I need to make a desktop application using CSS/HTML5/JavaScript. This application should work cross-platform (Linux/Mac/Windows) and will be distributed as a simple executable (not an installer), where the user simply opens it and can start using it right away. It also needs to work offline, on machines where internet is not accessible.
So I thought WebKit would be the perfect choice. In fact I went ahead, installed Xcode, and in little time I had an executable that opened a window and loaded some CSS/HTML/JavaScript.
However, my issue is that I don’t have Linux/Windows machines. I can’t afford buying a Windows copy and I don’t want to go through the effort of having to install the OS and installing the Visual Studio or whatever thing, and trying to make an executable for those platforms as well.
I was wondering if there was a pre-built executable for each platform that comes with WebKit. So that all I have to do is change the icon of the application, the name and tell it where to get the html/css/javascript and it would make an executable for the platforms I need.
Is this possible? What are my best alternatives?
You can use node-webkit.
It uses webkit to render the webpage and execute the Javascript, and you will have access to all the Node.js javascript API (reading/writing files, …)