walkah: Fluid: Desktop Web Apps
Fluid: Desktop Web Apps
Matt turned me on to a new app for OS X (Leopard only) called Fluid. Essentially, fluid lets you create website-specific applications - really just little webkit browsers as their own applications with their own icons. It's really simple to use and (so far) has worked phenomenally well.
I have two web apps that have become an absolute core staple of my daily routine: Remember the Milk (for TODO management) and Google Reader (for RSS feeds). Both of these are pretty "heavy" web apps (containing lots of JS/AJAX/etc) and I had been running Firefox extensions for both which ultimately weighed down my main browser (which is where I do primary development, etc). Having them as separate applications lets me keep Firefox running (a little) leaner, and I also get pretty icons and the ability to "cmd-tab" between them.
The coolest part, however, is that Fluid has implemented icon updating on a few sites (google reader being one of them) to show the number of unread items. Check it:
Now, if I can just get Google Gears for Webkit working (for offline support for google reader & RTM) I'll be one happy camper.
The desktop / web app convergence continues...
James Walker
Fluid
Thanks for the tip, James. I tried out Fluid a while back and was very impressed with it. Now that they've added the badge feature I may give it another go.
I am unable to get the badges to work. What is the URL that you put in for Google Reader to get it to show the badges? Feel free to e-mail me.
BTW - I was in Portland at the Drupal Training. Great job on the training!
Fluid badges
Hey mystery visitor - looks like you didn't leave a name/email :-)
The badges trick for Google Reader is to use the following URL for your application:
http://www.google.com/reader/ (not reader.google.com).
Hope that helps!
Interesting
I know that I typed in my information above. Sorry about that.
I just tried using the URL in your post and it's still not displaying it. Is there another third-party utility that needs to be turned on. Could the fact that I don't have Apple's Dev Kit installed make a difference?
Strange...
I do have the Dev kit installed, I don't know if it makes a difference.
One thing I did notice, is the first time I logged into reader, it got a little confused and bounced me to my external browser... but once my session was created it was all good. *shrug*
Oh well
Last night I went and installed the Dev Kit, which I kind of figured wouldn't make a difference anyway, and still have the same problem.
At this point I'm just going to digg around the web in hopes to find something. I did some research yesterday but wasn't able to find anything. Sounds like I'm one of the only ones that is having problems, so it must be something that I'm doing. :)
Thanks for the help.
Resolved
I did something last night that I don't do often enough—I shut down my MacBook. :)
On restart the badges work fine. It's too bad because I'm not really sure what solved the problem, the restart, the installation of webkit, or the install of Apple's Dev Kit. Who knows? Who cares as long as it works now, right?
Just wanted to let you know. Happy Drupal-ing!
dock badge gmail
Is there any possibility to do the same for Gmail?
I noticed that when I use the userscript offered for the dock badge for Google Reader on Gmail it shows a strange behavior:
When my Gmail language is English (US) the script works and updates after a certain tim, say 10 seconds. When I use the same script with the language German the update interval is turned "inside out" - ten seconds of nothing and then 2 or 3 seconds the badge appears. So, it appears during that time the script updates the unread counter.
Any ideas?
Prism ftw
If you're looking for gears integration with a SSB, you really want Prism. See this post for tips on getting it running.
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