Opening a web link from another application opens it in a PWA

[brendanjones]

Description

When you have a PWA open, opening a web link from another application opens it in a PWA instead of in a new Firefox tab.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have both a PWA and Firefox open
2. Open a link from another application (e.g. Slack)
3. The link will load in the PWA window

Additional Information

• Not happening every time I open a link. I haven't managed to isolate the behaviour that defines whether the link loads in the PWA or Firefox, will update here if I do.

Affected Websites

Doesn't seem to matter which URL is loaded, but the PWA is for meet.google.com, Google Meet.

Environment

• Operating system: MacOS 12.1
• System architecture: Intel Mac
• Installation method: Extension > Homebrew
• PWAsForFirefox extension version: 1.4.0
• PWAsForFirefox native version:
• Firefox version: latest, 96.0.3

[filips123]

Is this "another application" just another PWA or an actual native application?

If it is another PWA, you can probably fix this by enabling "Open out of scope URLs in a default browser" in PWA profile settings, and adding accounts.google.com,apps.google.com (to fix Google SSO, maybe you will also have to add other domains for other PWAs) to "Domains always allowed to be opened in the PWA browser".

If it is a native application, it might happen because Firefox used by PWAs registered itself as the default web browser, overwriting normal Firefox. Maybe you can check in your macOS settings if Firefox is correctly set as a default web browser.

[brendanjones]

It's Slack, which I believe is an Electron app not an actual native app, but it's not a PWA.

Firefox is indeed set as my native browser since I use Firefox as my daily driver. Maybe what's happening is the Firefox for my PWAs is being chosen to open links instead of my 'real' Firefox? It's odd that it doesn't happen every time, though.

[zoeleu]

Happened to me on Linux, I just set my default browser to /usr/bin/firefox

[filips123]

I'm not sure why this happens, but it seems OS thinks system Firefox and Firefox from PWAsForFirefox are the same program. On macOS, this may be solved by #131, but I'm not sure about Linux.

@matteoturini Which desktop environment do you use? Can you check which browsers are available as "web browser handles" with update-alternatives --query x-www-browser and which is set as default xdg-settings get default-web-browser? Unfortunately, there are many ways of registering a default browser on Linux, so the problem might also be somewhere else.

[zoeleu]

I'm not sure why this happens, but it seems OS thinks system Firefox and Firefox from PWAsForFirefox are the same program. On macOS, this may be solved by #131, but I'm not sure about Linux.

@matteoturini Which desktop environment do you use? Can you check which browsers are available as "web browser handles" with update-alternatives --query x-www-browser and which is set as default xdg-settings get default-web-browser? Unfortunately, there are many ways of registering a default browser on Linux, so the problem might also be somewhere else.

It was KDE, and I switched to Budgie, and this never happened again.

[isle9]

I've had this problem on pop-os before too, but now I'm on Ubuntu 22.10.

I've made sure that xdg-settings get default-web-browser uses the correct firefox installation.
update-alternatives --query x-www-browser shows:

Name: x-www-browser
Link: /usr/bin/x-www-browser
Status: auto
Best: /usr/bin/firefox
Value: /usr/bin/firefox
Alternative: /usr/bin/firefox
Priority: 40

[filips123]

Does it also happen if you try to open such URL with xdg-open?

[isle9]

Does it also happen if you try to open such URL with xdg-open?

Nope. It opens in the default firefox if I use xdg-open.

I've tried it on Timeshift which opens firefoxpwa if you:

1. Go into the app.
2. Click on the menu in the top-right.
3. Click on About.
4. Click on the github link.

[filips123]

Is it only in Timeshift or also other applications? I've tried to test this on Ubuntu 22.04, but Timeshift works fine for me.

It's really weird that xdg-settings, xdg-open and update-alternatives all show the default Firefox but Timeshift still opens the PWA version. Maybe there is some other setting for default browser that Timeshift uses where PWA Firefox is set as default? However, it appears Timeshift just uses normal GTK about dialog, so maybe this is hidden somewhere deep in the GTK code.

[isle9]

I've had it happen a lot in popOS, but currently only in this specific case in Timeshift which really isn't that big of a deal.
If it starts happening more, I'll post the examples here.