Bug 503745

Summary:	Right-Click > "Open in External Application" uses wrong web browser for XHTML files
Product:	[Applications] ark	Reporter:	Ellie <el>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Elvis Angelaccio <elvis.angelaccio>
Status:	RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Severity:	normal	CC:	john.kizer, rthomsen6
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	25.04.0
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
See Also:	https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=503956
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Ellie 2025-05-04 11:08:30 UTC

SUMMARY

In Ark's context menu, "Open in External Application" uses the wrong web browser for XHTML files. I would expect the browser that is opened up to match what the KDE system settings application shows under "Default Applications" as a "Web Browser". This doesn't seem to be the case in practice, it just opens up a different one on my machine.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

1. Change default browser in KDE system settings
2. Open an archive in Ark that has XHTML files
3. In Ark's file listing, right-click on any XHTML file and click "Open in External Application"

OBSERVED RESULT

The wrong browser is opened up.

EXPECTED RESULT

The new default browser is opened up.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS

Windows: 
macOS: 
(available in the Info Center app, or by running `kinfo` in a terminal window)
Linux/KDE Plasma: postmarketOS v24.12
KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.4 (also happens on 6.3.x, I've tested on my 2nd device)
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.8.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Comment 1 John Kizer 2025-05-09 04:02:52 UTC

Hi - I can't reproduce on my Fedora KDE 42 device.

Can you please check System Settings > Default Applications > File Associations, search for "xhtml" and check what is first in the Application Preference Order for an XHTML page? Is it the primary default browser, the one that opens when called by the Open in External Application choice, or something else?

Thanks!

Comment 2 Ellie 2025-05-09 09:15:02 UTC

It's something else, interestingly. I didn't even know that submenu existed. Is this potentially a KDE settings bug then? I feel like .xhtml should default to the web browser, unless the user ever manually changed it which I haven't.

Comment 3 Ellie 2025-05-09 11:42:26 UTC

Huh, would the "Open With..." dialog also correspond to this? Perhaps xhtml defaulted to some text editor, so I changed it to the web browser in the past. I guess the actual problem might be that there's no "default web browser" entry in the file association list as far as I can tell, but only a specific browser can be picked, so that if the default web browser is ever changed it won't keep up. Perhaps that is what happened.

Comment 4 John Kizer 2025-05-09 18:59:15 UTC

Yeah - I might be wrong, but I'd suspect it's a difference of protocol handling on one side, and file type handling on another? ex. the Default Applications web browser setting would make sense to govern handling of the http/etc. protocols, while the File Associations side handles file types opened directly from the local filesystem?

Comment 5 Ellie 2025-05-09 19:05:53 UTC

I think ideally, the file associations would gain an additional option that says "Use default web browser". Sadly, no such option seems to be available. I tried to suggest this via this ticket: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=503956