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sonnyp / Tangram

Browser for your pinned tabs
https://apps.gnome.org/app/re.sonny.Tangram/
GNU General Public License v3.0
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User-discoverable web apps #134

Closed vanillajonathan closed 3 years ago

vanillajonathan commented 3 years ago

Tangram could have a feature for users to discover web apps. This could be implemented either as auto-completion in the URL bar, or as a built-in predefined collection (list or grid?) of web apps which the user would be presented with and the user could pick from to add.

Having to manually enter the URL is a bit user-unfriendly. Having a collection of predefined entries that the user can pick from makes it easier for the user to quickly get started with Tangram.

More

PWA can be found at: https://www.pwalist.app/ https://github.com/hemanth/awesome-pwa#apps

sonnyp commented 3 years ago

That's what the first version of Tangram did but I'm uncomfortable with recommending apps or distributing copyrighted material.

Also, Tangram isn't a great platform for running web apps and I don't necessary want to continue promoting it as such. It's misleading to the users. I think I'll replace "Run web apps on your desktop." with "An application for your pinned tabs". Many web apps simply won't run in Tangram or with subpar performances.

It's trivial to find what you are looking for in your browser and copy paste the URL in Tangram. I have thought about replacing the URL bar with a search engine though to eliminate that step.

vanillajonathan commented 3 years ago

You wouldn't have to distribute any copyrighted materials, just a list of hyperlinks then fetch the images defined in the manifest.json file at runtime. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Manifest/icons If no manifest.json file exists, then it's not really a PWA, but in that case you could fallback to the favicon if you want to support adding it as a tab anyways.

I am not sure you would have to personally recommend any specific apps, it could be "community curated". Apps/sites could be added through issues or pull requests on GitHub if given enough votes/likes, or if it fits a certain criteria.

Example:

sonnyp commented 3 years ago

I thought of something like this and I think it's a nice idea and addition to the Linux desktop but it isn't Tangram.

What you are talking about is basically an app to discover and "install" curated web applications. No reason they must run in Tangram, user should be able to choose, perhaps the editor or publisher for web apps that don't run in certain browsers.

No reason why Tangram should be an applications manager. Your desktop can already manage applications.

The term PWA is mostly confusing marketing bs from Google. A website/webapp doesn't need a manifest, it would be too much of a limiting factor to require one.

It sounds more like https://github.com/linuxmint/webapp-manager with better UX and discoverability.

vanillajonathan commented 3 years ago

Personally I saw the value or niche in Tangram as application for web apps. Without that, I am not sure what niche Tangram aims to fill or what the purpose of it is. Maybe Tangram needs to have a clear goal and a clearly defined scope oh what it is, what it is not, what it is for, and what it is not for.