links2 - The graphical web browser that uses 5mb of memory (part II)

The first part of this series is getting a bit older now and was locked due to its age, but still has tons of good ideas for turning links2 into a powerful graphical browser, theming it, setting up useragent and other settings, etc: https://trisquel.info/en/forum/graphical-web-browser-uses-5mb-memory

I had some stuff I wanted to add, so since that thread is locked I'm starting a Part II here.

In recent months I've figured out the torturous process of getting links2 to automatically open some audio and video files in external media player programs. I prefer VLC for this purpose, because for music files, MPV and some of the smaller audio players just start playing in the terminal background, and don't give me options of controlling volume, fast forwarding or rewinding, etc. With VLC, I open a full VLC window and have all the controls, plus VLC usually is a very low resource media player, and so fits in very nicely with the links2 browser.

As in the past, a big reason I'm placing this here is that I will be able to find it and remind myself in the future how to do this on new systems that I'm setting up. Hope it can also help someone else move their daily browsing of simple web pages to this most amazing minimalist, libre, graphical browser.

To get media files to open automatically from links2 is process with 2 major steps and several minor steps: 1) set up the media type in the "File Extensions" menu; 2) set up the external media player in the "Associations" menu.

For my example, I'll show how to set up VLC to start up automatically and play an mp3 file, and I'll use one of my favorite Bible teaching websites, which has tons of mp3's to click on.

1) First, open links2, and hit the Escape key - the escape key starts up the menu at the top of the browser window.
2) Push the "s" button on your keyboard for the "Setup" menu, and the "e" button for the "File Extensions" dialog box (you can also use your mouse instead of the key presses to navigate the menu)
3) Each of the file extensions has a type of file (or several), followed by a colon ":", followed by a file type. In this case we are looking for the "audio/mpeg" file type. If you have a File Extension that says "mp3:audio/mpeg", then scroll down to it. If you don't have one, you'll need to create it by pushing the "a" key for "Add", and adding the word "mp3" in the top line, and the words "audio/mpeg" in the bottom line of the box that pops up. You can add more than just mp3 files to this File Extension, for example, my top line says "mp3,ogg" - so any time I click on an mp3 or ogg file, links2 will know that it is part of the File Extension "audio/mpeg". If you want to add additional file types to an existing "audio/mpeg" line, then hit the "e" key for the "Edit" dialog box, and add the additional file endings in the top line in the "mp3,ogg" format with a comma between file endings, and no spaces. In case this doesn't make sense, I've added a screenshot of my audio/mpeg dialog box so you can see how the top and bottom lines are supposed to be filled out in the dialog box.
4. Press the "Enter" key or click the "OK" button with your mouse to save the File Extension.
5. Press the "c" key to close the File Extension menu box
6. Your menu at the top will have disappeared - hit the "Escape" key again to bring it back up. Press the "s" key again to bring up the "Setup" menu, and then the "a" key to bring up the "Associations" menu box
7. Here you will need to add a new Association, so press the "a" key on your keyboard or push the "Add" button on the screen with your mouse to bring up the "Add" dialog box
8. Here it gets complicated - you have three lines to fill out, and several checkboxes to either fill or avoid
9. First, on the top "Label" line, I've given my Association a name - "MP3"
10. Next, in the "Content Type(s)" line, I add any File Extension that I want to be opened by VLC. For me, I not only want VLC to open audio/mpeg files, but also any that I designate as video/mpeg files (which I had already set up for myself in the File Extension menu). So on line two, I type out "audio/mpeg,video/mpeg". Make sure you don't have any spaces, and separate any File Extensions that you use by a comma. I've added a second picture to this post to show a completed version of the "add" dialog box for my links2.
11. On line 3, the "Program" line, add the name of the program, followed by a space and then the percent sign "%". In my case, this line reads "vlc %"
12. Underneath line three, there's a bunch of checkboxes that you MUST DEAL WITH in order to get this to work. For me, I've found that the only combination that works consistently is to uncheck the "Block Terminal While Program Running" box, to check the next 3 boxes ("Run in Terminal", "Run in X-Window", and "Ask Before Opening"), and to uncheck the final 2 boxes ("Accepts HTTP urls" and "Accepts FTP urls"). Be sure and look at the attached picture so you see what I'm talking about. I've tried every combination multiple times, and this is the only combination that works consistently. I do not know why it works and the other combinations of checking boxes do not work, and I have not been able to find good documentation, but it works with VLC for me, and so I'm happy. If anyone has a better way to do this part, please let me know in the replies below this post.
13. Press the "Enter" key or click the "OK" button with your mouse, and then click "c" for "Close" to close this "Associations" menu box
14. At this point, you may have to kill links2 and restart it to get the file-opening to work - I don't recall for sure if a restart is necessary.
15. To test it out, I go to my favorite Bible teaching/Bible Q&A radio show website, thenarrowpath.com. There are tons of mp3s of lectures and radio shows on this site - literally thousands of them. To hear today's radio broadcast, click on "Radio Program", and then "Listen to previously recorded The Narrow Path radio archives", and then on the right-hand side there will be an "Evening Show" link under either today's date or yesterday's (weekdays only). Click on the word "Evening Show" there, and your "Associations" dialog box will pop up
16. The Associations dialog box will ask you "What to do?" - "Open", "Save", "Display", or "Cancel". To hear the radio program in the VLC player, press the "o" key or click on "Open" with your mouse. Immediately VLC pops up, you will hear whistling and slow guitar playing for a few moments, and then the Bible teacher Steve Gregg will start talking.
17. If you've gotten this far and you are an atheist - good for you! You've found the #1 Bible radio show that is willing to take questions from atheists and answer them without yelling and screaming and shaming. In fact, there are regular atheist, Buddhist, and other non-Christian callers that have become good friends of the show over the years. If you listen to some of the thousands of shows that Steve Gregg has recorded since May 2006, you might find your atheism questions answered!