Make Stand-Alone Web Apps with Fluid - Gmail, Google Reader, Pandora, etc.

hey all,

just recently was looking for a way to make a standalone Pandora app. Pandora has actually released one that uses Adobe AIR, but it really isn't the most elegant solution, as it uses quite a bit of cpu resources, and doesn't really use Cocoa like it really should.

I found a really cool solution in a free app that can basically turn an website, or webbased application, into a standalone application, it is called Fluid.

just begin creating a new app by entering the URL you want to use, pandora.com, reader.google.com, me.com, etc.

it is a fantastic application, as it gives you a huge number of options to choose on your new app, pretty much everything available in the Cocoa framework.

here is the example I made for Pandora:


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Of course with my own custom icon, haven't you been paying attention? ^_^

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its really nice because this way you can easily do the old Cmd+Tab maneuver to switch to Pandora, and use its built in keyboard shortcuts to control it, just like you would with iTunes.

with fluid, you can even create MenuBar applications, as well as many other interesting things.

you could even create a standalone NBR - Apple and Mac OS X Forum, app, one that specifically opens up this forum for browsing, not the most useful thing ever, but the possibilities are massive with this tool.

 

probably the greatest part about all of this is that Fluid actually creates truly stand-alone apps. even if Fluid is completely removed, the apps will still work entirely on their own, and can be modified just like any other Cocoa application, icon and all.

another example:


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before, I thought it would be better to just have a Google Reader App that automatically opened it up in my current web browser window in a new tab, but using Fluid, I can make a gReader app that not only is stand-alone, but can be setup to open up any other weblinks in my default web browser, not getting in the way of whatever I am currently doing in google reader.

absolutely fantastic, takes all the development work that goes into creating a web application and makes it available to the user in whatever form they would like.

if anyone would like one of these apps, let me know.

 

Yes. It amazes me that these standalone web apps work so well.

This is actually supposed to be a new feature of Snow Leopard, the ability of Safari to make standalone web apps. I'm not sure if it'll be backported to Leopard since it could be done. Hopefully the Fluid developers don't mind.

 

Thats really cool... do you know if there is a similar application compatible with Windows? I use both Mac OSX and Windows extensively and it would be cool to have that in both environments.

 

most likely it is possible, as Fluid uses the same framework as Safari, but I would definitely not expect it anytime soon, if ever.

it is much easier to develop something like this for OS X because of the Cocoa framework.

EVERYONE POST UP ANY INTERESTING APPS YOU MAKE WITH FLUID!

I am currently using Gmail, Google Reader, and Pandora apps, and I must say it is such a breath of fresh air to be using my web browser for proper web browsing. but I still know all the content I am dealing with on these apps is always available on the net.

Quite honestly, I have been trying to promote google reader to almost everyone I know that uses the internet at all, instead of going to all of your favorite sites everyday and checking out whats going on, you simply can file up google reader to see if there is anything that peaks your interest, then check out articles or sites further by opening them up in your regular web browser, or even in the new app itself.

People have been making stand-alone apps for awhile but with Fluid it opens this up to everyone. I would be surprised if Safari's new feature is as powerful as Fluid.

 

Yeah they are cool and I believe they're called Site Specific Browsers. And Fluid uses WebKit, same as safari.

 

yeah exactly, SSB's that use the Cocoa framework to create an app that stays consistent with the rest of the UI.

 

looks really interesting