Chromeless 0.1

amilewski

Version 0.1 of Chromeless is now available! Chromless is an experimental toolkit to make it possible to prototype browser applications using HTML, JavaScript and related Web standards. This post outlines the features available in this new release.

The following video is a introductory screencast which will give you an overview of the project’s goals and design:

(
{“base_state”: {}, “video_url”: “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrRYWfJLJuA”}
)

What’s New

This release includes new APIs to allow you to do the following from within your browser prototypes:

  • Track the page load progress of inner browsers
  • Receive notification about the security state of Web pages (whether a page is served over SSL)
  • Capture images from DOM fragments
  • Toggle to full screen mode
  • Log messages to the console
  • Save data to the user profile
  • Convert user input into valid URLs
  • An experimental API to support the Background loading of web pages
  • Support for Windows, OS X, and Linux

These new features in this release come in two forms: JavaScript libraries that are programatically accessed, and conventions that allow you control your application by manipulating the DOM. Chromeless v0.1 includes a collection of examples which demonstrate these new features.

In addition to these feature-related examples, you’ll also find more complex demonstrations, including a browser that displays thumbnails of open tabs which are rendered with a fisheye effect.

Package and Bundling your Browser Prototype

Chromeless v0.1 also provides an option to “package” your browser script in a ZIP file, that you can deploy on your computer. See the README to learn more.

The Road Ahead

Our goal is to allow developers to quickly prototype new browser designs using Web standards and JavaScript. Future releases of Chromeless will work toward this goal by adding new features which will make more interactive prototypes possible. We are keen to receive further feedback which will help shape the future of the project.

Happy browser hacking!