Nativefier

!Example of Nativefier app in the macOS dock

You want to make a native-looking wrapper for WhatsApp Web (or any web page).

``bash nativefier 'web.whatsapp.com'`

!Walkthrough animation

You're done.

`Introduction`

Nativefier is a command-line tool to easily create a “desktop app” for any web site with minimal fuss. Apps are wrapped by Electron (which uses Chromium under the hood) in an OS executable (.app, .exe, etc) usable on Windows, macOS and Linux.

I built this because I grew tired of having to Alt-Tab to my browser and then search through numerous open tabs when using Messenger or Whatsapp Web (HN thread). Nativefier features:

- Automatically retrieval of app icon / name - Injection of custom JS & CSS - Many more, see the API docs ornativefier --help

`Installation`

Install Nativefier globally with npm install -g nativefier . Requirements:

- macOS 10.13+ / Windows / Linux - Node.js ≥ 16.9 and npm ≥ 7.10

Optional dependencies:

- ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick to convert icons. Be sureconvert + identify or gm are in your $PATH. - Wine to build Windows apps from non-Windows platforms. Be surewine is in your $PATH.


  Or install with Docker (click to expand)

- Pull the image from Docker Hub: docker pull nativefier/nativefier- ... or build it yourself:docker build -t local/nativefier .(in this case, replacenativefier/ in the below examples with local/)

By default, nativefier --helpwill be executed. To build e.g. a Gmail app into~/nativefier-apps,

`bash docker run --rm -v ~/nativefier-apps:/target/ nativefier/nativefier https://mail.google.com/ /target/`

You can pass Nativefier flags, and mount volumes to pass local files. E.g. to use an icon,

`bash docker run --rm -v ~/my-icons-folder/:/src -v $TARGET-PATH:/target nativefier/nativefier --icon /src/icon.png --name whatsApp -p linux -a x64 https://web.whatsapp.com/ /target/`


  Or install with Snap & AUR (click to expand)
  These repos are not managed by Nativefier maintainers; use at your own risk.
  If using them, for your security, please inspect the build script.
  - Snap
  - AUR

`Usage`

To create an app for medium.com, simply nativefier 'medium.com'

Nativefier will try to determine the app name, and well as other options that you can override. For example, to override the name,nativefier --name 'My Medium App' 'medium.com'

Read the API docs or run nativefier --help`
to learn about command-line flags and configure your app.

Troubleshooting

See CATALOG.md for site-specific ideas & workarounds contributed by the community.

If this doesn’t help, go look at our issue tracker.

Development

Help welcome on bugs and
feature requests!

Docs: Developer / build / hacking, API / flags,
Changelog.

License: MIT.