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Creating a Google Suite Desktop Electron App with Nativefier

Introduction

See Also: 3-Resources/Tools/Utility/Nativefier

Nativefier is a command-line tool to easily create a “desktop app” for any web site with minimal fuss. Apps are wrapped by Electron (which uses Chromium under the hood) in an OS executable (.app, .exe, etc) usable on Windows, macOS and Linux.

I built this because I grew tired of having to Alt-Tab to my browser and then search through numerous open tabs when using Messenger or Whatsapp Web (HN thread). Nativefier features:

  • Automatically retrieval of app icon / name
  • Injection of custom JS & CSS
  • Many more, see the API docs or nativefier --help

Creation Command

Open a Terminal from ~/.config/nativefier/GSuite and run the following command to generate the app folder:

nativefier 'https://workspace.google.com/u/1/dashboard' `
    --user-agent firefox `
    --portable "." `
    --internal-urls ".*?\.google\.*?" `
    --show-menu-bar `
    --bookmarks-menu '.\menuBar.json' `
    --arch x64 `
    --icon "icons\Google.ico" `
    --basic-auth-username "jimmy.briggs@jimbrig.com" `
    --basic-auth-password "<PASSWORD>" `
    "app"

Output

This results in the following output into the specified “app” directory above:

when I run the GSuite.exe executable it launches the Electron App with the resulting PWA looking like so:

Workspace Home Page

Calendar

Gmail

Drive

Taskbar Icon

Notes

  • I am assuming the working directory is set to ~/.config/nativefier/GSuite:

  • I have placed all icons within the ~/.config/nativefier/GSuite/icons folder:

I am using a menuBar.json configuration file to enhance the menu bar in the electron app.

Currently I add the following URLs:

Here’s the menuBar.json configuration file:

{
    "menuLabel": "&GSuite",
    "bookmarks": [
        {
            "title": "Google Workspace",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://workspace.google.com/u/1/dashboard"
        },
        {
            "type": "separator"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Calendar",
            "url": "https://calendar.google.com/calendar",
            "type": "link"
        },
        {
            "title": "Gmail",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://mail.google.com/mail/"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Drive",
            "url": "https://drive.google.com/drive/",
            "type": "link"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Chat",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://mail.google.com/chat/"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Contacts",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://contacts.google.com/"
        },
        {
            "type": "separator"
        },
        {
            "title": "YouTube",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://www.youtube.com/"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Photos",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://photos.google.com/"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Maps",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://www.google.com/maps"
        },
        {
            "type": "separator"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Cloud Platform",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://console.cloud.google.com/home/dashboard"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Domains",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://domains.google.com/"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Developer",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://developers.google.com/"
        },
        {
            "type": "separator"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Account",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://myaccount.google.com/"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Admin",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://admin.google.com/"
        },
        {
            "title": "Google Business Profile",
            "type": "link",
            "url": "https://business.google.com/u/1/dashboard/"
        }
    ]
}

And this is how it appears in the Electron App:

Backlinks:

list from [[Creating Desktop Electron Apps with Nativefier]] AND -"Changelog"