Standalone Webapps - WebRunner
UPDATE - 071010 - after further testing I found a couple of errors in my original webapp file. So, I’ve updated the icon and a couple other things and reposted. Enjoy!
Over at Lifehacker they’ve posted about the standalone Mozilla based WebRunner. WebRunner is, well I’ve pretty much been over that already. The point is, you can launch a webapp from a standalone program, allowing you to do things without getting distracted by all that… extra web. I really like this concept, I now have links for Gmail, Google Reader, and all those other nifty web 2.0 apps I like.
I wanted to give this a try myself, so I’ve made a standalone Wikipedia launcher. Get it here. It’s a launcher for the Wikipedia’s English main page.
Make your own! It’s dead simple! All you do is install the WebRunner software, create an ini file for your app, create icons and zip these files together. Rename the zip file to your.webapp and your good to go!
There’s a couple of worrying things about the webapp files - from a security standpoint. The biggest of these is that you can include a js file with javascript that runs at an application level. In other words it has access to everything that the application has access to, like - oh I don’t know - the file system?! (in my best Church Lady voice - oh crap am I revealing my age!). Another is the fact that you’re using a zip format to distribute the rest of your files. Which of course can have it’s own security problems when used with other programs. You also don’t really have the ability to get at a lot of the standard Mozilla settings that WebRunner shares. So you can’t make adjustments to settings for cookies, passwords and the like.
At any rate, it’s still a relatively young application, so I’m sure they’ll get the security issues addressed, but for now, make sure you inspect those files before you run them!
Links:
WebRunner
Lifehacker post
My Wikipedia launcher
Disclaimer
Keep in mind while running these webapps with WebRunner, that WebRunner itself is still a in pre-release/beta stages. Which means that the webapps found on this site, while working to view sites and what not, are not intended to be a replacement for your standard browser. The websites you’ll be viewing were not designed to be used with WebRunner, and therefore not all features on these sites may be compatible with it. I claim no responsibility for any malfunctions related to WebRunner. I’m providing files that allow you to access some websites, nothing more. Feel free to use the webapp files found on this site, but keep in mind you’re using them at your own risk - and without warranty!
December 5th, 2007 09:32
Hi,
I’ve just read all your entries on webrunner/prism : thanks for all your tips :)
I’ve got a problem when I try to make my own webapp, even if I follow your instructions.
But I have the same problem with a webapp found on wiki’s prism bundles, with resizr.webapp ( http://www.blogscooper.com/webapps/Rsizr.webapp ).
The problem is : when I doubleclick on Rsizr.webapp, Prism opens a windows answering to fill fields concerning name, url etc. like I just run Prism for the fisrt time before putting an url.
I hope I was a bit clear in my explications. Can you help me to resolve how to make it works fine like yours webapps please ?
Thanks.
December 7th, 2007 20:30
Hi Daria, thanks for the complements and comments! Looks like you’re putting part of a cold fusion document into your webapp instead of having a zipped up set of files. I’ve gone ahead and written a simplified howto on making your own webapp, here’s the link:
http://www.luckydisasters.com/2007/12/07/howto-make-your-own-webapp/
Hope this helps!