[HN Gopher] Show HN: FTWA - Turn any website into an app
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       Show HN: FTWA - Turn any website into an app
        
       Author : mathix
       Score  : 64 points
       Date   : 2024-10-14 23:51 UTC (23 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ftwa.mathix.dev)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ftwa.mathix.dev)
        
       | harryvederci wrote:
       | Cool stuff!
       | 
       | @mathix maybe you can make it clear on the website that this
       | doesn't create app/play store apps, as most people probably think
       | about them when they read "turn any website into an app".
       | 
       | From the github readme[0]:
       | 
       | > FTWA uses the --app='https://app.example' parameter with
       | Chromium-based browsers to launch a website in "app mode".
       | 
       | > [...]
       | 
       | > When choosing linux as target OS, FTWA generate a shell script
       | that will create a .desktop file and it's icons.
       | 
       | [0]: https://github.com/mathix420/free-the-web-apps?tab=readme-
       | ov...
        
         | mathix wrote:
         | Thanks! Yes I didn't realized I don't speak about this on the
         | website, good advice!
        
       | EffrafaxOfWug wrote:
       | If you are interested in using this then I can also highly
       | recommend webapp manager.
       | 
       | https://github.com/linuxmint/webapp-manager
        
       | sigh_again wrote:
       | Pretty good! Just a few observations:
       | 
       | * The Firefox (BETA) entry does not work on default Ubuntu
       | installs, where Firefox is a Snap. Yes, snap bad, bla bla bla,
       | but it still remains one of the most likely way Firefox will be
       | installed on Ubuntu. This comes from the fact that your script
       | attempts to locate the profile folder in ~/.mozilla/firefox,
       | whereas snaps stores them in
       | ~/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla/firefox/.
       | 
       | * New profiles unfortunately don't share logins on Firefox, which
       | means your app is disconnected at first. Not a big deal, but
       | could maybe be changed by copying some things from the default
       | profile ?
       | 
       | * Firefox does not display _any_ titlebar when ran in this way.
       | 
       | Love the idea. There's many times where I'd like something to
       | have a bit more "privilege" on my toolbar than what a regular tab
       | (even pinned) gets.
        
         | mathix wrote:
         | Thanks!
         | 
         | - Yes I could create a second firefox preset for snap installs
         | - I would prefer not to touch such sensible files, but will
         | give instructions on how to do it manually
        
           | powersnail wrote:
           | I had written a similar program (but very barebone compared
           | with what you've made), with Firefox only. The way I dealt
           | with profile, is to specify the full path of the profile,
           | rather than a name. This way, I don't have to know where
           | Firefox is searching for profiles, and I can keep all the
           | additional profiles in a separate directory, so they don't
           | mix with normal profiles and don't clog up profile manager.
        
             | mathix wrote:
             | Yes I saw this option as well, but it seems that it's not
             | possible for macOS
        
       | chakintosh wrote:
       | So I did this, turned out it's not only just Firefox without the
       | browser UI, but it also bricked my actual Firefox browser and now
       | it doesn't connect to the internet.
        
         | mathix wrote:
         | Oh pretty strange, could you please raise on issue on GitHub so
         | I can have any chance of debugging this?
        
       | hackernudes wrote:
       | I just switched to Firefox and struggled with this exact
       | functionality. The posted site ships a script for curl|sh that
       | creates a new firefox profile with a custom userChrome.css.
       | 
       | There is an official thread here with people discussing how the
       | single-page-as-an-app functionality should work:
       | https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/how-can-firefox-c...
       | 
       | I ended up writing a firefox extension to open up URLs in a new
       | "popup" window[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
       | US/firefox/addon/web-app-maker.... I just checked it on Windows
       | (usually using linux) and the popup window type does not allow
       | the maximize button to work. Oh well...
       | 
       | [1]https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-
       | ons/Web...
        
         | Zetaphor wrote:
         | There's an excellent extension that makes this pretty simple to
         | manage. Additionally the windows it creates have some pwa
         | specific settings, like how links should be handled.
         | 
         | https://github.com/filips123/PWAsForFirefox/
        
       | doubleorseven wrote:
       | Kinda off topic but this is a "Linux First" UI application(?) and
       | I love it.
        
       | frizlab wrote:
       | Is this the "Add to Dock..." feature of Safari?
        
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       (page generated 2024-10-15 23:01 UTC)