Everyday
Web apps
Turn a website you use every day into an app of its own: its own window and icon, in Apps, in Search and in the Dock.
On this page
What it is
A A website opened in its own window with its own icon in the Dock and in Search, like an app. is a website with a launcher of its own. It opens in a window without tabs or an address bar, has its own name and icon in Apps and in The box that finds apps, files, folders and Settings pages as you type. Super+Space opens it., and can sit in the The row of app icons at the bottom of the screen. Click an icon to open the app; a dot under it means the app is running. like any installed app. Mail, a calendar, a chat or a project board stop being one tab among thirty.
You make one with a single line typed in the A window where you type commands instead of clicking. Super+Return opens one.. If you have not used the Terminal before, The terminal shows you how in ten minutes; this page only needs the one line below.
Why WolOS does it this way
The sites you keep open all day should look and switch like apps: each has its own window, Super+Tab finds it, and the Dock shows when it is open. A launcher is only a small file in your own account, so there is nothing to install and nothing to update. The address you type is checked before the launcher is written, so a web app can only ever open that address.
How
Make one
- Open Terminal. Press Super+Space, type "te" and press Return.
Type the line below and press Return. The name comes first, then the whole address starting with
https://.wol webapp add Mail https://mail.example.comWolOS fetches the site's own icon. Without one, the launcher gets a plain web icon.
Open it. Press Super+Space and type "Mail": the web app is listed as an Application. Click it, and drag its icon to the Dock if you want it there.
You see the site in a window of its own, with no tabs and no address bar.
Two choices go after the address:
| Add | What it does |
|---|---|
A picture file, an https:// address or the name of an icon | Uses this icon instead of the site's own. |
| --own-profile | Gives the web app its own sign-ins, apart from your browser. Use it to be signed in to two accounts of the same site, or to keep a site's cookies to itself. |
Without --own-profile the web app shares sign-ins with the WolOS browser, so you are already signed in wherever you are signed in there.
See and remove your web apps
Type the same line with list instead of add to show your web apps with their addresses, or with remove and a name to take one away. Removing deletes the launcher and the icon it fetched; a picture file of yours is left alone.
Web apps that come with a plugin
A A small add-on for the desktop: a menu bar item, a widget, a search result or a theme. It runs in a sandbox. can bring web apps of its own. They sit next to yours while the plugin is on and go away when you turn the plugin off (Plugins).
Assistants
An assistant can add or remove a web app only through an approval A small window that asks you to confirm something before it happens, for example Allow or Deny, or your password., and the sheet appears every time: there is no Always Allow for it.
A worked example
Alice reads her mail in a browser tab that keeps getting lost among others. She opens Terminal, types the line with her mail provider's address and presses Return. She presses Super+Space, types "Mail", opens the web app and drags its icon to the Dock. Next morning one click on the Dock opens her mail in a window of its own, and Super+Tab switches between the mail and her letter like between any two apps.
If something goes wrong
What the Terminal says:
| It says | What to do |
|---|---|
| Type the full web address, starting with https://, without spaces or quotes. | Copy the address from the browser's address bar, the whole of it. |
| Give the web app a short name with letters or digits. | Use a name of up to 64 characters with at least one letter or digit. |
| A web app named "Mail" already exists. | Choose another name, or remove the old one first. |
| There is no web app named "Mail". | List your web apps to see the exact names. |
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| The icon is a plain web icon | The site offers none WolOS can fetch. Remove the web app and add it again with an icon after the address. |
| You are signed out of the site in the web app | A web app made with --own-profile has its own sign-in: sign in once inside it. |
Related
- Privacy and permissionsWhat apps may use and how you allow it, the questions WolOS asks on screen, the firewall and the malware check, and where to take any permission back.
- Plugins: add to the desktop itselfWeather in the menu bar, a timer in Control Center, a clock on the desktop: get a plugin in the Store, see what it asks for, turn it on and off, and make your own.
- AppsThe apps that come with WolOS, how to open, switch, quit and remove apps, and which apps open by themselves when you log in.
- What a terminal isThe window where you type instead of click: what the prompt, a command, an argument and a path are, how to copy and paste, Tab, Ctrl+C, and your first five commands.
- The desktopThe menu bar, the Dock, windows, Search, switching apps and the four desktops: what each part of the screen is for and how to use it.