0

We have a very basic web application which uses AJAX to pull data from XML files for a simple autocomplete and search script.

Our client wants to distribute this application on CDROM to their clients rather than running from the web.

Basically all we really need is a way to wrap these html, xml, js & css files into executables that will work on Windows, Mac & Linux. Basically the user should just need to run the one file to load the application into a typical desktop window.

We have investigated the following:

Titanium Desktop SDK - we received errors when packaging to linux & mac distributables. Also, the Windows distribution requires an install process which we want to avoid. The user should just be able to run the file directly from the CD without needing to install anything on their Desktop.

Zinc 4.0 - using the HTML wrapper resulted in an executable similar to what we need - but only for Windows. Also, the rendering engine used seems to lack support for transparencies which interferes with our design.

Stunnix Advanced Web Server - We really want something that doesn't require installations, or the startup of a bunch of extra services.

Mirabyte DiscStarter - Only supports windows and like Zinc, seems to use an old IE rendering engine without support for transparencies.

What we really need to know is there anything that can simply "wrap" a basic AJAX app to enable it to be run cross-platform on desktops without internet access?

Creative Chaos
  • 11
  • 2

2 Answers2

0

You can create a desktop application built with HTML/CSS/Javascript using either of the following two frameworks

Ibrahim Muhammad
  • 2,808
  • 4
  • 29
  • 39
0

If you include just the HTML file, when someone clicks on it, that local copy will open instantly in their browser.

If you needed to, you could open a separate window using JavaScript which contains that HTML page, that way it has it's own window.

DanRedux
  • 9,119
  • 6
  • 23
  • 41
  • We don't really want it opening the default browser. We'd like it to open in a new window so it appears as if it is a desktop app and not just HTML files. Also there seem to be some problems locally running AJAX through file:/// reference due to browser security settings. – Creative Chaos Mar 12 '12 at 06:01
  • Oh, you want the XML to be local, too? Oh boy, I'm not too sure then. However, there's little need for the AJAX anymore. Just put the XML right into the source code, or, pre-parse it into JSON and put it directly into the source? It's all pre-downloaded anyway, so it won't be changing any time soon (at least not by the app you've made), and AJAX is mainly for dealing with bringing in data at a reasonable rate so there's no delays from transferring big files.. – DanRedux Mar 12 '12 at 06:04