I see that the lastest versions of Firefox come with a webapprt.exe and webapprt-stub.exe executable. I think that they are for the Open Web Apps system but I would like to know if it's possible to use the WebAppRT container with external made applications. I mean that I could distribute the WebAppRT executable, the shared libs required and my HTML files and deploy it offline without having Firefox installed.
Why?
What do you mean by "external made applications"?
Why don't you just create a web app as explained in Building Web apps - App Center | MDN ?
It will take care of the details and allow your app to reach more platform than doing it manually. For a glance see Platform-specific details of app installation - App Center | MDN
You don't have to do anything special to install apps on different platforms. All the information you need to provide, such as the app name, is contained in the app manifest. Here are some platform-specific details about how apps are installed on each platform. These details assume that Firefox has been installed on the platform.
To make that path easier, you can follow tutorials or clone an existing open-source web app that has something in common to see how it's done.
What did you mean?
If you mean to just manually locally install a some app that you write, the simplest thing to do would be to install any app, look at what's been done and replicate the steps with your app. But what's the point?
My guess is: it will work only if the local OS has a platform to actually execute the app. Then that platform will also be able to install the app properly. So, it will be simpler to you to just make a regular web app and have it installed through standard means.
Or were you thinking of something else?
Related
I'm trying to determine if I can access any browser api for chrome OS that will allow me to identify the device that its running on when the application has been force-installed in kiosk mode as a PWA.
We're running into exactly the same issue right now. The correct path seems to be to create a PWA and to connect it to a (pre-installed) extension that has access to the enterprise.deviceAttributes:
See https://developers.chrome.com/apps/migration:
"If there is a capability that your Chrome App has that the regular web platform can't provide, it might be available as an extension API. In this case, you use a progressive web app together with an externally connectable extension your web app can send messages to."
enterprise.deviceAttributes are only accessible if the calling App/Site is pre-installed to the device and not loaded dynamically, so it cannot run in the PWA by design.
But with this tutorial, it seems possible:
https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/messaging#external-webpage
We're looking into that right now and will post our progess here.
I developed an extension that communicates with a host (also developed by me), as provided by the https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/nativeMessaging example, and it works just fine.
Now I need to distribute my host with my extension and I couldn't find in Distributions how can I package my host along my extension. Are there any examples of how can I do it? Or must I distribute my host elsewhere?
I couldn't find in Distributions how can I package my host along my extension.
Support for this has been requested and turned down by Chrome developers.
I would recommend reading that thread for some insights in how native hosts are supposed to work according to them.
Or must I distribute my host elsewhere?
That's the idea. You need an installer hosted somewhere else.
wOxxOm's proposal is not going to work seamlessly, since a Native host cannot function without registering it with the system (e.g. adding a registry key on Windows) - something an extension cannot trigger.
It's possible you can still follow the bundle-download-open route for an installer, but I imagine it may get frowned upon by Chrome Web Store.
Currently I am exploring the possibilities and features of Google Chrome apps. As I see to run chrome apps we need to distribute them through chrome App Store. Could we develop a application as a chrome app, which will not need to release to general public or for a limited audience?
Is there anyway that we could package it to native OS executable like .exe in windows or .app in MacOS. So for users who doesn't have chrome installed will also can without any issue. Or at least could we distribute without submitting it to the App Store.
Also I am wondering whether we can run another application through chrome apps? For example I am planing to develop a java application and start with the chrome app.
You can distribute a Chrome App without using the Chrome Web Store, but you'll have to explain to users how to install it, and it's a little tricky: They have to open the Extensions window in Chrome and then drag the installation file to that window. Upon dropping it, there will be a dialog asking them if they want it installed. (They can't just double-click on a file or do anything else that's easy like that.)
Chrome Apps can't directly launch native apps, but they can communicate in various ways with native apps (or any apps) once those other apps are running.
(Some parts of your question are ungrammatical, so I can't be completely sure what you're asking, but the above is what I think you're asking.)
Chrome Extensions are only installable from the Web Store, but Applications can be privately hosted with some provisos: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/hosting
I know what is metro app (just did some research) my question is where metro app runs. By my understanding :
Detktop app: running on your local machine with .net framework, and present data to user, you can launch/close it.
Web app: Publishing on IIS server, running from server render html to client, user can send request and get result.
Now, Metro app: is it just distributed on windows store, user can download/install it and run from local as same as desktop? or run from store, render something to user like web? or maybe some new working styles, can user close it?
Metro Style App was a working name before Microsoft settled on Windows Store Apps.
Windows Store Apps just like desktop apps run on local machine, but are often architected in more modern ways where the app would often connect to web services or push notifications that run in a data center. The UI though usually runs on local machine even if it is written in html/js with winjs.
The biggest difference is distribution - web apps run on the server so you only need to navigate to them in your browser to run the latest version. Desktop apps need to be installed - either with xcopy-style install, Windows installer or perhaps the ClickOnce technology. Store apps are distributed through the store which makes them easier to install and update than desktop apps as well as monetize, but are sandboxed (have limited access to local machine resources) for security.
I'm not sure of the proper term to describe what I wan to do.
I'm working on a Flex app. It depends on a php based web service running in the same web server.
Right now, I'm using the free version of FDT. It will not let my app access the php web service while running in the SWF (FDT's built in Flex app viewer).
I'd really like to be able to step thru my Flex app in a debugger. So I need an IDE that will let me run a Flex app that accesses an outside web service.
A co-worker told me that IntelliJ supports this. I'd like to know if there are any options - Eclipse, NetBeans anything else.
Mark
i ultimately settled on FDT. i lost stepwise debugging but Firefox + web console and I've been able to do everything I need to.