ropbla9/epichrome

An application and Chrome extension for creating web-based applications that work like standalone Mac apps.

Epichrome 2.4.3

Overview

Epichrome lets you create web-based Mac applications compatible with the full range of extensions available in the Chrome Web Store. It includes an extension to route links to your default browser.

Download the latest release here, and please check out the important notes below. If you find a bug or have a feature request, please submit it here.

How To Support Epichrome

Epichrome is open source and a labor of love, made possible by the generosity of our Patreon patrons. If you find it useful, please consider supporting its continued development by joining them!

Rock Star Patrons

Alan Latteri	Lyle Barrere	Jonathan Berger
Andrew Bonham	Buck Doyle	Lev Dubinets
Matt Fallshaw	Lanny Heidbreder	Eric Henderson
Scott Irwin	Ben Johnson	David Mankin
Gregory Morse	Alex Nauda	Alan Ogilvie
Rob Page	Jeff Poulton	Scott Richins
Matthew Scott	André Srinivasan	Samuel Talleux
Adam Tarnoff	Thorbergsson	hellot vincent

New in version 2.4.3

• Improved auto icon downloading to be compatible with more sites

• Added advanced setting to allow app browser data to be backed up on update or edit

• Preferences for advanced settings are now remembered for future app creation

• Improved how advanced settings are shown in the summary dialog

• Changed schedule to check GitHub for new versions every other day instead of once a week

• Added version information to package

• Added version numbers to GitHub error reporting

• Built-in engine updated to Brave 1.23.71

Check out the change log for the full list.

New in version 2.4

• Apps are now fully compatible with macOS 11 Big Sur and run natively on Apple Silicon

• Epichrome apps can now be edited by dropping them on Epichrome.app!

• Major update to icons, including automatic downloading of icons based on an app's URL, icon preview during the creation process, and an interface for creating Big Sur-compatible icons

• Added advanced settings during app creation and editing to control how apps handle updates, and to customize their IDs

• New unified app engine architecture for better compatibility with the dock, notifications, and other system services

• Apps are now automatically backed up whenever they're edited or updated (in the Backups subfolder of the app's data directory)

• Progress bars now appear during lengthy operations such as updating an app

• Added a login scan to restore apps left in an unlaunchable state after a crash, and Epichrome Scan.app to do the same manually

• Checking GitHub for updates is now unified across all apps so when a new update is found, you will only receive one notification, which will display info on changes in the new version

• Both the GitHub update notification and the app update prompt now show info on changes in the new version

• Many more improvements and bug fixes... (See change log for details)

Important Notes

• Do not use the "Automatically update Chrome for all users" option on Chrome's About page if you have any apps with the external Chrome engine (this includes all apps updated from earlier versions of Epichrome). This option will cause fatal errors in your apps. If your system contains the directory /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate, then automatic updates are on. The surest way to disable it is by first deleting that directory (you'll need administrator privileges), then deleting Chrome and reinstalling the latest release from Google. In rare cases, you may also need to delete your user-specific directory at ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate before running the reinstalled Chrome.

• Don't click the "Update Now" button on the About Chrome page in your Epichrome apps. It might not actually do anything terrible, but it also won't do anything good.

• It's a good idea to back up your Epichrome apps. You can right-click on an app in the Finder and select Compress. Then if anything goes wrong during an update, you can delete the app and double-click the zip archive to recreate it intact.

• It's also a good idea to periodically backup your apps' data. You can do this the same way as backing up the apps. The path to an app's data is ~/Library/Application Support/Epichrome/Apps/<AppID>. In most cases, AppID will be a short version of the app's name, possible with a 3-digit number at the end (e.g. Gmail384).

Troubleshooting

If you're having trouble with an Epichrome app, please first check the troubleshooting guide.

Technical Information & Limitations

• Built and tested on macOS Catalina 10.15.7 and Google Chrome version 89.0.4389.128.

• Apps built with Epichrome are self-updating. If you install a new version of Epichrome on your system, the next time you run one of your apps, it will find the new version and ask if you want to update it.

• Apps can be edited by dropping them on Epichrome.app, or by running Epichrome.app and clicking the Edit button in the first dialog.

• On certain websites, buttons (or other non-<A> tag items) open links. The way Chrome handles these, the helper extension doesn't currently catch them, so can't redirect them. I'm looking at ways around this, but for now such links just open in the app. If you're experiencing this, there's an issue where you can add your input.

Acknowledgements

• The underlying SSB-creation and runtime engine were inspired by chrome-ssb-osx by lhl.

• The built-in app engine is based on the open source Brave Browser, which is itself based on Chromium.

• Epichrome apps are built using Platypus (also on GitHub) by sveinbjornt.

• The icon-creation script makeicon.sh was inspired by Henry's comment on 12/20/2013 at 12:24 on this StackOverflow thread.

• The idea for using an AppleScript interface came from a utility by Mait Vilbiks posted here.

• Epichrome Helper uses jQuery and jQuery UI in its options page.

• The javascript for Epichrome Helper is compressed using UglifyJS2, installed under node.js.

• The app and extension icons are based on this image, purchased from dreamstime.com. ID 19584489 (c) Alexandr Mitiuc (Alexmit).