Starting Browser (Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome) from Batch/Bash Script

Last week i got a project to develop a small HTML5 web pages as that behave like a powerpoint slide. This web application is going to act like a flash replacement. So the user must be able to run this web app with a double click on the file. One way to accomplish that task is by using command line script either in mac or windows.

We’re going to use bat file in Windows to do this task.

File : [windows]autostart_browser.bat

@ECHO OFF

START CHROME.EXE %~dp0index.html

In Mac we’re going to use a command file :

File : [mac]browser_autostart.command

#!/bin/bash
# Opening Safari
cd `dirname $0`
open -a /Applications/Chrome.app file://$PWD/index.html

Replace Chrome with your prefered browser and index.html with your desired file. Remember that your HTML file must be in the same folder with the script file.

This setup allows users on both Windows and Mac platforms to launch your HTML5 presentation with ease, mimicking the user experience of opening a PowerPoint file.