Be more forgiving when anything with opening a webbrowser fails

packages/python/plotly/plotly/io/_renderers.py

@@ -525,13 +525,15 @@ def show(fig, renderer=None, validate=True, **kwargs):
 else:
     # If ipython isn't available, try to display figures in the default
     # browser
-    import webbrowser
-
     try:
+        import webbrowser
+
         webbrowser.get()
         default_renderer = "browser"
-    except webbrowser.Error:
-        # Default browser could not be loaded
+    except Exception:
+        # Many things could have gone wrong
+        # There could not be a webbrowser Python module,
+        # or the module may be a dumb placeholder
         pass
 
 renderers.render_on_display = True

packages/python/plotly/plotly/tests/test_io/test_renderers.py

@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ def test_plotly_mimetype_renderer_show(fig1, renderer):
 # ------------
 # See plotly/tests/test_orca/test_image_renderers.py
 
+
 # HTML
 # ----
 def assert_full_html(html):
@@ -381,3 +382,45 @@ def test_repr_mimebundle_mixed_renderer(fig1):
     assert set(fig1._repr_mimebundle_().keys()) == set(
         {"application/vnd.plotly.v1+json", "text/html"}
     )
+
+
+def test_missing_webbrowser_module(fig1):
+    """
+    Assert that no errors occur if the webbrowser module is absent
+    """
+    try:
+        import builtins
+    except ImportError:
+        import __builtin__ as builtins
+    realimport = builtins.__import__
+
+    def webbrowser_absent_import(name, globals, locals, fromlist, level):
+        """
+        Mimick an absent webbrowser module
+        """
+        if name == "webbrowser":
+            raise ImportError
+        return realimport(name, globals, locals, fromlist, level)
+
+    with mock.patch("builtins.__import__", webbrowser_absent_import):
+        # 1: check whether importing webbrowser actually results in an ImportError
+        with pytest.raises(ImportError):
+            import webbrowser
+
+        # 2: check whether the _repr_html_ can handle it regardless
+        fig1._repr_html_()
+
+
+def test_missing_webbrowser_methods(fig1):
+    """
+    Assert that no errors occur if the webbrowser module does not contain some methods
+    """
+    import webbrowser
+
+    removed_webbrowser_get_method = webbrowser.get
+    try:
+        del webbrowser.get
+        fig1._repr_html_()
+    finally:
+        # restore everything after this test
+        webbrowser.get = removed_webbrowser_get_method