Can you make a desktop application run in a browser? [closed]

Question

Is there a way to take a desktop application and make it run in a browser without having to recode everything? I'm a front end developer that edits basic HTML CSS and Javascript, and my boss has asked me to try to get an application he found to run on our website.

I am doubting there is an easy solution but I just need to find out if it is possible, and if not, then what are the basic steps I would need to try and get the same functionality of the app, in a browser on our site?

Titre

Is this compiled executable app? if so for what OS platform, Windows, Unix, Linux, MacOs? Also what CPU architecture its compiled for e.g. Intelx84, I64, Sparc, etc? – Grodno

How could that possibly work? – Autolysin

I am running Mac OSX 10.8.3 and we know and trust the application. It was sent to us from a camera imaging company that we work with and they sent us the application for our salesmen to use to help narrowing down choices for price quotes and specs. It also runs on Windows OS. The functionality is great, I just wondered if there was some way, kind of like an iframe can "run" a webpage on a webpage, if you can "display" the app in a browser. – Titre

Answer 1

This answer might be a little beyond what you're looking for, but for the sake of completeness I feel it's worth mentioning:

Thanks to emscripten you can compile anything that can be made into LLVM bytecode (like C or C++) into JavaScript. For example, Unreal Engine 4 was compiled into JS and was able to be run inside of Firefox, without plugins, at around half of native speed. In addition, a list of games, game-engines, emulators, frameworks, and programming languages have been compiled to run as JS in the browser.

So, if you have the source of the application that you want to run in the browser and you don't mind some tinkering, you might be able to get it running with emscripten.

Gombach

Answer 2

I'm not exactly sure what your expectations are, however Microsoft's ClickOnce technology could be what you're looking for.

This would actually launch the application FROM a website. However it wouldn't render as a webpage - but could be the most painless solution (assuming that you're using .NET)

Cly

Answer 3

Thinfinity VirtualUI is a product that enables you to add just a piece of code to your source and then run the app thru any browser supporting HTML5.

There are two development levels available: - a plain app publishing (add the code and go web), and - a jsRO framework (Javascript Remote Objects) that enables deep integration with other web resources, plus UI customization.

I guess this last option is the one that better covers your scenario.

Dabber

Answer 4

You can provide simple HREF link to download and run native app. But as I asked in comments you should look at the executable platform it runs on and put disclaimer for your users that it runs only on such OS and such CPU hardware.

Grodno

Would you be willing to press a link and run an executable from some site? – Suddenly

@Suddenly Personally I think its a bad idea in the first place. But if "boss has asked to try to get an application he found to run on their website"...I think thats the only option. Its up to the management to evaluate popularity of this solution and how acceptable it may be... perhaps their website runs in intranet so only internal users involved. – Grodno

Answer 5

Is there a way to take a desktop application and make it run in a browser without having to recode everything?

If it is a Java Swing application then yes you can do that for sure. I don't know if there are any other kinds of applications that can run inside a browser

Suddenly

Answer 6

You can deliver native applications in browser via SpawnApps. No installation for the client! But Java VM is required.

It converts the “Download & Install” model into the “in-browser” one. You can propagate your applications on your targeted webpages with the HTML embed code just like a YouTube video is propagating.

See an online demo of Notepad++ here. Windows users only, because the software was designed only for use in Windows! No modification was made ​​to the Notepad++'s source code; were used only binaries.

I hope this help you.

Flocculant

Answer 7

yes you can. In our office we use this service from www.0data.fr and it work very well

you can run a full desktop or a portal with windows application in it and best of all you can run that in one link like this

https://web.0data.fr/software/html5.html?user=demo&pass=demo

I hope this help you.

Underbred

Link is dead... – Creator

Answer 8

Instead of porting applications to JavaScript using Emscripten, it's also possible to run desktop applications in a browser using an x86 emulator such as v86. v86 can run several desktop operating systems on the client-side, including ReactOS and KolibriOS, so it should be able to run many desktop applications that are compatible with these operating systems.

Debark