normally what happens when you install an app is that it creates a shortcut from where you can launch it on desktop or start menu. However, chrome apps for now are places in chrome app launcher that is packed with all other chrome apps. It's all good and fine. But is there a way to place my app on desktop with user's consent if need be.
There is a way to do it manually. Like if user right clicks on the app in chrome app launcher and click create shortcut which has checkboxes showing places where shortcuts are going to be created ex: desktop, startmenu...
Without a icon of your app on desktop it still doesn't feel like a standalone app.
You can check out the chrome.management.createAppShortcut API that is added recently. Now it's only available on the dev channel:
chrome.management.createAppShortcut("app_id");
There is no way to do this. Users can also drag their app from the app launcher to the desktop to create a shortcut.
An API to prompt the user for this isn't something we're likely to support. Personally I think users would find it annoying, as it is simple and easy to create shortcuts where they want.
If you disagree please file a feature request at http://crbug.com. It would be there is some action we could take, e.g. educate users better that they can create shortcuts, but crbug.com is a better place to discuss.
Related
I am working on flutter desktop application and want to show alert dialog before closing window. Could not get any information about detecting window closing action.
Can anyone tell me how to do this. Thankx.
You can do it using the existing flutter_window_close package. Check out the example here.
This plugin lets your Flutter app a chance to confirm if the user wants to close your app. It works on desktop platforms including Windows, macOS and Linux.
Try to explore as well bitsdojo_window.
I have Chrome installing my PWA on Android - once it's installed I'd like to automatically close the browser window it was installed from, and open the PWA (so the user doesn't continue in the browser window, thinking they're using the PWA) - is this possible?
i was looking for a similar solution and have not yet found a way to do that. I try to describe my findings so far:
CLOSING THE BROWSER WINDOW:
as described in this answer window.close() can only be called on windows/tabs that the script opened itself. Some possible workarounds are being discussed there.
OPENING THE PWA RIGHT AFTER INSTALLATION:
Google describes in their WebApk Fundamentals Article it as follows:
When a Progressive Web App is installed on Android, it will register a set of intent filters for all URLs within the scope of the app. When a user clicks on a link that is within the scope of the app, the app will be opened, rather than opening within a browser tab.
I was hoping that would work also right after the installation/Adding to homescreen from the still open browser window.
Based on testing with two Android devices it seems as if at the moment the user has to manually open the PWA from the homescreen once for chrome/android to interpret the scope of the web apps manifest.json as intend to open the page in standalone.
This is sad for even iOS seems to handle that different.
Maybe I am overlooking something in the Google Article? I also do not fully understand androids intent API - so maybe there is some way to still achieve that (?)
Based from this blog post:
When the PWA is installed, it will appear in the home screen, in the
app launcher, in Settings and as any other first-class citizen app in
the OS, including information on battery and space used in the system.
There's a tracking event when the user opens the app from the home screen. That means the user has clicked the app's icon or, on Android with WebAPK support, also clicked on a link pointing to the PWA scope and need to close the browser.
start_url: '/?utm_source=standalone&utm_medium=pwa'
Also, the following script leaves us a boolean stating if the user is currently in a browser (true) or a standalone app mode (false)
var isPWAinBrowser = true;
// replace standalone with fullscreen or minimal-ui according to your manifest
if (matchMedia('(display-mode: standalone)').matches) {
// Android and iOS 11.3+
isPWAinBrowser = false;
} else if ('standalone' in navigator) {
// useful for iOS < 11.3
isPWAinBrowser = !navigator.standalone;
}
I had this problem on Android with Chrome. The change that made the difference is adding "target='_blank'" to the link. It looks like:
window.addEventListener('appinstalled', function(event){
setTimeout(function(){
presentToUser("<a href='https://myhostname.com' target='_blank'>Go to App</a>")
}, 10000)}
});
The ten second timeout is to give Android the time to set up the App on the home page.
I had made that adjustment earlier; possibly I can remove it?
But setting the target was what made this work.
The App opens over the top of Chrome, obscuring it.
So closing the browser is not immediately required but is recommended.
In the new versions of chrome, after installation in android it associate all the links in the "scope" to the PWA application, if you try to open a link in your chrome browser it open directly in the application.
hope that will answer your question
Google announced that they drop support for web apps in Chrome.
Basically, web app is a local HTML/CSS/JS app that runs in a separated custom "standalone" Chrome window.
Is there any way (preferably easy), to convert this web app to a real desktop app that not depend on Chrome in anyway? Using maybe NodeJS? If yes what is the right way to do it?
Thanks.
You could try one of these tools:
https://applicationize.me/
https://www.bzgapps.com/coherence
https://fluidapp.com/ (for Mac only)
Don't know about "easy", but it seems to me that the natural evolution is to Electron or NW.js, and both of these are mentioned in the Google blog article on this subject. (I'm moving to Electron.) Both have advantages over Chrome Apps, mostly that they are true desktop applications. To cite one example, you can now manipulate the menu bar, something out-of-bounds for Chrome Apps.
Pure JavaScript code in your Chrome App, such as anything to access the internet, should move over directly. Same for much UI stuff, as you're still using a browser window for the UI. The app will, however, have to be restructured.
Added Note: Chrome Apps ran on 4 platforms: MacOS, Windows, Linux, ChromeOS. Electron and NW.js apps won't run on ChromeOS. So, the ability to write a four-platform completely binary-portable app is going away.
Our company designs museum and visitor center exhibitory, and my main job is designing touch screen kiosk applications. Enamored by Vidya's introduction to Kiosk Apps using Chrome boxes, I quickly had my boss procure one for testing. I have since gained a firm grasp of Chrome App structure going though Google's tutorials (manifest files, MVC, etc) and have found the performance of our little HP Chromebox plus HTML5 development to be pretty impressive. I'm developing on my Macbook using Chrome Canary to run and test the apps.
I'm adding in this background information so you can better understand my goals. We of coarse need these apps to launch full screen upon power up. No login or user installation is desired. I prepare the boxes in my office, install them at the exhibit, the end. We certainly don't want our multimedia apps to be sitting up on the Chrome Web Store for others to download and install.
So, I've gotten to the point where I want to install a simple kiosk app on our HP Chromebox. Unfortunately Vidya did not go into detail on this part. The page from her article only touches upon adding kiosk_enabled" : true to the manifest file.
So here's what I've tried so far: I've moved my app folder onto an SD card and moved it from there onto our HP Chromebox into the "Downloads" folder (apparently the only folder). I sign into Chrome Browser on the box with my company account (do I have to do this?) and load up chrome:extensions. I click "load unpacked extension..." and select my app folder. The app installs and I am able to manually launch it by clicking "Launch". Next, I click the "Manage kiosk applications..." button and enter the app ID into the field. This is where I get stuck. Clicking "Add" produces an "Invalid Application" error.
Looking around the web I have found lots of confusing information:
I must "Wipe" the Chromebox in order to use a Ctrl+Alt+K key command to truly enable kiosk mode. (Google's instructions on how to do this stops with Samsung and Asus 'boxes, I have an HP, not to mention the "Manage Kiosk Applications" button is already visible to me).
I must upload my App to the Webstore as either public or unlisted, and then download and install it onto my Chromebox. Really? I don't want to sell my app or make it available to anyone. It is only meant to run in our exhibit. Our apps could be gigs of data with HD videos!
I must make my Chromebox "Managed" or "Enterprise" or "Enroll" it for Work and Education Administration. In most cases, we'll be installing one or two of the 'boxes to allow users to navigate though static HTML pages. I don't have a need to manage a fleet remotely (at least not yet). So, the aforementioned complications seem unnecessary, and expensive if I understand things correctly.
Can someone point me to the definitive process for achieving my goal of an auto starting, full screen kiosk application on my Chromebox?
I'm not an expert on this but kiosk apps are defined by "kiosk_enabled": true in manifest.json. What's important to know, though, is that from what I've seen they can work in three different modes:
If they are installed as an unpacked extension (for example, in development) they will be available as apps in your logged in environment and run but full screen mode. They're essentially "normal" apps except that they are full screen.
If they are installed using the "Manage kiosk applications..." button then they are available without logging in. On the log in screen at the bottom you'll be able to see the app and click to start it without logging in. However they won't start automatically. AFAIK you also can't load an unpacked extension in this way.
If you enable "kiosk mode" for Chrome OS then you can make kiosk apps auto start. At least on the Asus CB you do have to do the CTRL-ALT-K keystroke BEFORE you log in for the first time. This is for an unmanaged device. Now, when you load the app using "Manage kiosk applications..." in chrome://extensions and hover your mouse over it in the dialog you should seen a "enable auto-start" or similar button. You need to select this. Now, when you restart the system the app should automatically start. If you want to cancel this just as the app is loading you can press CTRL-ALT-S. A message indicates this on the screen, too.
Hope that helps,
Simon
Can't help you with anything related to kiosk, but you can generate a CRX file from the Extensions page on your development system, get that onto the Chromebox, put the Extensions page of the Chromebox into developer mode, and then drag the CRX to the Extensions page and drop it. You should see a dialog asking you if you want to install it. This is a completely different form of install than loading an unpacked extension and may get around whatever limitations you're seeing.
UPDATE: (1) Extensions page on Chromebox doesn't have to be in Developer Mode, (2) CRX to be dragged must be in the Downloads directory, not on Google Drive. Didn't test external device (SD card or USB drive).
In order to add your app from Manage Kiosk Applications, you will need to publish your app to the Chrome Web Store. If you don't want your app to be public you can publish it as Unlisted, which means that anyone with the link can install it. Unfortunately, if the app is published as Private you will not be able to add it as a kiosk app. [source]
Beyond that, the only thing you need to do to create a kiosk app is to include "kiosk_enabled": true in your manifest.json file.
So I am working on a bundle of applications for my company for the iPad and am trying to figure out if it is possible to install an app but hide the icon. It will not need to be launched from the desktop directly. Instead, I have created a launch desktop that controls login and the launch of the actual apps via custom URL schemes. We decided to do this so we can have many people developing different apps at the time time that quickly and easily connect to a single login and launch desktop. We are trying to make all of the services we offer interconnected.
Does anyone know if this is possible? Or am I going to have to redirect to the login app if the user launches any of the individual apps. That is what we were trying to avoid. It would be incredibly annoying and clunky for the user. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
No is the short answer, you can't install an app and hide the icon.
Even if you could, your architecture sounds pretty clunky. If your services are interconnected, then would it not be better to have everything in the same app? There are plenty of ways to share coding between many developers without everyone having their own, separate app.
Maybe.
There used to be a trick where if you installed so many apps that you filled up every page, any apps installed after that would not have a visible icon (but you could run them via a Spotlight search).
If this behavior still exists, then fill up your iPad's launcher/springboard with apps (download 100's of free games, etc.), then install the apps that you want to be invisible, then delete all the games, and your chosen app might remain with an "invisible" icon.