Opening Up a Web Browser with Python

Start by importing webbrowser:

1	importwebbrowser

Next, simply call the webbrowser.open(url,new=0,) function. The variable, url, stands for the link you would like python to open using your default web browser (this will need to be of type ‘string’). The second variable, new, represents the method the browser will attempt to use in order to open the url: 1) new=0 means the url is opened in the same browser window if possible, 2) new=1 means a new browser window is opened if possible, and 3) new=2 means a new browser page (“tab”) is opened if possible.

Here’s an example:

1	webbrowser.open(url='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page',new=2)

Calling:

1	webbrowser.get()

with no arguments will display the default browser.

Lastly, if you seek to open a webpage using python through the command line, you can achieve this by:

1	python -m webbrowser -t "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page"

The above ‘-t’ flag means to use a new tab, and can be switched for -n if you require a new browser window to be used instead. For more about the webbrowser module, see the documentation on their site.