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ToDesktop – Web app to desktop app in minutes

todesktop.com

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Re: ToDesktop – Web app to desktop app in minutes

#41

Post by davej »

supermatt wrote: post #2

This seems like a quick and easy way for me to have an interim version of my desktop app. I have a few questions: 1) What are the "plugins" a pro subscription gives me. I could only see info on filesystem access in the docs. 2) Likewise, what is the "restricted API" that pro subscription brings. 3) Do I have any control over the "updates". For example, when I release a native app, I would want it to "update" to that.…

> 1) What are the "plugins" a pro subscription gives me. I could only see info on filesystem access in the docs. > 2) Likewise, what is the "restricted API" that pro subscription brings.

We have a bunch of plugins and are adding more all the time. Currently we have: * Active Window - Retrieve app metadata from the currently-active window of the OS. * Selected Text - Retrieve the currently-selected text from any application. * Active Icon - Retrieve the OS icon for a target file or application. * File System * File Exec - Bundle java/python/whatever binaries with your app and run them as a background server * Communication Server - Communicate between your app running in the web browser and your desktop app.

Usually a customer will ask "can I do x" and if the answer is no then usually we will build it out as a plugin.

> 3) Do I have any control over the "updates". For example, when I release a native app, I would want it to "update" to that.

By default we automatically update apps but we also have an API if customers want to programmatically control the update flow.

> 4) I am curious of the choice of electron over using the native browser libraries, given that the applications it targets are always web-first. Is there any reason you decided to go that route?

Electron is remarkably solid with a very mature API. It's much more battle-tested than the alternatives given that a lot of the most popular desktop apps use Electron.

> 5) What happens in the event I cancel the subscription? Will the apps cease to work? How is this presented to the end user?

Updates will stop working so you can't update your app. We don't currently block apps when subs are cancelled (except in cases of abuse) but we will likely do something in the future if a customer has cancelled their subscription but are still actively advertising their app on their site for example.

Re: ToDesktop – Web app to desktop app in minutes

#43

Post by davej »

Lightbody wrote: post #38
davej wrote: post #24

Oh wow, It's exciting to see this pop up on HN. I'm Dave, founder of ToDesktop. Feel free to reply to this and I'm happy to answer any questions :).

Nice work! Do you have plans to bring the same low friction deployment to mobile?

Not currently, there's still a lot to do with the desktop platform!

Re: ToDesktop – Web app to desktop app in minutes

#44

Post by JSavageOne »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #11

I'll be honest: I make a concentrated effort to avoid these apps that are just a website stuffed into a (usually quite gigantic) executable for a number of reasons: - They always feel sluggish. Animations are jittery. Text input that does things (contextual search for example) jitters and jumps instead of smoothly performing it's task. - Scrolling, especially scrolling that loads content, is also often jittery and la…

Some benefits of websites as apps

- Instantly supports all operating systems and mobile devices

- No need to download/install some .exe files (or your OS equivalent) with all the associated security risks

- A web app will likely get updated more frequently since it's easier to develop and update

I think VS Code proves that web apps can deliver

Re: ToDesktop – Web app to desktop app in minutes

#45

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

davej wrote: post #24

Oh wow, It's exciting to see this pop up on HN. I'm Dave, founder of ToDesktop. Feel free to reply to this and I'm happy to answer any questions :).

Good luck, Dave.

For myself, I develop native (Swift) apps for Apple devices, and have not found hybrid approaches practical in my own work, but there have been great points made by folks from all sides, in this post.

Re: ToDesktop – Web app to desktop app in minutes

#46

Post by jillesvangurp »

philote wrote: post #27

For those more knowledgeable than me, why use something like this over making your web app into a PWA?

The installation experience for PWAs is still pretty poor. I've seen very few good examples of PWAs (probably because of this). And I've even bothered implementing a few. My conclusion after doing that: waste of time, users mostly ignore PWAs.

Re: ToDesktop – Web app to desktop app in minutes

#47

Post by cush »

LeoNatan25 wrote: post #39
stevepike wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I'm sitting here on a linux (KDE) desktop machine with the following apps open: 1. Slack 2. Discord 3. Signal 4. Mullvad VPN 5. Kate 6. 1Password 7. Emacs 8. Chrome 9. Spotify 10. Konsole How many of these wouldn't exist on Linux if they had to be written with native SDKs? Konsole and Kate use QT and are clearly the best UX, but it's not like emacs (gtk) integrates natively in KDE any better than Slack does. Zoom…

Here is the sad truth for you: they still don't exist. Open these apps in a Chrome tab and you get the same shitty experience. Open them in Firefox (or a WebKit based browser), and you get the same experience, with much less resources used.

> they still don’t exist… same shitty experience

There are many additional features a web app is capable of when installed, like native notifications, file system access, file associations, etc.

Re: ToDesktop – Web app to desktop app in minutes

#48

Post by davej »

mulhoon wrote: post #4

This has been on my radar for a while. It's so impressive. Bundling electron for all platforms can be a real headache. The only issue is, it's hard to commit $99/mo for a solo developer to trial a small app. (I know it's pennies for businesses)

Feel free to drop me an email dave[at]todesktop or dm @davej on Twitter. I started ToDesktop as an indie hacker, so I understand where you're coming from. Hopefully can figure out something that works for you. :)

Re: ToDesktop – Web app to desktop app in minutes

#49

Post by sanitycheck »

LeoNatan25 wrote: post #39
stevepike wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I'm sitting here on a linux (KDE) desktop machine with the following apps open: 1. Slack 2. Discord 3. Signal 4. Mullvad VPN 5. Kate 6. 1Password 7. Emacs 8. Chrome 9. Spotify 10. Konsole How many of these wouldn't exist on Linux if they had to be written with native SDKs? Konsole and Kate use QT and are clearly the best UX, but it's not like emacs (gtk) integrates natively in KDE any better than Slack does. Zoom…

Here is the sad truth for you: they still don't exist. Open these apps in a Chrome tab and you get the same shitty experience. Open them in Firefox (or a WebKit based browser), and you get the same experience, with much less resources used.

I was going to say, most Electron apps (as opposed to say, VS Code) offer the user no benefits over just using the website they're wrapping.

They do offer benefits to the app purveyor, because apps have access to your system that you'd never allow a web site to have.

Re: ToDesktop – Web app to desktop app in minutes

#50

Post by jillesvangurp »

egonschiele wrote: post #19

This looks interesting to me, but the cheapest tier is $99/month. Why is it so expensive? Isn't this just building an Electron app for you?

This is aimed at people who lack the ability to do that. Lots of not so technical people that operate small websites that don't employ developers.

If you know what you are doing, making websites is easy. But most people don't and that's why things like wordpress, squarespace, webflow, tumblr, medium, substack, etc. exist.

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