Use external browser

[AndyM48]

As far as I can see 5.1.0 now defaults to show URLs in the built in browser. I hae enabled an external browser, but rssguard still opens the URLs in the built in one.

Please can someone remind me how to use the external browser as the default?

Thanks

[martinrotter]

Tools - Settings - Web and there it is

[AndyM48]

Thank, I take it you mean Tools - Settings - External apps & tools - External web browser ? Already set:

clicking on the URL button still opens in the built in browser.

[Ac314]

#2228

[AndyM48]

#2228

Settings -> Network & web -> Web -> uncheck "Follow hyperlinks".

Thank you

[AndyM48]

I am not sure why Web: "Follow hyperlinks" makes rssguard use the built in browser by default?

Also, I don't remember ever changing this setting since rssguard 4, or indeed, ever. Does this default to set (ticked)?

[martinrotter]

I will re-phrase the "follow hyperlinks" for the next version to be clear what it actually does.

Uncheck it and all clicked links will open in external browser.

[AndyM48]

I already have it unticked but still... see next comment

[AndyM48]

So I have set all the settings as suggested and I still have a problem with links opening in the default browser.

This is with a single click on the article title to open the article summary - Nothing more.

So I would still like to know how I to disable the built in browser?

[AndyM48]

To be clear, if I click on this link, it opens the "We value you privacy" page, in the built in browser, in the article summary area. If I click on the next article then that article opens the summary as expected. If I return to the previous link, and click on that, then the same "We value your privacy" page opens instead of the article summary.

[Ac314]

Single click on article in the article list will open it in the app article previewer (web or text, depends on the version you use). This is definitely the right behavior. To open the article in the external browser just double click it. Or I did not understand something?

[AndyM48]

Single click on article in the article list will open it in the app article previewer (web or text, depends on the version you use). This is definitely the right behavior.

Yes, that would be the right behaviour, but in the above case it opens the "We value..." window from the URL.
My guess is that when the app opens the article preview, the built in browser accesses the website for some reason. Under normal circumstances this would have no effect on the preview, unless this is the first time that the website has been accessed by the built in browser, in which case the "We value ..." window will be sent, requiring a response which will store the appropriate cookie for the built in browser. After that I would guess that it would not happen again for that site.

PS. I am not sure what you meant by " (web or text, depends on the version you use). "

[martinrotter]

Does this happen with all feeds? If not, then provide affected feed URLs here.

[AndyM48]

No, it has only occurred once so far.
The feed is Slashdot https://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdotMain
The article is "GameStop Is Preparing Offer For eBay" 02/05/2026

The popup will only occur on the first visit to Slashdot.

On a side issue, I thought one of the reasons for moving to v5 was to do without the internal browser?

[AndyM48]

It is not all the feeds on Slashdot, but here is another one from today:
https://slashdot.org/story/26/05/03/0531224/claude-microsoft-copilot-fail-again-to-predict-the-winners-of-the-kentucky-derby

Edit: The text for the article is displayed very briefly before the "We value..." window pops up.

[martinrotter]

On a side issue, I thought one of the reasons for moving to v5 was to do without the internal browser?

Yes, there are now two flavors of RSS Guard - WebEngine (full-blown web capabilities) and TextBrowser (simplistic text-based web browsing). Both of them can "show" web pages and you have the option of either having "follow hyperlinks" checked - in which case RSS Guard follows links in its internal browser - or not checked and they open externall. Everyone can therefore tweak the app to its own taste.

I checked the https://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdotMain and the cause if this issue has nothing to do with RSS Guard and is caused by the feed itself. The feed injects <iframe> content into its articles with "comments". This iframe loads for example this URL https://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discuss&id=23980710&smallembed=1 which is loaded directly from the slashdot host, thus showing cookies accept dialog.

You have these options to solve the issue:

1. You have option to eliminate this with "Article filters" feature.
2. You can right-click inside article preview and go "Web attributes -> JS enabled" and disable that particular sub-feature. This will effectively block all JavaScript.

[AndyM48]

Thank you. I understand and see the solutions offered. One question though, why does the URL open in the built in browser instead of the external one, if an external browser has been enabled?

The two versions of RSS Guard are simply RSS Guard with "follow hyperlinks" checked and RSS Guard with "follow hyperlinks" unchecked - yes?

[AndyM48]

So I accepted the cookies dialog, and whenever I open that link again it does not pop up again, so I still think that it is due to the built in browser requiring the cookie to be set. So it is, IMHO, an RSS Guard problem. If the external browser is enabled, then that URL should have been directed to it and not to the internal browser.

[martinrotter]

I suggest you read some technical information about how "iframe"s work. This is not RSS Guard "problem" - in fact it is not a problem at all.

I already suggested two working solutions for you. Also, you can switch to "text" version, which does not process JavaScript at all.

I highly recommend reading RSS Guard documentation - at whole https://rssguard.readthedocs.io/en/stable