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by katabasis 3806 days ago
This is amazing. I work in digital publishing at an art museum, and we are creating digital books as static HTML/CSS/JS files which rely on client-side interactivity for most features.

Some people have asked about getting a desktop version of these books which they could download locally (scholars doing fieldwork, etc). I knew something like this was possible using Electron, but I figured I'd have to build it from scratch if I wanted it.

Instead I just pointed this script at the beta version of our latest project[1] and the project built flawlessly in under a minute.

Nice work! I know that the web as a platform has its problems, but it is the only truly universal runtime we have right now, and tools like this help realize this potential more fully.

One question: is there a way to package pre-built copies as .dmg or .exe files so that non-technical users can download an app that is ready to go, without having to run the build script themselves?

[1]: http://gettypubs.github.io/Terracottas/

2 comments

I'm glad you like it! I think such an installer feature could be added in by integrating with https://github.com/loopline-systems/electron-builder, I'll see if I have time in the next few days to add this in before school starts.
This doesn't seem to create offline copies of the webapps, at least assuming by the examples given (maps.google.com and medium.com), which would be quite useless as static apps.