Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

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Forboding Angel
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Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by Forboding Angel »

Basically, weblobby has a bad habit of failing in everything except firefox with alarming regularity (on windows... in linux it seems to just work).

So, as a way to deal with that I present the weblobby installer.

Long story short, it is simply a packaged firefox portable with the default page set to go to weblobby.springrts.com. Virtually no other modifications (except a little proggie that sets the install directory to writable by everyone so that if it is installed in the default directory of program files (x86)/Spring WebLobby, that folder will be writable (This is how steam/desura/etc apps do it)).

As far as I can tell, it seems to work pretty flawlessly. Additions that could be made might be installing the latest version of java during the install process, etc etc.

Plus, this is nice if you just like having a separate app for weblobby. But all in all, it's a proof of concept.

Edit: Link incoming in a moment...

Edit2: fixed link

http://goo.gl/r9zcg
Last edited by Forboding Angel on 14 Jun 2013, 19:34, edited 2 times in total.
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PicassoCT
Journeywar Developer & Mapper
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by PicassoCT »

You just hijacked a car..

Good work forb. Even (by far) better then my idea- i suggested to carRepairer once to make a firefoxAddon
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Forboding Angel
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by Forboding Angel »

Well, ideally you could do things like change the icon and stuff like that, but as I understand it, that would be against the license. You can't even change the launcher because that's a violation of the license as well. FF is quite strict in what you can and can't do.

So while it could be nicer, it is quite nice already considering the limits imposed.

It's too bad that Mozilla Prism was canceled. That would be handy.
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pnöpel
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by pnöpel »

Hi, can I use this on mac, please?
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Anarchid
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by Anarchid »

FF is quite strict in what you can and can't do
Use iceweasel :) It's the same thing but without branding.
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Forboding Angel
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by Forboding Angel »

"iceweasel-3.0f.en-US.win32.installer.exe 2008-06-30"

Uh, no.

Abandoned project has been abandoned.
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SinbadEV
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by SinbadEV »

Forboding Angel wrote:"iceweasel-3.0f.en-US.win32.installer.exe 2008-06-30"

Uh, no.

Abandoned project has been abandoned.
iceweasel isn't abandoned entirely... it's called iceCat now http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/ (also, only officially for GNU)
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Forboding Angel
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by Forboding Angel »

Well, some assclown here marked the file as inappropriate, so it is no longer available.

I have requested a review, and I'm sure google will get to it within the next 10 years. Until then, the ungrateful jerkoff responsible can get pounded.
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knorke
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by knorke »

google TOS wrote:When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. [...] Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.
It seems when you upload to google, you give google all kind of rights over the uploaded things. But you can only hand over your rights of your own stuff, not the rights of the work from others, like firefox.
Are you sure firefox can be shared like you did?
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Forboding Angel
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by Forboding Angel »

Yes, it is very much within the licenses involved. I was very careful to do research on it.

I altered nothing about the portable apps launcher and I altered nothing of firefox. I simply added a JS file that includes the homepage setting.

This, I put into an installer, which once again, does not alter portableapps firefox in any way. Only adds shortcuts and makes the folder it's put into writable by everyone.

Edit: FF operates under 3 licenses and portableapps ff exists solely upon the whim and special permission of mozilla.

FF's license is quite literally a minefield.

Carrepairer should design specifically for chrome, as chromium is much easier to get along with.

Chromium is straight up GPL, with no extra bs: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/licenses

http://crportable.sourceforge.net/
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SinbadEV
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by SinbadEV »

Forboding Angel wrote:Carrepairer should design specifically for chrome, as chromium is much easier to get along with.

Chromium is straight up GPL, with no extra bs: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/licenses

http://crportable.sourceforge.net/
Bonus points in chrome you can have your "installer" be a packaged chrome app and it can have it's own desktop launcher icon that opens a gui-less window that doesn't self-identify as chrome.
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knorke
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by knorke »

I think the problem is not if FF is altered or not.
On uploading you give all rights on file to google but "Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services."
Since you have no rights to FF, you can not upload even an unchanged FF to google. It is google's not FF's TOS who do not allow it. At least that is how I understand this text.
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Forboding Angel
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by Forboding Angel »

Hmm, that could be true.

Gah, doesn't make it any less stupid though. I'll upload it to the evo server. Gah, using my drive for it was more convenient :-(
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knorke
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by knorke »

from: http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... 20#p546682
Forboding Angel wrote:I like how everyone always just ignores this: http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=30574

On linux it's a moot point because most linux flavors seem to package ff with it.
Because the idea of making an "installer" that is just a browser with changed startpage, instead of just going to the page itself, just seems too strange. It thought it was a parody on the state of lobbies or something.
Even if a webpage was to fail on some browser, usually one just recommends "use browser XY" and does not make such..thing.

Unrelated, I attached an app for launching the best page in internet. It is helpful because the url is so easy to forgett. It also scrolls the window for you by simulating pressing the arrow-down key. Use at own risk of course.
Attachments
VisitTheBestPage.zip
(249.31 KiB) Downloaded 15 times
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Forboding Angel
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by Forboding Angel »

Knorke, you miss the point. Weblobby performs poorly in any other browser than ff AND it is quite useful to have a dedicated lobby app instead of dedicating a tab to it.
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Jools
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by Jools »

Forboding Angel wrote:Knorke, you miss the point. Weblobby performs poorly in any other browser than ff AND it is quite useful to have a dedicated lobby app instead of dedicating a tab to it.
It is useful to have a dedicated app. But what browsers did you try?

I tried SRW Iron and it works like a charm. I think that browser is based on chrome. http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php

I also tried Opera and it works well. Didn't try to launch any games though. There are a lot more browsers than just FF, IE and Chrome.

Edit: but it's annoying in FF that it asks 3 (!) times if I want to unblock java. It doesn't make the browser safer if you're so flooded with questions that you always accept and don't bother reading them even...
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Forboding Angel
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Re: Weblobby Proof of Concept installer

Post by Forboding Angel »

Weblobby is developed to work specifically with ff. Therefore, using ff is the smartest choice.
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