I can not keep on top of it and its a bit maddening…

I typically have opera to surf. To log into Orbolt, the launch automatically opens in Rekonq (KDE default - my version can be problematic with login/return session key unless already logged into to sidefx.com), as does the Rate, Review, and Read More from the Asset Details window, however, help via RMB in asset browser or via the Asset Details, opens a Konqueror session (I have no idea why) and Houdini, of course has its own embedded help browser which is often open as well. I would seem these events are handled differently and by the same type of program (browser). it all becomes a waste of resources and a cluttered desktop.

I grep'd around my hou shell via hconfig -a | grep -i konq …and found no results where these are explicity set- I have not specified using a external browser either.

I would expect the help cards to open in the embedded help browser when not set to use external, and there might be a need for something like HOUDINI_ORBOLT_BROWSER and HOUDINI_ORBOLT_EXTERNAL_BROWSER envs to control orbolts browser behavior separately so one can force it to ie Opera – this would take me from 4 browser application to 2.

Ideally because of vast differences in the increasing number of major browser players (IE, ffox, chrome, opera, safari, rekonq etc..), different OS, OS version + browser version, there alot of variables that can make login unreliable… so can throw a monkey wrench in syncing, updating, downloading etc…. It would be most reliable to not leave the login process up to user installed applications separate from houdini, and to login from inside the Houdini session UI. I think most of this could be handled by the internal browser which would be of a reliable version for a particular build… Could it be possible to even use the current login mechanism via a headless floating browser pane from inside houdini? – Just thinking out loud and just my two sense, if all the browesrs could be thinned/controlled it'd be awesome.

I am using (K)ubuntu 12.04 houdini 12.1.68 x64 gcc4.4

I have logged a case for you (51134), but I need your email.
Please email support@orbolt.com and include this case id.


Thanks
M

If Houdini is launching an external browser (other than it's default one) from C++, it uses xdg-open. This browser can be overridden by the HOUDINI_WEB_BROWSER_COMMAND environment variable. If Houdini launches an external browser from Python, it uses webrowser.open. This browser can be overridden with the BROWSER environment variable. Perhaps setting these variables will do the trick?

We'd like to have done the login entirely from within Houdini, but it's difficult because of OpenID logins. Even though the OpenID protocol can support clients other than web browser, Google purposely only implements a subset of the protocol to only allow logins from a browser (or from something that can impersonate a browser very very well).

Ive emailed you in much more details, but in short, i was able to control what browser got spawned with these variable although it did not alleviate additional issues….

But for other the variable do work and I was able to reduce have so many different browser open :-D i had not been obvious to me this variable had additional control other than when using an external help browser.