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By definition:

Web Application is an application that is accessed via the Web browser over a network such as the Internet or an intranet.

Is it possible to develop a Web App that does not need a browser to run on?

P.S. I am not looking for Offline Web Applications supported by HTML5. And although the question seems more of a Yes/No type, I would very much like detailed and descriptive answers.

EDIT 1: I am thinking on the lines of including a web browser engine (Webkit ) within my application, to make it browser agnostic. Not sure if thats possible, please point me in the right direction.

EDIT 2: This is indeed possible these days with ElectronJs or Nw.js. Applications like Slack are inherently web apps but can run on the desktop as a native app, and not in the browser.

Sayan
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    You can boil it down to its most basic elements, but I think you're still looking at an application--whether in a standard Web browser application or embedded within another application--that can make HTTP/HTTPS requests and render HTML. – ScoPi Nov 20 '12 at 13:55
  • @ScoPi: Of course the application needs some kind of *request-response* mechanism, bt m asking if this can be achieved **w/o** a web browser. If yes, how? (And yes the application needs to be interactive) – Sayan Nov 21 '12 at 13:17
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    Cross posted to [Web Applications](http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/37112/do-all-web-applications-run-on-a-browser) – ChrisF Dec 28 '12 at 10:32

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It really depends what you mean by "web application". In the general sense, where your target audience is comprised of actual people, yes, they will need a web browser. They could of course access your site using command line tools like curl or some such, but that's not really practical.

On the other hand, consumers of a web application can be other applications. That's usually the case when you build an API or some sort of SaaS platform. If "web application" encompasses those kind of systems, then no - they are usually accessed by programs that don't use a web browser (although even other programs can use a browser to interact with web pages).

Thilo
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  • Is `curl` some kind of tool that can be used instead of a browser by a client? And yes, m interested in *actual people* being able to interact with the application. – Sayan Nov 21 '12 at 06:04
  • You should also consider apps like Netflix on Wii, which is an application that uses the web, but is not a web application. It uses HTTP to request the resources that it shows on screen tho. – jcolebrand Dec 28 '12 at 17:46
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Whether you need a web browser to access your web app depends on what type of app you are hosting. For your second question, yes we can access a web application using various tools/API's like wget.

If you have hosted a site that allows users to download content, then you don't actually need a browser, just need to use the url using any API. But if you want to have an interactive web application then you need a browser.

Antony
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