Web app manager linux mint

Web App Manager – Convert Any Website into an App

Alongside many bug fixes that were recently backported to Linux Mint 19.3, Linux Mint 20, and LMDE 4, the Linux Mint community updated their Warpinator app to improve network connectivity and the preservation of file permissions. They also announced a new tool spawned from working together with Peppermint OS, Web App Manager.

WebApp Manager is a utility app created from the collaboration between Linux Mint and Peppermint based on Peppermint’s ICE – an app with which users can turn their favorite apps into standalone web apps and it was first released as early as 2010!

Features in WebApp Manager

• Free and open-source with a split backend for developing ICE and Web App manage independently.
• Revamped icon and user interface designs.
• Complete compatibility with ICE.
• Option to show or hide the Firefox navigation bar.
• Icon theme support with icons automatically guessed for popular websites
• Improved favicon downloads (support for favicongrabber.com).

Using the WebApp Manager is straight forward. Launch it, give the app you want to create a name, and include the corresponding URL. Choose a menu category, select an app icon and favicon, and choose the default browser for launching it. That’s all.

After creating a Web Application from any website of your choice, you can launch it directly from your app menu as you would with your native apps and it will run in a browser with a user profile. This makes switching between tabs a lot easier using the Alt+Tab command as opposed to switching between tabs within the browser. If you want, you can choose to pin WebApp Manager to your panel/system tray for easy access.

WebApp Manager is currently in BETA and it is completely free to download. While it has many updated features from it’s ICE origin, it has a lot of pending ones which will make it an even better alternative to similar apps in the market.

[mks_button size=”medium” title=”Download WebApp Manager” style=”squared” url=”http://www.linuxmint.com/tmp/blog/3960/webapp-manager_1.0.3_all.deb” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#529b30″ txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-download” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]

WebApp Manager reminds me of electron apps, which many people love to hate because of its toll on memory. What do you think about the WebApp Manager? Do you fancy another website-to-app wrapper? Drop your comments in the section below.

Источник

Soon You’ll be Able to Convert Any Website into Desktop Application in Linux Mint

Imagine this situation. You are working on a certain topic and you have more than twenty tabs open in your web browser, mostly related to the work.

Some of these tabs are for YouTube or some other music streaming website you are listening to.

You finished the work on the topic and close the browser. Your intent was to close all the work related tabs but it also closed the tabs that you were using for listening to music or some other activities.

Now you’ll have to log in to those websites again and find the track you were listening to or whatever you were doing.

Frustrating, isn’t it? Linux Mint understands your pain and they have an upcoming project to help you out in such scenario.

Linux Mint’s Web App Manager

In a recent post, Linux Mint team revealed that it is working on a new tool called Web App Manager.

The Web App Manager tool will allow you to launch your favorite websites and have them run in their own window as if they were desktop applications.

While adding a website as a Web App, you can give it a custom name and icon. You can also give it a different category. This will help you search this app in the menu.

You may also specify which web browser you want the Web App to be opened in. Option for enabling/disabling navigation bar is also there.

Say, you add YouTube as a Web App:

If you run this YouTube Web App, YouTube will now run in its own window and in a browser of your choice.

The Web App has most of the features you see in a regular desktop application. You can use it in Alt+Tab switcher:

You can even pin the Web App to the panel/taskbar for quick access.

The Web App Manager is in beta right now but it is fairly stable to use. It is not translation ready right now and this is why it is not released to the public.

If you are using Linux Mint and want to try the Web App Manager, you can download the DEB file for the beta version of this app from the link below:

Benefits of the web apps

Some readers asked about the benefits of this Web App Manager over other similar feature already available in Chrome and some other web browsers. Let me expand on this topic.

• You can use a specific part of the URL (example.com/tool instead of example.com) as an app.
• The possibility of adding custom icons comes handy for websites without a clear fevicon.
• You can use a lightweight browser without any extension to open the web app instead of the regular web browser like Chrome/Chromium. It should be faster.
• Your web app is integrated into the application menu. You can search for it like any other application.

Web apps are not new to desktop Linux

This is not something ground breaking from Linux Mint. Web apps have been on the scene for almost a decade now.

If you remember, Ubuntu had added the web app feature to its Unity desktop in 2013-14.

The lightweight Linux distribution PeppermintOS lists ICE (tool for web apps) as its main feature since 2010. In fact, Linux Mint’s Web App manager is based on Peppermint OS’s ICE.

Personally, I like web apps feature. It has its usefulness.

What do you think of Web Apps in Linux Mint? Is it something you look forward to use? Do share your views in the comment section.

Источник

How to Install Linux Mint’s Web App Manager in Ubuntu 20.04

The latest Linux Mint 20.1 introduced a new application, Web App Manager, allows to turn any web pages into desktop applications. Like a normal application, web app has its own window, its own icon, and can be launched from system app menu.

Ubuntu used to have web apps integration when it was Ubuntu 14.04. The project was however discontinued.

For those want to try out the new Web App Manager from Linux Mint, here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04.

Download & Install the DEB binary via direct link:

If you just want to try it out, the DEB binary package is available to download via Linux Mint ftp download page:

Grab it and install the package either via Gdebi package installer or by running command in terminal:

sudo apt install ./Downloads/webapp-manager*.deb

Add Linux Mint repository & Receive software udpates (for Web App Manager only):

You are able to add Linux Mint repository and only receive updates for the app from that repository.

1.) First download the key (it’s “ linuxmint-keyring_2016.05.26_all.deb ” so far):

And install it via command:

sudo apt install ./Downloads/linuxmint-keyring*.deb

2.) Add Linux Mint 20 repository by running command:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.linuxmint.com ulyssa main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mint.list'

3.) Set the priority to make Ubuntu only install webapp-manager from Linux Mint repository.

Run command to create and open the configuration file in text editor:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences.d/mint-ulyssa-pin

When it opens, paste below lines and save the file.

# Allow upgrading only webapp-manager from Ulyssa repository Package: webapp-manager Pin: origin packages.linuxmint.com Pin-Priority: 500 # Never prefer other packages from the Ulyssa repository Package: * Pin: origin packages.linuxmint.com Pin-Priority: 1

4.) Now run apt update command to refresh your system package cache:

5.) Before installing the webapp-manager package, try command:

sudo apt install webapp-manager --simulate

It won’t really install the package, but only list which packages will be installed, including the package versions (which marked with package source, Ubuntu or Linux Mint).

6.) To finally install the application, run command:

sudo apt install webapp-manager

How to Remove Web App Manager:

To remove the application, simply open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove webapp-manager

To remove the Linux Mint repository, remove the relevant line from Software & Updates -> Other Software.

And you may also remove the config file created to set the priority, via command:

sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/mint-ulyssa-pin

Источник