Is there a way to make firefox stream youtube videos in an external player (eg vlc) when you click on a youtube video? More generally, is it possible to run an external script upon clicking certain types of links, eg those that are of the form www.youtube.com/watch?v=* ?
Even more ambitiously, when I click on a youtube video while pressing down CTRL, I want to automatically ssh into my raspberry pi and stream the video on the pi with omxplayer.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Primarily what you require is issuing an external command on your OS from your browser. But this is usually tough due to obvious security reasons. However, there is an add-on for Firefox which can achieve this : Commandrun. But I haven't tried this addon so can't comment on it.
However, I'd suggest another alternative solution using Autokey. This is not going to be the best solution as per your needs but it can be a reasonable one.
So, first install autokey:
sudo apt-get install autokey-gtk #Assuming you're on a Debian-based linux
Now, in Autokey, create a new script and write the following lines in that script:
import subprocess
keyboard.send_keys("<ctrl>+l") #Bring cursor to the location bar
time.sleep(0.15)
keyboard.send_keys("<ctrl>+c") #Now copy the location from the location bar
time.sleep(0.15)
keyboard.send_keys("<ctrl>+w") #Now close the window
time.sleep(0.15)
text = clipboard.get_selection() #copy the clipboard content i.e. the URL
subprocess.call(["vlc", text]) #Make the call to vlc player
Now, assign some hotkey to this script such as SuperL or anything else that you prefer. Also, assign a filter so that this script will run only on Firefox windows and not any other window. To apply the filter just add .*Firefox.* in the Filter.
Whenever you are on a youtube video page on Firefox, you can now press SuperL and this script will run. It will first copy the url and then close the youtube tab. Then it will take this url and make a call to vlc to run this video.
You can further easily extend the script to make an ssh connection to your RaspberryPi and run the video there.
