Site-specific browsers

[archcommus]

Hey everyone. I've recently become interested in "site-specific browsers" to give a more desktop app feel to a web app. This is because I have a number of web apps that I run for extended periods of time, and don't like them to get mixed with my temporary browsing windows on the taskbar. After some research, I was disappointed with what I found. I ultimately wanted something that would provide IE rendering and ActiveX support. So I quickly made one and it actually works pretty well. It will provide the exact functionality and output that IE would, and allows you to make custom shortcuts, icons, etc., truly making it feel and look like a desktop application. Really, there's nothing more I need it to do. Would anyone else be interested in this? If so, I could clean it up and provide a release. Would also be open to hearing suggestions for more features this could use.

Thanks.

 

[MrChad]

You mean like Chrome's Application Shortcuts?

 

[archcommus]

Yes. But Chrome doesn't play nice with authenticated proxies or ActiveX stuff built for IE. Prism (Firefox) has similar issues with ActiveX. Adobe AIR requires specially built sites. I wanted something that could be used with any site and provide the same rendering and functionality as IE, for things like internal business apps. That is what I've built.

 

[lxskllr]

Sounds nifty. I don't have a use for it, but that could fill a nice little niche in web applications.

 

[sourceninja]

Cool!

I do my best to convince myself that nothing requires IE. But I can see how this could be useful to people who have to use IE. If you release it I'll recommend it to people I know who use IE on a day to day basis. I use http://fluidapp.com/ on OSX and it does work great.

 

[archcommus]

Cool!

I do my best to convince myself that nothing requires IE. But I can see how this could be useful to people who have to use IE. If you release it I'll recommend it to people I know who use IE on a day to day basis. I use http://fluidapp.com/ on OSX and it does work great.

Could you ask those friends if they would find something like this useful, and if so what sort of features they would like to see? It would make sense to hear that stuff first before preparing a release. Thanks!