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I believe this can actually be categorized as a bug.

Example

Suppose you have two profiles:

  • default, which is grey colored
  • school, which is green colored

If you launch the default profile, external links get sent to the default profile.
If you then open the school profile, external links get sent to the default profile.
You can open other profiles too, external links get to the default profile.
So far, this behavior is intentional.

But, if you were to launch the school profile, external links get sent to the school profile.
If you then open the default profile, external links get sent to the school profile.
You can open more profiles too. What we see here is that Orion sends links to the latest open profile.

video

Video below does exactly as described above.

Another example

For example, if you were to open profile A, B, C, D, E in that order.
links get sent to A.
quit A, then links get sent to B.
quit B, then links get sent to C.
It actually doesn't matter what profile is set to be default when opening external links.

Intended behavior

Orion should always send links to open in the default profile, launching the default profile if required, rather than the latest open profile. The only place where "default" has any signifance is when all profiles are quit.

    adamaveray Stuff like choosy and velja do work, except that the "original default"[1] profile cannot be chosen to be launched, as it only appears as it doesnt have its own special path

    [1]: Call the profile that is the "default" profile that Orion starts out with as the "original default" profile. If you were to set the "default" profile to be something else, there still is no path in Finder for the "original default" profile, so you cannot explicitly open that profile. the "original default" profile is also the synced profile.

    This video shows that the "original default" profile, grey, still has different functionality.

      2 months later

      This feature allows a user to click on any URL/link on any app and the page will open on the last active profile regardless of which one is set to "default." This is to ensure that there's no need for any third party apps to define which URL gets opened on which profile.

      When I am in work mode any external/url i click on from any app will open in my work profile since that is the profile I am active in.

      I then swipe over to my personal desktop where I have Discord and a personal profile of chrome. I click my personal chrome to check my personal gmail, then i switch over to discord where a friend send me a funny youtube video. i click that link and the video opens in my personal profile because that was the last active profile of chrome.

      after i watch the video i swipe over to do my work again. i get a ping from a coworker on slack. i click that link and now that url opens on my work profile because that was now my last active profile.

      • Vlad replied to this.
        Merged 1 post from External links should open on the last active profile.

          onionbrowser Merging here, to arrive at conclusion what does the community want us to do.

              its interesting that people want links to open on the default which is fine but the use case for me is that i have one mac machine and i have two desktops. one for work apps and one for personal apps. when i am on my work desktop i see slack and my work profile on chrome. i do most of my work on gsuite there and so any links i open on my work slack opens there.

              then i swipe over to my desktop 2 which is all my personal apps and my personal chrome profile. i click on chrome to check my personal gmail. then i check discord and someone sent me a funny youtube video. i want that link to open on my personal chrome.

              i also have a personal slack channel and i click on a URL there and it will open on my personal chrome because that was the last profile that was active.

              its basically the only feature that keeps me on chrome at the moment. maybe its very niche... but its something that I've found difficult to step away from chrome for.

              • Vlad replied to this.

                onionbrowser All good we just need a community to agree what they want so we do it right the first time. And no, we will not create a setting just for this.

                  phy @Vlad is this true? If it is, seems like the latest active profile is what the external url will open.

                  Is the way to achieve this by not setting any profile as the “default”?

                  Maybe that’s the solve for both scenarios. Let ppl choose a default to open all external links there OR let people not set a default profile so any external link opens on the last active profile.

                      16 days later

                      hello all -- curious if there's a desire to have external links open in the last active profile or at least work on that setting as a feature vs letting all links open in the default profile. ty!

                        4 days later

                        I'm using Velja, and quite happy with it.

                        The only thing that is awkward is that I always need to start the primary "default sync" profile (the original one created when first run) before I start other profiles. I need to do this so that opening links using the original Orion app icon will open them in this profile. If I don't do this, there is no way to get links opened in that original profile.

                        There are a few ways I can see to making this easier.

                        1. Make a separate Orion app icon / executable for the primary profile, so that it's just like other profiles in this regard. There would be a "Show in Finder" context menu for this profile in Manage Profiles, just like the other profiles.
                        2. Have opening links with Orion (and not a specific profile's app executable) open the primary profile, always, regardless of which profile was the first to be opened on launch.

                        The current behaviour of "whichever profile was first to launch is used for opening Orion app links" seems kind of accidental. I'd prefer to have a well defined behaviour that doesn't depend on how I started up Orion.

                          I just made a workaround by adding a profile launcher, like the ones Orion provides, but this one uses the command:

                          exec arch -arm64 "/Applications/Orion.app/Contents/MacOS/Orion"

                          (removing the -P xxxxxxx from the end)

                          This seems to always launches the primary (original) profile.

                          Edit: but now I'm playing with it some more, I'm not 100% sure what it's doing any more :-)

                            SteveA this is what i had built out but after a few hours of using it was not ideal. for example i use discord with friends on personal channels and am a part of a few others for work. third party apps define which profile to use based on where that external URL comes from (ie discord) but i am not app-specific. I am context specific.

                            chrome seems to be the only one that does "last active profile" to be the profile to open external URLs which is what im looking for. hopefully safari and/or others will follow this model

                                Please add this feature for the last active profile. When I'm hopping around my personal and work profiles, it is really annoying that links open in the wrong profile.

                                  httpjames agreed but you can see others want external tabs to open on their default browser... kinda crazy how opposite some ppls workflows are lol

                                      We are still waiting for community concensus and will then implement the feature as requested.

                                        Vlad is there some sort of poll we can start? how will we determine consensus exactly? thanks!

                                        • Vlad replied to this.

                                            Safari now does profiles and allows the last active profile to open external URLs!

                                              Ok so default profile or last active? Or will we need to add a setting for this.