Those guys at GitHub have always been forward thinking and Open friendly !
So you ave probably heard that Mozilla is getting into “Apps” in a big way (https://apps.mozillalabs.com/)
There are couple of things about HTML5 apps that are different than conventional native apps.
First, because they are web technology they want to live somewhere on the web. Second, each app has a manifest (https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Apps/Manifest) and that manifest needs to be served with a new, specific MIME type.
Now, if you self host on Linux this is trivial. You can just add an entry to the .htaccess file, but if you don’t want your app to have it’s own web presence there is another option.
This clever guy on my team, Rob Hawkes (http://rawkes.com/) is the Developer Community Gaming Lean on my team and he worked with GitHub to add the ability to serve Mozilla Apps Manifests directly from your GitHub repository.
COOL !
Then, an independent game developer, Jerome Etienne (http://jetienne.com/) tested it by publishing a game in the Mozilla Labs Developer Preview Apps Store.
The game is called marbleSoccer and the GitHub is here – https://github.com/jeromeetienne/marbleSoccer
To install and run the game, start by installing the Mozilla Labs Apps Runtime (we’re in preview, this step won’t always be necessary)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/app-runtime/
Then you need to log in to the store at :
You need a BrowserID to log in (which everyone should want to have, anyway) 🙂
https://browserid.org/
After logging in search the store for MarbleSoccer.
Once you have it installed you’re good to go.
There you go – game installed and running – hosted at GitHub
Great job guys !
[…] Building Apps and deploying them from GitHub – Joe Stagner highlights a new facility on GitHub allowing you to host your Mozilla Apps (HTML 5 browser based applications) directly off your GitHub repository for the project. […]
[…] Hawkes You can now host your Mozilla Labs Apps app or game from Github. […]
Er… how do you run an app when it’s installed? I can’t find an entry for it on the Firefox menu or my OS menu, or about:home or as an app tab or anywhere else I might expect it.
Gerv
Did you install the Add-In. Necessary during the preview.
Yes, I installed the add-in.
The answer appears to be “go to about:apps, or http://myapps.mozillalabs.com/“.
Gerv
Gerv – do you see an “apps” link in the lower right corner of FireFox ?
Now you mention it, yes. But that is really _not_ where I would have expected to find it.
My thinking was: these are web apps, right? So I checked the Bookmarks menu and button. Or perhaps they have their own top-level menu? No… New Tab menu? No. Can’t find them anywhere in the menus.
I would suggest that all installed web apps should be entries in a new Apps bookmark category.
Gerv
I agree – it’s not permanent – just during the preview. Eventually they will install with icons just like a native app.
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Where ya been, Joe?