From Vim Tips Wiki

Tip 1200 Previous Next Created: April 8, 2006 Complexity: basic Author: bigkm Version: 5.7

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Open php.net's documentation with the word underneath the cursor

noremap gd ! open [http://php.net/<cword><CR> http://php.net/<cword><CR>];

[edit] Comments

I couldn't find a way to open the php manual in an already-open window except by compiling Firefox myself. Instead I had to go with re-launching the browser each time I wanted to check the manual. Also, in order to launch Firefox when it is already running, the new instance will need a separate profile, so it does get a litte complicated:

function OpenPHPManual(keyword)
  let firefox = '/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin'
  " you will need to create this profile in firefox
  let profile = 'Profile for PHP Manual'
  let url = 'http://www.php.net/' . a:keyword
  exec '!' . firefox . ' -p "' . profile . '" "' . url . '"'
endfunction
noremap gd :call OpenPHPManual(expand('<cword>'))<CR>

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On my GNOME system I use "gnome-open http://domain.com"; to open the default browser (Firefox). I've configured Firefox to open new windows in new tabs if a browser is already open.

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For mozilla, informations here: http://www.mozilla.org/unix/remote.html

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Manpageview supports php help (it uses links), for example:

:Man bzopen

while in a file identified by the syntax highlighting as being php.

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Here is what I did. I use lynx to see the documentation, but the documentation at PHP.org has some menu stuff I don't want to see (I have to scroll everytime). And the speed is slower than if it were local. So I downloaded the doc files and put it on my webserver. I still want to search the php website if i cant remember the function name. So i added two options:

function OpenPHPManual(keyword)
  let web = 'lynx -accept_all_cookies --cookie_file=/home/jon/.lynx_cookies --cookie_save_file=/home/jon/.lynx_cookies --cookies'
  let url = 'http://jp2.php.net/' . a:keyword
  exec '!' . web . ' "' . url . '"'
endfunction

function OpenPHPManualLocal(keyword)
  let web = 'lynx'
  let url = 'http://192.168.0.2/~jon/phpdoc/function.' . a:keyword . '.html'
  exec '!' . web . ' "' . url . '"'
endfunction

noremap fd :call OpenPHPManualLocal(expand('<cword>'))<CR>
noremap fj :call OpenPHPManual(expand('<cword>'))<CR>

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Add a -nopause to the above lynx command. It makes getting the files from PHP's mirrors faster.

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If you are using Mac OS X you can use the 'open' command which tries to use an existing Firefox window:

:!open [http://www.php.net/<cword> http://www.php.net/<cword>];

If you use 'sudo vim ...' then you're running 'open' as Admin User, which may still have Safari as the default browser, in which case you can use 'sudo /Applications/Firefox...' to start firefox as Admin and set Firefox as the default web browser.

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