DataOpener knows how to open things in the correct application... i.e. emails in thunderbird, word documents in Word etc. etc

This is damn tricky. GnowsisAlpha had a dirty C hack done by Leo. This is clearly nasty.

Options:

• Apple Java Extensions does this on MacOSX ​http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Java/Reference/1.4.1/Java141API_AppleExtensions/api/com/apple/eawt/ApplicationListener.html
• Java 1.6 does this - ​http://download.java.net/jdk6/docs/api/java/awt/Desktop.html
• The Java Desktop Integration Classes (jdic) project does this. ​https://jdic.dev.java.net/
  • it uses JNI and native compiled things on every platform
  • Gnowsis already uses this for the trayicon support.
  • MacOSX support is ropy... at best - only older versions available and only half the API.
• JConfig claims it can do all this - ​http://tolstoy.com/samizdat/jconfig.html
  • BUT ...
  • It's very "odd"
  • The license might not be compatible.
  • It's very old...
• Eclipse does this - maybe they have libraries?

• This has various links: ​http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Main/NativeHooks

Solution:

• Use Apple Java Extensions for Macosx and jdic for all other platforms.

• Linux: "gnome-open" instead of "kfmclient exec"