Python webbrowser - Open a url without https://

Question

I am trying to get python to open a website URL. This code works.

import webbrowser
url = 'http://www.example.com/'
webbrowser.open(url)

I have noticed that python will only open the URL is it has https:// at the beginning.

Is it possible to get python to open the URL if it's in any of the formats in the examples below?

url = 'http://www.example.com/'
url = 'https://example.com/'
url = 'www.example.com/'
url = 'example.com/'

The URLs will be pulled from outside sources so I can't change what data i receive.

I have looked at the python docs, and can't find the answer on stackoverflow.

This works on my machine with http://www.example.org. Maybe close your open browsers and try again? — user559633
– user559633, Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 14:12
why can't you change the url if you pull it from an outside source? It's quite easy to change — Thomas Wagenaar
– Thomas Wagenaar, Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 14:12

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-20 14:16:26Z

1

Why not just add it?

if not url.startswith('http')
    if url.startswith('www'):
        url = "http://" + url
    else
        url = "http://www." + url

edited Aug 20, 2015 at 14:16

chepner

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answered Aug 20, 2015 at 14:14

amza

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2 Comments

amza Over a year ago

@ThomasWagenaar The first if statement will work for both.

Thomas Wagenaar Over a year ago

aww yeah forget that, nice.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:23:59Z

0

If you really don't want to change the url string (which is quite fast and easy) like stazima said, then you can use Python 3. It supports all the listed url types in your question (tested them).

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:23

CommunityBot

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answered Aug 20, 2015 at 14:14

Thomas Wagenaar

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