Chrome Application Shortcuts / Mozilla Prism Installer

Question

I want to deploy a installer package to my customers. My application is basically a website, but I want them to have the optimal experience via. Chrome or Mozilla Prism. I would like to give them an installer (win:msi/exe) that puts an icon on the desktop and launches my app. They may or may not have chrome and Firefox already installed.

I have done some shallow searches but have come up dry. I cant help but think I am not the first to want to do this. I think Adobe Air has this sort of thing, but I have had issues with Air in the past.

Answer 1

You could use the webkit rendering of AIR to show the website in an AIR window. You wouldn't need much other code, but then could take advantage of the downloadable/badge installer.

Otherwise I imagine you could create a native installer for windows that installs Prism on their machines and then creates the app? Then again it seems Prism and Fluid (on the mac) aren't aimed at the average user, and typically require them to understand the concept of a SSB (site specific browser). When so many people don't even understand what a browser is, it's a tough ask, and one of the reasons I love AIR's install process.

Answer 2

Download the stand alone installer of chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?standalone=1

Open your %temp% folder, it helps if you empty it first.

Launch the installer. It will extract to a folder "GUM(something).tmp"

In this folder quickly find a file along the lines of "249.78_chrome_installer.exe.{8A69D345-D564-463c-AFF1-A69D9E530F96}" and move it out as chrome shortly cleans up the "GUM(something).tmp" folder.

Rename this file to "chrome_installer.exe"

You can now bundle this file in an installer and launch it as "chrome_installer.exe /S --do-not-launch-chrome" for a silent install. After this copy a pre-made app shortcut or program your installer bundle to create one along the lines of: "C:\Users...\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --app="http://localhost/"