Mozilla Prism: A fancy name for a technology as old as the browser
Monday, 29. October 2007, 20:27:28
Mozilla recently introduced Prism, which takes Widgetize to a whole new level.
Opera's Widgetize will turn your blog or RSS feed into a widget with some custom skins and stuff.
What Prism does is, it takes any website and turns that into a self-contained little browser.
While having GMail or such as a "stand-alone" application might sound nice, doesn't this remind you of something? Browsing without tabs.
You don't need a stand-alone application for this either. You could just use Opera to achieve a very very similar experience.
Opera's Widgetize will turn your blog or RSS feed into a widget with some custom skins and stuff.
What Prism does is, it takes any website and turns that into a self-contained little browser.
While having GMail or such as a "stand-alone" application might sound nice, doesn't this remind you of something? Browsing without tabs.
You don't need a stand-alone application for this either. You could just use Opera to achieve a very very similar experience.
Browsing without tabs?
The idea is nice: To be able to put any website or web application as a link on your desktop, start menu or whatever, and then being able to open it in a new window with minimal GUI elements.
Sounds good, but is it really anything new? No.
As long as I can remember, I've been able to save links to my desktop/whatever and by clicking them, opening them in the browser. Back in the day when I didn't use Opera or Firefox, I would get them in new windows. This is what Prism does.
Sure, you don't get all the user interface elements like the buttons and the address bar, but if you really wanted, you could just configure your normal browser to not display them, like I will show later.
Looking to the future
While the current iteration of the Prism application isn't anything spectacular, they are working on various things like 3D accelerated canvas... which is also in the works for the Opera browser.
According to Mozilla Labs, it might get integrated in Firefox in the future, which would be a good idea: That is what it should've been from the start - A browser feature that let's you create shortcuts on your PC which open pages in a GUI-less browser window.
Mark Finkle writes in his post about Prism that the spreadsheets from Google were opening in the default browser, apparently instead of the Prism-client. Would this be a problem, if Prism was actually just the browser and not a stand-alone application?
He also mentions that Prism lets you apply different CSS styles to the websites. Isn't this possible in Firefox? Well, I don't know to be honest, but it is in Opera.
Another kind of funny thing I noticed is that they're now displaying tooltips for elements with the title attribute set. Isn't that quite basic browser behavior nowadays?
Going Prism with Opera
Like I mentioned, you don't need a separate application other than your browser to do this.
You can easily just make an another installation of Opera in a new location on your computer and configure it so that there's no GUI. You will get something very much like Prism, but with all the features Opera has, including UserJS and other customization options. Mouse gestures, anyone?
Getting Prism with Opera on Windows:
- Download and/or start Opera installer
- Choose Separate Install and pick some new location for the installation
-
Important: tick "Only use a single profile for all users." in the installation directory screen
- You can now proceed with the installation.
Now you have a new clean installation of Opera. Now is the time to configure the options like keyboard shortcuts etc. to suit your tastes. Next, we'll just simply hide every UI element.
Open Tools->Appearance, go to the toolbars tab and untick all boxes:
You can also go to the Panels tab and untick "Show panel toggle at edge of window" to get rid of the few pixel wide Panel toggle.
It's also possible to get rid of the File-menu if you want: Go to Tools->Preferences, Advanced Tab. Choose Shortcuts, and from Keyboard setup choose Opera standard and click edit. Type F11 alt to the search box on top of the dialog and you should see something like "Platform Unix, F11 alt" doing "Enable Menubar | Disable Menubar". Doubleclick the box with Platform Unix... and remove everything except F11 alt. Click OK and then OK again to exit the menu. Now you can hide the File-menu with Alt+F11 (thanks for the tip, fearphage)
And some final finishing touches to make it easier to create shortcuts to websites:
- Go to your Windows directory. Usually c:\windows
- Create a new shortcut with file->new->shortcut
- Make the shortcut point to Opera.exe in your Opera-Prism directory and call the shortcut something like opera-prism
Opening a page in your new Opera-Prism is now as simple as going to Start menu, choosing Run and typing in: opera-prism www.mypages.com
Now you can also create shortcuts to anywhere you like to websites by just creating a new shortcut and when it asks for the application's path, you can just type in opera-prism www.thegreatsite.com. Simple, eh?
Gmail in Opera-Prism
In closing
While Prism as it is now doesn't seem very interesting or such, it might get a lot better as an idea when it gets integrated into Firefox. With my Opera-Prism, you still need to do some manual work (adding the shortcut) to make a link to a webapp. With browser integration, it's just a matter of clicking a button. Also, if they integrate something like Google Gears in it, or if it just works with Google Gears, then it could prove to be an interesting concept.
Another thing which would be interesting to see is Ajax/JavaScript state persistance. If you have a heavy JS based app, the Prism browser could try keeping the state as the same as it was when you previously opened the page. Opera already does this when you click a link from a page and then return to it with the back button.
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 30. October 2007, 11:00
I think this misses the point. I see Prism as a way to "package-up" a URL of a web application I have, and distribute it over our corporate computer network so users have a single icon to click on and access the Content Management System. It opens as a separate process, and we can control pretty much the whole experience.
This is not to do with opening in a window-less mode, it is so much more. Trying to spin it as anything less is a touch disingenuous to say the least.
zomg # 30. October 2007, 17:03
Sure, having Prism might give some customization possibilities, but I can't see what it gives that you can't get by customizing, say, Opera.
claudeb # 31. October 2007, 07:44
zomg # 31. October 2007, 08:25
claudeb # 31. October 2007, 09:55
Originally posted by "zomg":
I can't remember any of them right now. Funny, considering I was pretty excited when Adobe AIR was first presented to the public.
p01 # 31. October 2007, 10:31
opera /Settings opera-prism.ini URL_OF_THE_SITE
anonymous user: What can a Prism'ed site do more than the same site open in a regular window/tab ? AFAIK, nothing. Therefore it's just a convenient/different way to use a site.
Anonymous # 31. October 2007, 11:26
What I want is a single .app/.exe which I can give to my users that they place in a folder and double-click on. It launches our Content Managent System (web app) and our CMS only. It doesn't have extra tabs, bookmarks, Tools menu, File, Edit, History menus, etc. It's as if it was a self-contained application. It's not about passing around a link, getting users across a company of 20-odd thousand to modify an .ini file, having the company purchase 20-odd thousand licenses for Opera. I think, or at least I hope, the aims are to have a distributable application that opens a single URL as if it were a native application.
claudeb # 31. October 2007, 13:34
Originally posted by "tom":
So you think distributing a 25MB application is more convenient than passing around a Firefox chrome/Opera .ini file? Let's see what the Prism developers think:
It seems, indeed, that what they envisage is a kind of "widgetized" Web applications. That's all good and well. I like widgets. But why do the same to applications? Think about it.
Originally posted by "tom":
That's the real issue, isn't it? A lot of people (I know a few myself) get very confused when they see more than one window open on the desktop at the same time. I suppose toolbars and menus confuse them just as much. But in this case, you could just instruct your users to press F11. No offense, but trying to dumb down computers more and more doesn't lead to anything good.
In conclusion: I think integrating the Web and the desktop is a good thing. But this should be done for the right reasons.
zomg # 31. October 2007, 13:44
It is possible to make it behave like you mentioned, opening only your CMS. I believe Prism can open other things too, so if you want to be very strict about it, even that might fail you.
p01 # 31. October 2007, 16:42
There's no need for the users to modify any .ini file at all. Said .ini file needed for Opera-Prism will be on the 20-odd thousand people company's intranet, or installed remotely by the sys-admins.
And as zomg said, Opera is free.
Anonymous # 2. November 2007, 02:06
I like the idea of prism for a couple of reasons.
Deploying an existing webapp as a standalone for users who request it, or commonly used apps is cheap and requires one codebase.
The reasons why I do not like the idea of opening an existing chromeless browser window. I tend to open up a lot of tabs during the day and every so often I find the browser crashes or I need to restart to regain performance/memory. Surely, I am not alone in this. This would also kill any 'standalone' chromeless windows open. This is not ideal. Sure these are software bugs, but they exist today.
Having a seperate process PER application would resolve this issue. At the minute prism does not have this per application.
Also, what about the brand. A chromeless window will still have the browser logo and name in the taskbar.
What interests me is the direction this could take. If they added a way to add extensions for minimise to the system tray,display tooltips, popup bubbles (like the gtalk desktop app/nod32),etc when the app isn't in focus then imo it would be a pretty good platform with very cheap adoption.
zomg # 7. November 2007, 19:43
If you think about the branding thing, having something like Prism would make sense. If it would also grant more control over the systray, tooltips and other things you mention, it would definitely add to the usefulness of the concept.
Anonymous # 16. November 2007, 19:02
@claudeb if even one thing, AIR has file system access. You can create applications that don't even touch the web. Built-in SQLite as well. A small weekend project I did before was an FLV video player with playlist ability. You can play files either on your local system or from the web. It's power is in that it works very well at letting an application work on your desktop, and synchronize with the web when needed.
Oh, and it carries a certain level of OS integration so you can actually be a little more interactive with the OS. What's the JavaScript call to make my browser bounce an icon in the dock? Oh right, there is none. The AIR API at least provides that.
claudeb # 17. November 2007, 07:57
Originally posted by "not clueless":
Oh, so I can click on a link and find all my personal files deleted? Sounds like Internet Explorer 3.0 all over again. It's not like I don't have backups, but still...
Originally posted by "not clueless":
An Opera widget can store data locally. SQLite support would be even nicer, of course. But unrestricted file access? For something delivered over the Web? No thanks.
p01 # 21. November 2007, 18:03
Of course SQLite would be nice too
Anonymous # 16. January 2008, 23:42
Prism "technology" has been around FOREVER. There is absolutely nothing new here. AIR at least extends HTML, JavaScript, Flex, and Flash to the desktop.
@claudeb any App with file access can do damage. If you are afraid of this, you might as well clear your hard drive, burn your computer, and hide in a hole.
claudeb # 17. January 2008, 04:25
zomg # 17. January 2008, 04:50
Anonymous # 26. February 2008, 10:15
Your blog failed to take my comment
Anonymous # 26. February 2008, 10:15
Gave a server error
Anonymous # 26. February 2008, 10:16
It takes these ones though.
Anonymous # 26. February 2008, 10:16
:-/
Anonymous # 18. March 2008, 08:11
I'm sure that there is probably someway to open a site in a chomeless Browser (in safe-mode without extensions). The problem lies in trying to launch such an 'applet' when Firefox is already running and open a new page.
I also assuming that XUL has file-writing and reading privileges already or that it will have soon.
claudeb # 18. March 2008, 08:25
Originally posted by MC:
It does. TiddlyWiki, for example, relies on it. But the browser asks 3-5 times in a row before allowing a Web page to write files on your disk.
Anonymous # 28. August 2008, 00:19
I agree that having a dedicated Prism window for something like GMail is pointless, and that Prism in its current state is not very useful.
In defense of Mozilla, though, why mock (at least that's how this post comes across as) an idea that's clearly implied (by its placement in Mozilla Labs) to not be ready for general use?
I believe Prism may be better suited as a platform for other types of webapps--for example, the Google Talk Widget (http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/popout). Having a Google Talk window in a process and window separate from the standard browser one makes more sense--the gadget should run as a chat client, not as a new tab or a new window in the browser. (Why not just get the Google Talk chat client? The gadget has more features than the client.)
Anonymous # 3. September 2008, 12:26
I use prism
the whole point is that stand alone web apps don't need to browsed for, there there immediately on your desktop. Another thing i noticed is that its very fast
it takes away all the crap and just gives you what you need.
Grooveshark is an amazing thing to do this with.
it lets you stream music online, and well it has a very good interface, it integrates perfectly with prism because you don't need the forward and back buttons...because everything is there.
If you not convinced then just try it and see how fast it speeds things up.
J.W.
Anonymous # 12. December 2008, 20:16
Sometimes, when you write a webapp, it makes sense to put it in a window without any external controls to the app itself. To have an app that does POST calls to a database not have chrome to even turn on makes sense when the people using them may click the back button and have to completely start over. If I wanted them to go back, then I can put a back button in the app that implements going back without losing session data or anything else for that matter.
Anonymous # 6. March 2009, 18:03
I came across this page looking for a way to do exactly what is described. I found an easier way than making a new installation. All you need is a new profile
http://my.opera.com/Tamil/blog/opera-profile-creator