Chrome WebView quickstart

While continuing my research about how to make a cross-platform desktop application based on ViStriker website, using a WebView and just connecting to the site without rewrite the application from scratch, I found this lightweight alternative: Google packaged Apps.

From: https://developer.chrome.com/apps/about_apps ,

"Chrome Apps let you use HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript to deliver an experience comparable to a native application."

Let's give a try!

Notice

This is a temporary solution. As provided in the link above, Chrome packaged apps will be discontinued in the early 2018.

Results

Obviously, results are amazing.

And it occupies only 16 KB disk space. This is an impressive result.

Why it is so lightweight?

Chrome apps, in order to run, needs to have Google Chrome installed to work.

In fact, launchers like linux_launcher.sh launch the following process:

google-chrome --silent-launch --load-and-launch-app=$PWD/app

1. So we must have Google Chrome installed to run 'google-chrome' process;
2. Google Chrome is silently launched, so user doesn't notice it might be actually a Google Chrome application;
3. Flag --load-and-launch-app installs our Google App as an extension, temporarly, by fetching files inside app folder in the current working directory (PWD) such as manifest.json that contains application metadata, assets and more.

Although Google Chrome is a VERY common browser and it is installed on lots of machines, there are users who do not have it installed, therefore our application will not run without Chrome. This is a drawback to consider.

Another drawback, as stated above in "Notice" section, is the discontinuity of Google packaged apps. However you can follow a migration process. Check this resource: https://developers.chrome.com/apps/migration

I like this solution because it is VERY lightweight since I use Google Chrome on my computer.

In order to change webview website, edit the following line inside /app/window.html:

    <webview src="http://finalgalaxy.github.io/vistriker-FE/"></webview>

Notice also that Google Apps have more features than just embedding websites.