecute"));
        }

#if defined(__INTEL_COMPILER) && 1 /* VDM auto patch */
#   pragma ivdep
#   pragma swp
#   pragma unroll
#   pragma prefetch
#   if 0
#       pragma simd noassert
#   endif
#endif /* VDM auto patch */
        while ( *p && *p != wxT('#') )
        {
            ddeServer += *p++;
        }

        if ( *p )
        {
            // skip '#'
            p++;
        }
        else
        {
            wxFAIL_MSG(wxT("invalid WX_DDE command in wxExecute"));
        }

#if defined(__INTEL_COMPILER) && 1 /* VDM auto patch */
#   pragma ivdep
#   pragma swp
#   pragma unroll
#   pragma prefetch
#   if 0
#       pragma simd noassert
#   endif
#endif /* VDM auto patch */
        while ( *p && *p != wxT('#') )
        {
            ddeTopic += *p++;
        }

        if ( *p )
        {
            // skip '#'
            p++;
        }
        else
        {
            wxFAIL_MSG(wxT("invalid WX_DDE command in wxExecute"));
        }

#if defined(__INTEL_COMPILER) && 1 /* VDM auto patch */
#   pragma ivdep
#   pragma swp
#   pragma unroll
#   pragma prefetch
#   if 0
#       pragma simd noassert
#   endif
#endif /* VDM auto patch */
        while ( *p )
        {
            ddeCommand += *p++;
        }

        // if we want to just launch the program and not wait for its
        // termination, try to execute DDE command right now, it can succeed if
        // the process is already running - but as it fails if it's not
        // running, suppress any errors it might generate
        if ( !(flags & wxEXEC_SYNC) )
        {
            wxLogNull noErrors;
            if ( wxExecuteDDE(ddeServer, ddeTopic, ddeCommand) )
            {
                // a dummy PID - this is a hack, of course, but it's well worth
                // it as we don't open a new server each time we're called
                // which would be quite bad
                return -1;
            }
        }
    }
    else
#endif // wxUSE_IPC
    {
        // no DDE
        command = cmd;
    }

    // the IO redirection is only supported with wxUSE_STREAMS
    BOOL redirect = FALSE;

#if wxUSE_STREAMS
    wxPipe pipeIn, pipeOut, pipeErr;

    // open the pipes to which child process IO will be redirected if needed
    if ( handler && handler->IsRedirected() )
    {
        // create pipes for redirecting stdin, stdout and stderr
        if ( !pipeIn.Create() || !pipeOut.Create() || !pipeErr.Create() )
        {
            wxLogSysError(_("Failed to redirect the child process IO"));

            // indicate failure: we need to return different error code
            // depending on the sync flag
            return flags & wxEXEC_SYNC ? -1 : 0;
        }

        redirect = TRUE;
    }
#endif // wxUSE_STREAMS

    // create the process
    STARTUPINFO si;
    wxZeroMemory(si);
    si.cb = sizeof(si);

#if wxUSE_STREAMS
    if ( redirect )
    {
        si.dwFlags = STARTF_USESTDHANDLES;

        si.hStdInput = pipeIn[wxPipe::Read];
        si.hStdOutput = pipeOut[wxPipe::Write];
        si.hStdError = pipeErr[wxPipe::Write];

        // We must set the handles to those sides of std* pipes that we won't
        // in the child to be non-inheritable. We must do this before launching
        // the child process as otherwise these handles will be inherited by
        // the child which will never close them and so the pipe will not
        // return ERROR_BROKEN_PIPE if the parent or child exits unexpectedly
        // causing the remaining process to potentially become deadlocked in
        // ReadFile() or WriteFile().
        if ( !::SetHandleInformation(pipeIn[wxPipe::Write],
                                     HANDLE_FLAG_INHERIT, 0) )
            wxLogLastError(wxT("SetHandleInformation(pipeIn)"));

        if ( !::SetHandleInformation(pipeOut[wxPipe::Read],
                                     HANDLE_FLAG_INHERIT, 0) )
            wxLogLastError(wxT("SetHandleInformation(pipeOut)"));

        if ( !::SetHandleInformation(pipeErr[wxPipe::Read],
                                     HANDLE_FLAG_INHERIT, 0) )
            wxLogLastError(wxT("SetHandleInformation(pipeErr)"));
    }
#endif // wxUSE_STREAMS

    // The default logic for showing the console is to show it only if the IO
    // is not redirected however wxEXEC_{SHOW,HIDE}_CONSOLE flags can be
    // explicitly specified to change it.
    if ( (flags & wxEXEC_HIDE_CONSOLE) ||
            (redirect && !(flags & wxEXEC_SHOW_CONSOLE)) )
    {
        si.dwFlags |= STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
        si.wShowWindow = SW_HIDE;
    }


    PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
    DWORD dwFlags = CREATE_SUSPENDED;

    if ( (flags & wxEXEC_MAKE_GROUP_LEADER) )
        dwFlags |= CREATE_NEW_PROCESS_GROUP;

    dwFlags |= CREATE_DEFAULT_ERROR_MODE ;

    wxWxCharBuffer envBuffer;
    bool useCwd = false;
    if ( env )
    {
        useCwd = !env->cwd.empty();

        // Translate environment variable map into NUL-terminated list of
        // NUL-terminated strings.
        if ( !env->env.empty() )
        {
#if wxUSE_UNICODE
            // Environment variables can contain non-ASCII characters. We could
            // check for it and not use this flag if everything is really ASCII
            // only but there doesn't seem to be any reason to do it so just
            // assume Unicode by default.
            dwFlags |= CREATE_UNICODE_ENVIRONMENT;
#endif // wxUSE_UNICODE

            wxEnvVariableHashMap::const_iterator it;

            size_t envSz = 1; // ending '\0'
#if defined(__INTEL_COMPILER) && 1 /* VDM auto patch */
#   pragma ivdep
#   pragma swp
#   pragma unroll
#   pragma prefetch
#   if 0
#       pragma simd noassert
#   endif
#endif /* VDM auto patch */
            for ( it = env->env.begin(); it != env->env.end(); ++it )
            {
                // Add size of env variable name and value, and '=' char and
                // ending '\0'
                envSz += it->first.length() + it->second.length() + 2;
            }

            envBuffer.extend(envSz);

            wxChar *p = envBuffer.data();
#if defined(__INTEL_COMPILER) && 1 /* VDM auto patch */
#   pragma ivdep
#   pragma swp
#   pragma unroll
#   pragma prefetch
#   if 0
#       pragma simd noassert
#   endif
#endif /* VDM auto patch */
            for ( it = env->env.begin(); it != env->env.end(); ++it )
            {
                const wxString line = it->first + wxS("=") + it->second;

                // Include the trailing NUL which will always terminate the
                // buffer returned by t_str().
                const size_t len = line.length() + 1;

                wxTmemcpy(p, line.t_str(), len);

                p += len;
            }

            // And another NUL to terminate the list of NUL-terminated strings.
            *p = 0;
        }
    }

    // Translate wxWidgets priority to Windows conventions.
    if ( handler )
    {
        unsigned prio = handler->GetPriority();
        if ( prio <= 20 )
            dwFlags |= IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS;
        else if ( prio <= 40 )
            dwFlags |= BELOW_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS;
        else if ( prio <= 60 )
            dwFlags |= NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS;
        else if ( prio <= 80 )
            dwFlags |= ABOVE_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS;
        else if ( prio <= 99 )
            dwFlags |= HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS;
        else if ( prio <= 100 )
            dwFlags |= REALTIME_PRIORITY_CLASS;
        else
        {
            wxFAIL_MSG(wxT("invalid value of thread priority parameter"));
            dwFlags |= NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS;
        }
    }

    bool ok = ::CreateProcess
                (
                 NULL,               // application name (use only cmd line)
                 wxMSW_CONV_LPTSTR(command), // full command line
                 NULL,               // security attributes: defaults for both
                 NULL,               //   the process and its main thread
                 redirect,           // inherit handles if we use pipes
                 dwFlags,            // process creation flags
                 envBuffer.data(),   // environment (may be NULL which is fine)
                 useCwd              // initial working directory
                    ? wxMSW_CONV_LPTSTR(env->cwd)
                    : NULL,          //     (or use the same)
                 &si,                // startup info (unused here)
                 &pi                 // process info
                ) != 0;

#if wxUSE_STREAMS
    // we can close the pipe ends used by child anyhow
    if ( redirect )
    {
        ::CloseHandle(pipeIn.Detach(wxPipe::Read));
        ::CloseHandle(pipeOut.Detach(wxPipe::Write));
        ::CloseHandle(pipeErr.Detach(wxPipe::Write));
    }
#endif // wxUSE_STREAMS

    if ( !ok )
    {
#if wxUSE_STREAMS
        // close the other handles too
        if ( redirect )
        {
            ::CloseHandle(pipeIn.Detach(wxPipe::Write));
            ::CloseHandle(pipeOut.Detach(wxPipe::Read));
            ::CloseHandle(pipeErr.Detach(wxPipe::Read));
        }
#endif // wxUSE_STREAMS

        wxLogSysError(_("Execution of command '%s' failed"), command.c_str());

        return flags & wxEXEC_SYNC ? -1 : 0;
    }

#if wxUSE_STREAMS
    // the input buffer bufOut is connected to stdout, this is why it is
    // called bufOut and not bufIn
    wxStreamTempInputBuffer bufOut,
                            bufErr;

    if ( redirect )
    {
        // We can now initialize the wxStreams
        wxPipeInputStream *
            outStream = new wxPipeInputStream(pipeOut.Detach(wxPipe::Read));
        wxPipeInputStream *
            errStream = new wxPipeInputStream(pipeErr.Detach(wxPipe::Read));
        wxPipeOutputStream *
            inStream = new wxPipeOutputStream(pipeIn.Detach(wxPipe::Write));

        handler->SetPipeStreams(outStream, inStream, errStream);

        bufOut.Init(outStream);
        bufErr.Init(errStream);
    }
#endif // wxUSE_STREAMS

    // create a hidden window to receive notification about process
    // termination
    HWND hwnd = wxCreateHiddenWindow
                (
                    &gs_classForHiddenWindow,
                    wxMSWEXEC_WNDCLASSNAME,
                    (WNDPROC)wxExecuteWindowCbk
                );

    wxASSERT_MSG( hwnd, wxT("can't create a hidden window for wxExecute") );

    // Alloc data
    wxExecuteData *data = new wxExecuteData;
    data->hProcess    = pi.hProcess;
    data->dwProcessId = pi.dwProcessId;
    data->hWnd        = hwnd;
    data->state       = (flags & wxEXEC_SYNC) != 0;
    if ( flags & wxEXEC_SYNC )
    {
        // handler may be !NULL for capturing program output, but we don't use
        // it wxExecuteData struct in this case
        data->handler = NULL;
    }
    else
    {
        // may be NULL or not
        data->handler = handler;

        if (handler)
            handler->SetPid(pi.dwProcessId);
    }

    DWORD tid;
    HANDLE hThread = ::CreateThread(NULL,
                                    0,
                                    wxExecuteThread,
                                    (void *)data,
                                    0,
                                    &tid);

    // resume process we created now - whether the thread creation succeeded or
    // not
    if ( ::ResumeThread(pi.hThread) == (DWORD)-1 )
    {
        // ignore it - what can we do?
        wxLogLastError(wxT("ResumeThread in wxExecute"));
    }

    // close unneeded handle
    if ( !::CloseHandle(pi.hThread) )
    {
        wxLogLastError(wxT("CloseHandle(hThread)"));
    }

    if ( !hThread )
    {
        wxLogLastError(wxT("CreateThread in wxExecute"));

        DestroyWindow(hwnd);
        delete data;

        // the process still started up successfully...
        return pi.dwProcessId;
    }

    gs_asyncThreads.push_back(hThread);
    data->hThread = hThread;

#if wxUSE_IPC
    // second part of DDE hack: now establish the DDE conversation with the
    // just launched process
    if ( !ddeServer.empty() )
    {
        bool ddeOK;

        // give the process the time to init itself
        //
        // we use a very big timeout hoping that WaitForInputIdle() will return
        // much sooner, but not INFINITE just in case the process hangs
        // completely - like this we will regain control sooner or later
        switch ( ::WaitForInputIdle(pi.hProcess, 10000 /* 10 seconds */) )
        {
            default:
                wxFAIL_MSG( wxT("unexpected WaitForInputIdle() return code") );
                // fall through

            case WAIT_FAILED:
                wxLogLastError(wxT("WaitForInputIdle() in wxExecute"));

            case WAIT_TIMEOUT:
                wxLogDebug(wxT("Timeout too small in WaitForInputIdle"));

                ddeOK = false;
                break;

            case 0:
                // ok, process ready to accept DDE requests
                ddeOK = wxExecuteDDE(ddeServer, ddeTopic, ddeCommand);
        }

        if ( !ddeOK )
        {
            wxLogDebug(wxT("Failed to send DDE request to the process \"%s\"."),
                       cmd.c_str());
        }
    }
#endif // wxUSE_IPC

    if ( !(flags & wxEXEC_SYNC) )
    {
        // clean up will be done when the process terminates

        // return the pid
        return pi.dwProcessId;
    }

    wxAppTraits *traits = wxTheApp ? wxTheApp->GetTraits() : NULL;
    wxCHECK_MSG( traits, -1, wxT("no wxAppTraits in wxExecute()?") );

    void *cookie = NULL;
    if ( !(flags & wxEXEC_NODISABLE) )
    {
        // disable all app windows while waiting for the child process to finish
        cookie = traits->BeforeChildWaitLoop();
    }

    // wait until the child process terminates
#if defined(__INTEL_COMPILER) && 1 /* VDM auto patch */
#   pragma ivdep
#   pragma swp
#   pragma unroll
#   pragma prefetch
#   if 0
#       pragma simd noassert
#   endif
#endif /* VDM auto patch */
    while ( data->state )
    {
#if wxUSE_STREAMS
        if ( !bufOut.Update() && !bufErr.Update() )
#endif // wxUSE_STREAMS
        {
            // don't eat 100% of the CPU -- ugly but anything else requires
            // real async IO which we don't have for the moment
            ::Sleep(50);
        }

        // we must always process messages for our hidden window or we'd never
        // get wxWM_PROC_TERMINATED and so this loop would never terminate
        MSG msg;
        ::PeekMessage(&msg, data->hWnd, 0, 0, PM_REMOVE);

        // we may also need to process messages for all the other application
        // windows
        if ( !(flags & wxEXEC_NOEVENTS) )
        {
            wxEventLoopBase * const loop = wxEventLoopBase::GetActive();
            if ( loop )
                loop->Yield();
        }
    }

    if ( !(flags & wxEXEC_NODISABLE) )
    {
        // reenable disabled windows back
        traits->AfterChildWaitLoop(cookie);
    }

    DWORD dwExitCode = data->dwExitCode;
    delete data;

    // return the exit code
    return dwExitCode;
}
Exemple #3
0
bool wxDoLaunchDefaultBrowser(const wxString& url, const wxString& scheme, int flags)
{
    wxUnusedVar(flags);

#if wxUSE_IPC
    if ( flags & wxBROWSER_NEW_WINDOW )
    {
        // ShellExecuteEx() opens the URL in an existing window by default so
        // we can't use it if we need a new window
        wxRegKey key(wxRegKey::HKCR, scheme + wxT("\\shell\\open"));
        if ( !key.Exists() )
        {
            // try the default browser, it must be registered at least for http URLs
            key.SetName(wxRegKey::HKCR, wxT("http\\shell\\open"));
        }

        if ( key.Exists() )
        {
            wxRegKey keyDDE(key, wxT("DDEExec"));
            if ( keyDDE.Exists() )
            {
                // we only know the syntax of WWW_OpenURL DDE request for IE,
                // optimistically assume that all other browsers are compatible
                // with it
                static const wxChar *TOPIC_OPEN_URL = wxT("WWW_OpenURL");
                wxString ddeCmd;
                wxRegKey keyTopic(keyDDE, wxT("topic"));
                bool ok = keyTopic.Exists() &&
                            keyTopic.QueryDefaultValue() == TOPIC_OPEN_URL;
                if ( ok )
                {
                    ddeCmd = keyDDE.QueryDefaultValue();
                    ok = !ddeCmd.empty();
                }

                if ( ok )
                {
                    // for WWW_OpenURL, the index of the window to open the URL
                    // in is -1 (meaning "current") by default, replace it with
                    // 0 which means "new" (see KB article 160957)
                    ok = ddeCmd.Replace(wxT("-1"), wxT("0"),
                                        false /* only first occurrence */) == 1;
                }

                if ( ok )
                {
                    // and also replace the parameters: the topic should
                    // contain a placeholder for the URL
                    ok = ddeCmd.Replace(wxT("%1"), url, false) == 1;
                }

                if ( ok )
                {
                    // try to send it the DDE request now but ignore the errors
                    wxLogNull noLog;

                    const wxString ddeServer = wxRegKey(keyDDE, wxT("application"));
                    if ( wxExecuteDDE(ddeServer, TOPIC_OPEN_URL, ddeCmd) )
                        return true;

                    // this is not necessarily an error: maybe browser is
                    // simply not running, but no matter, in any case we're
                    // going to launch it using ShellExecuteEx() below now and
                    // we shouldn't try to open a new window if we open a new
                    // browser anyhow
                }
            }
        }
    }
#endif // wxUSE_IPC

    WinStruct<SHELLEXECUTEINFO> sei;
    sei.lpFile = url.c_str();
    sei.lpVerb = wxT("open");
    sei.nShow = SW_SHOWNORMAL;
    sei.fMask = SEE_MASK_FLAG_NO_UI; // we give error message ourselves

    if ( ::ShellExecuteEx(&sei) )
        return true;

    return false;
}