WebLaunch - Fullscreen browser for web-applications

[PaulFreund]

# WebLaunch #

WebLaunch is an extension for the Kindle Touch ( and probably the Kindle PaperWhite too ) with JailBreak and the application launcher KUAL. It is designed to open a URL without the browser frame (the black status bar can be removed too) to make it look like a native application.

## Installation ##

* Make sure your Kindle Touch is already Jailbreaked
* Make sure you have KUAL installed and the "extensions" folder exists
* Copy the WebLaunch folder to the "extensions" folder ( don't rename it without changing bin/start.sh first )
* Copy the settings.example.js in the WebLaunch folder to settings.js and change its contents to fit your needs

## Background ##

WebLaunch is based on "mesquite" former WAF and utilizes the "Kindle" template library and a few system librarys based on it to bring as much native browser behaviour as possible.

## Notes ##

Special thanks go to the folks at mobileread.com for their great work opening up the Kindle.

## Link ##

https://github.com/PaulFreund/WebLaunch

[twobob]

Few Notes to be appended here.

THESE NOTES ARE FOR THE OLD ORIGINAL VERSION:

Spoiler:

A) Don't forget to rename the settings.example.cfg to settings.cfg, I (of course) tried this first and managed to get the PW to reboot : ) (whoops)

B) Those of you who "live" in Airplane Mode, This WILL switch modes to wifi Without Asking

TBC Actually with the ability to shutdown this works very nicely. Happy now. Author advises me there will be another - less configuration hungry edition later tonight so I'll index it after that.


SCREENSHOTS: 1 + 2 GETTING IT RIGHT.

SCREENSHOTS: 3 + 4 From Airplane mode + "Accidentally" forgetting the settings.

A great little app. Nice one.

Further thoughts: Those of you who choose to "Remove screensaver mode" via KUAL may have a little difficulty actually exiting the app.

I'm looking into a wrapper for that now.

NOTES FOR LATEST VERSION:

Don't forget to rename the settings.example.js file to settings.js and amend
the file contents to your needs.

[brianinmaine]

very nice!

this is using the built-in browser without any titlebar or footer, right? just trying to understand what I could use this for - javascript, or what else?

thank you!

[twobob]

Originally Posted by brianinmaine

very nice!

this is using the built-in browser without any titlebar or footer, right? just trying to understand what I could use this for - javascript, or what else?

thank you!

Many people have requested full screen applications status for this.
Perhaps as a bus timetable readout, a weather display, or a constant new feed.

Really limited by the capabilities of the application and ones imagination.


RE ABSOLUTE COMPLETION:

I'm not going to index this until I wrap

lipc-set-prop com.lab126.appmgrd start app://$APP_ID?$SETTINGS

In our standard "power button watching dbus wrapper" which I will do now via a fork? and look for a pull (I think that's how its done)


EDIT: Done... Will index after the Author pulls and also adds his mooted configuration tweaks.

[twobob]

https://github.com/PaulFreund/WebLaunch/pull/1

pull request sent.

[PaulFreund]

Originally Posted by twobob

A) Don't forget to rename the settings.example.cfg to settings.cfg, I (of course) tried this first and managed to get the PW to reboot : ) (whoops)

I am currently working on a new version with an improved way of configuration which should prevent this from happening

Originally Posted by twobob

B) Those of you who "live" in Airplane Mode, This WILL switch modes to wifi Without Asking

Thanks! I didn't think about this, i'll include a setting for the behaviour

Originally Posted by twobob

Actually with the ability to shutdown this works very nicely. Happy now. Author advises me there will be another - less configuration hungry edition later tonight so I'll index it after that.

Actually, for me its afternoon in germany ;D

Originally Posted by twobob

SCREENSHOTS: 1 + 2 GETTING IT RIGHT.

SCREENSHOTS: 3 + 4 From Airplane mode + "Accidentally" forgetting the settings.

Thanks for adding screenshots!

Originally Posted by twobob

Further thoughts: Those of you who choose to "Remove screensaver mode" via KUAL may have a little difficulty actually exiting the app.

I'm looking into a wrapper for that now.

Originally Posted by twobob

https://github.com/PaulFreund/WebLaunch/pull/1

pull request sent.

I merged your pull request Thanks! And probably we can improve it to be executed from js when the app exits ( I'm doing this with the status bar right now )

Originally Posted by brianinmaine

very nice!

this is using the built-in browser without any titlebar or footer, right? just trying to understand what I could use this for - javascript, or what else?

thank you!

The app is based on the same javascript framework the browser is based on, but has a different interface code.

Originally Posted by twobob

Many people have requested full screen applications status for this.
Perhaps as a bus timetable readout, a weather display, or a constant new feed.

Thats exactly what I'm doing with it, a continous feed reader.

I've written a node.js application myhub which collects information from multiple sources like IMAP mail notifications, XMPP/Jabber messages, IRC channels/messages and RSS feeds and exposes them as a single event feed.
The feed can then be accessed via RSS (with filtering), a reader interface similar to google reader (which is not ready yet but in the works) and a simple news stream which I currently use on the kindle that updates as soon as a message arrives.

[twobob]

Status bar? I see no status bar on mine. Hence I added the power button thingy...

I don't mind "tapping out" with the power button as this is now "standard" across quite a few apps. (I added an extra "nice to have" on yours that I just figured out so a single tap in fact presses twice via powerd_test -p)

But thanks for all the other tips and changes! Great work btw

Ah yeah you have a Touch. The PW crew will need this addition.

[brianinmaine]

Originally Posted by PaulFreund

Thats exactly what I'm doing with it, a continous feed reader.

I've written a node.js application myhub which collects information from multiple sources like IMAP mail notifications, XMPP/Jabber messages, IRC channels/messages and RSS feeds and exposes them as a single event feed.
The feed can then be accessed via RSS (with filtering), a reader interface similar to google reader (which is not ready yet but in the works) and a simple news stream which I currently use on the kindle that updates as soon as a message arrives.

That would be so awesome! I got so used to Google Reader, I still haven't found a good online replacement for my feeds. Thanks for the clarifications and the great work!

[PaulFreund]

Originally Posted by twobob

Status bar? I see no status bar on mine. Hence I added the power button thingy...

I don't mind "tapping out" with the power button as this is now "standard" across quite a few apps. (I added an extra "nice to have" on yours that I just figured out so a single tap in fact presses twice via powerd_test -p)

But thanks for all the other tips and changes! Great work btw

The status bar can be set visible or invisible with the fullscreen flag in the config file (with status bar I mean the black bar at the top the displays title/battery/wifi/time).

In you pull request you do this:

SSSTATE=`lipc-get-prop com.lab126.powerd preventScreenSaver`  # The previous setting
lipc-set-prop com.lab126.powerd preventScreenSaver 0 # prevent screensaver for the application lifetime

and

( dbus-monitor "interface='com.lab126.powerd',member='goingToScreenSaver'" --system; killall mesquite; lipc-set-prop com.lab126.powerd preventScreenSaver "$SSSTATE"; restart pillow; powerd_test -p; ) &

In my js code I do this to change the state of the statusBar (in this example hide):

kindle.messaging.sendMessage('com.lab126.pillow', 'interrogatePillow', {"pillowId": "default_status_bar", "function": "nativeBridge.hideMe();"});

At the moment I try to implement your features using js, I'll tell you when it's done so you can test it

[twobob]

Yeah. I do that because BY DEFAULT some machines (Including mine) DISABLE going to screensaver.

Thus the "Press Button to Exit" thing would "do nothing"

SSSTATE=`lipc-get-prop com.lab126.powerd preventScreenSaver` # The previous setting
lipc-set-prop com.lab126.powerd preventScreenSaver 0 # prevent screensaver for the application lifetime

that (as you know) STORES the previous selection. So I don't have to reset it after I exit the application.

When the application is full screen there is no status bar. And with no Home Button obviously the user is "stuck" inside the application.

This works on the touch too by the way, just press the power button to test it.

: )

I recognise the Eureka? call to fix the status bar visibility.

I restarted pillow as a dirty hack. and added the TODO to make it tidier.

so I guess restart pillow could read

lipc-set-prop com.lab126.pillow interrogatePillow '{"pillowId": "default_status_bar", "function": "nativeBridge.showMe();"}'

instead

[PaulFreund]

Originally Posted by twobob

I recognise the Eureka? call to fix the status bar visibility.

I restarted pillow as a dirty hack. and added the TODO to make it tidier.

so I guess restart pillow could read

lipc-set-prop com.lab126.pillow interrogatePillow '{"pillowId": "default_status_bar", "function": "nativeBridge.showMe();"}'

instead

Yep that syntax is from a post of eureka, and the posts of silver18 helped me a lot too

Apart from that I discovered most commands looking in the binarys /usr/bin/mesquite and /usr/lib/libpillow.so, they provide a lot of information

[twobob]

heh ninja

EDIT:

Yeah. I have to agree that

lipc-set-prop com.lab126.pillow interrogatePillow '{"pillowId": "default_status_bar", "function": "nativeBridge.showMe();"}'

would be a better solution.

I'll amend my local copy accordingly also and retest.

[twobob]

I went with

( dbus-monitor "interface='com.lab126.powerd',member='goingToScreenSaver'" --system; killall mesquite; powerd_test -p; lipc-set-prop com.lab126.powerd preventScreenSaver "$SSSTATE"; lipc-set-prop com.lab126.pillow interrogatePillow '{"pillowId": "default_status_bar", "function": "nativeBridge.showMe();"}';  ) &

I still get a spurious "app could not be started" in the background that needs killing off (with a simple click) after this runs on the PW.

It is, however, a "nothing" error in the grand scheme of things. I could investigate further but it's something and nothing and utterly benign

[PaulFreund]

Okay there is a new version with improved settings and twobobs improvements regarding app shutdown on the Paperwhite. I also added the file pillowHelper.js which is a wrapper to access nativeBridge which has a bunch of neat methods ;D

In future updates I hope to be able to catch the "goingToScreenSaver" message with this, so I don't need a wrapper around the application.

Again, thanks for the help twobob

[twobob]

\\O//
_| |_

YAY!!!