As web designers/developers, desktop applications are harder to create considering they have a totally different environment.

In order to fill this gap, we can make use of site-specific browsers which enable us to lock a website inside an application-looking browser that can interact with the system tray/dock & display notifications.

Some usage examples for site-specific browsers:

• displaying new orders, support tickets for an e-commerce website
• showing system tray alerts when a new visitor visits your website
• or even locking your whole application inside a site-specific browser and offering it as a desktop application.

To sum up, they simply help us convert a website into a desktop application. Here are free & mature tools for creating site-specific browsers:

Mozilla Prism (Win-Mac)

Prism is a very easy-to-customize tool that supports Windows & Mac.

Applications created can be:

• minimized to system tray/dock & a navigation can be added there
• set to display status messages & popups in the system tray/dock

Prism apps. will be running seperately from the browser & will stay alive even if the browser isn't.

P.S. You can also read a more detailed post about Prism at WRD.

Fluid (Mac)

Fluid enables you to create Cocoa desktop applications with:

• dock icon
• standard menu bar
• growl notifications
• Userscripting (Greasemonkey)
• & more..

Bubbles (Win)

An application platform for creating site-specific browsers which supports:

• system tray icon & context menu
• notifications
• drap'n drop of local files
• & more..

Mango (Win)

Mango can create a website-to-application instantly with features like:

• custom tray & context menu
• minimize to tray
• always on top
• kiosk mode
• fixed width/height
• & more..

All application settings are kept in a XML file which can be used for further customization.

Other Site-Specific Browser Methods:

• Curl offers EmbeddedBrowserGraphic to accomplish this functionality.
• Using Adobe AIR, it is possible to create site-specific browsers (a simple example).
• Site-specific browsers with WebKit.

Further Resources:

There are also other ways of creating desktop applications with web scripting technologies like:

• Wapache: Apache server & IE bundled to create portable dynamic apps.
• Appcelerator Titanium: create desktop apps. with HTML, CSS, Javascript as well as Flash and Silverlight (see WRD post).
• Roadsend PHP: a platform for converting PHP apps into EXE files. (see WRD post)

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• Convert Web Apps. To Desktop Apps.: Prism
• Automated Browser Refresher For Developing Easier: XRefresh

The tool runs on IE & measures the performance of your AJAX application as real users are feeling it.

It traces & analyzes AJAX calls through their entire round trip (DOM event, JavaScript, HTTP request, avaScript callback) and displays network traffic, CPU load, execution times & more.

dynaTrace AJAX also records every session for future offline analysis.

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They generally offer a similar interface with the popular image editing softwares which lowers the learning curve so much.

Almost all of them are Flash-based (no extra installations -like plugins- are required) & load/work very fast.

Why To Use Them?

You may be asking yourself why to use a web-based one when there is a powerful image editing software installed on your computer like Photoshop, Fireworks, GIMP, etc.?

Portability

There is no need to have a software other than a browser to run such applications. Also designs created with them can be saved instantly online.

This function is specially handy for anyone working at different locations/computers.

The Price Factor

Most popular image editing softwares, except GIMP, are generally not cheap & every new version requires a new license.

Online image editing platforms are free or come with cheap subscription plans.

Lower System Resources

As such applications would run on browsers & files are remotely hosted, they will be consuming much less system resources.

This makes them a good fit for older & non-strong (like netbooks) computers.

Backup

Every designer/developer, generally, experiences data losses because of hardware failures & no backups.

All the content created can be saved in these platforms which are mostly hosted in the cloud with daily backups. So, this is taken care of.

They have cons too:

As expected, they are not perfect:

• you may not add your custom fonts, brushes, shapes, etc.
• not being able to export designs to formats of popular applications (generally, only PNG, JPG, GIF & TIFF)
• lack of some features
• some of them don't have keyboard shortcuts

Here are 5 amazing applications which offer a similar functionality with your favorite image editing software & have support for creating new images (not editing-only):

Sumo Paint

Sumo Paint is an amazing application which Photoshop users will find it very friendly as the interface & functionality is very similar.

It offers most things Photoshop offers, supports layers, filters & has some awesome geometric shape tools.

There is also a huge community behind the application where you can get inspired.

Aviary Phoenix

Phoenix is the image editor part of the powerful other Aviary applications.

The editor works with layers, has various filters & can be exported to popular file formats or saved online for future editing.

Photoshop.com

Official online Photoshop service of Adobe.

The application has a very different interface compared to Photoshop itself & offers fewer functions. It is mostly focused on editing & optimizing images.

Pixlr

Pixlr is a feature rich online image editor that has several versions to make things easier:

• Editor – all-functions included editor
• Express – more basic version
• Grabber – to right click any image and start editing from Firefox browser + Windows desktop

Splashup

A very Photoshop-like application that can run multiple images.

It integrates well with photo sharing services like Picasa & Flickr.

There is also a light version for simpler functions.

There are also other great applications like:

• flauntR
  
• Picnik
  
• FotoFlexer
  
• & much more

which are totally focused on editing images & don't offer creating a new one from scratch.

Which one do you prefer? Any great ones missing? Share them in the comments.

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It requires an installation of a plugin & can run:

• IE6-7-8
• Firefox 2-3-3.5
• Apple Safari 3-4
• Opera 9-10
• Google Chrome

The platform is definitely a gold mine for making cross-browser tests quickly & easily.

P.S. Spoon allows you to convert your own apps to Spoon apps & post them on the web. You can check the platform's homepage for that.

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It informs users with a count-down display (uses jQuery countdown) about when the website will be launched.

The template has a slider in the bottom to display any other information (social network links & a newsletter entry is used by default).

It is built with valid XHTML/CSS, works in all major browsers & comes with the .PSD source file for future editing.

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However, there are some situations where all the audience may not have the necessary tools to communicate at the same platforms like a user not having Skype installed or not having a Twitter account.

This is where the disposable chat systems become handy. Whether you will be talking with a client, a teammate or a friend, just a standards compliant browser & an internet connection will be enough.

Here are 7 easy to use & free disposable chat systems (text or video) for an instant communication:

TinyChat

TinyChat is probably the most popular disposable chat application.

It has support for both video & text where both works very nice.

There is also an API to automatically create rooms which is great for integrating it with 3rd party products.

BabelWith.Me

The application offers a quick group chat with a unique feature: it can translate the content from 45 different languages instantly which makes the communication of x number of users not speaking each other's language possible.

BoostCam

BoostCam creates a two-way video conferencing room with just a click without the need of installing any plugins.

Ubiqq

An instant video chat system for 2 users. Just enable the application to reach your camera + microphone and no more settings.

Stinto

A simple disposable chat system which work perfectly with no problems. Just click the "create chat" button & that's all.

It does not offer password-protected pages.

Disposible Chat

Again a simple application where any number of users can connect. Optionally, you can password-protect your page to make sure the chat is private.

ChatMaker.NET

Besides standard chat rooms, you can signup & create private rooms which are password protected and the communication is encyrpted.

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Using the application, anyone can submit tickets from a web-based interface & follow their status easily. Also, the admins will be able to sort any requests by priority & answer them without leaving any non-replied requests.

The admin-side has support for canned responses for faster replies, tickets can be auto-closed after x days & more.

There is also a full-featured knowledgebase, that supports unlimited categories, where users can find answers to their questions themselves.

P.S. HESK has a free & paid version where the only limitiation of the free version is a backlink.

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The tools include a JavaScript compiler, library & templating system.

JavaScript Compiler

It compiles JavaScript into compact, high-performance code. The compiler removes dead code and rewrites and minimizes what's left so that it downloads and runs quickly.

It also checks syntax, variable references, and types, and warns about common JavaScript pitfalls.

The compiler also offers a Firebug extension, named Inspector, for better debugging.

Closure Library

It is a broad, well-tested, modular, & cross-browser JavaScript library.

Only what you need can be pulled from a large set of reusable UI widgets, controls, lower-level utilities for DOM manipulation, server communication, animation, data structures, unit testing, rich-text editing, & more.

Closure Templates

They simplifty the task of dynamically generating HTML.

In contrast to traditional templating systems, in which you use one big template per page, you can think of Closure Templates as small components that you compose to form your user interface.

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It comes with a powerful backend & highly customizable frontend.

nopCommerce has all the features of a standard e-commerce websites & offers more like:

• support for kit products (e.g. build your own computer)
• real-time currency exchange rates
• multilingual interface
• compare selected products
• highly flexible shipping calculation (integrated providers, width/height/order total based & more)
• tax calculations by country/state/product & more
• built-in forum & polls
• wishlist

One of the most impressive parts of the software is the integrated marketing capabilities it has. You can customize the design of a product or category page, create any type of discounts & even activate an affiliate system.

nopCommerce supports most of the popular payment gateways & with its pluggable modular/layered architecture, new ones can be added with ease (some are already created).

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Almost regulary, WRD is sharing the fresh Adobe AIR applications that web designers & developers will find useful, like:

• 15 New Adobe AIR Applications For Designers & Developers
  
• 16 Fresh Adobe AIR Applications For Designers & Developers
  
• 27 Adobe AIR Applications – Handy For Web Designers
  

Since then, new applications are created & ready to use. And, here they are:

Image Editing, Debugging & Invoicing

zFlick

This is an awesome Flickr search tool that makes browsing between images fun.

Once you find what you're looking for, just drag'n drop that image to your desktop to download it.

PixelWindow

It helps measuring the width/height of any item on the desktop. With a semi-transparent background & custom-presets, it is a great helper when prototyping websites.

Caldera

Caldera resizes, renames & recompiles any number of images in bulk.

You can set it to resize images by scale or spedify a maximum width/height. The renaming function supports automated-names (prefix plus number).

URL Decoder And Encoder

A tiny application with a single purpose: it makes URLs with querystrings more readable, easier to analyze or can create querystrings from a given input.

Debug.a.li.cious Console

An application that transforms ActionScript objects into a human readable format with 5 different debugging levels.

doswf

doswf is an Adobe AIR application for encrypting, confusing & watermarking SWF files.

PreFab

This is a handy application for simplifying common tasks, improving the workflow & enhancing the visual quality of your Flash 3D productions.

It's a small but powerful tool that can add visual quality to low polygon models using a nice bag of tricks thanks to the advanced rendering capabilities of Away3D.

TiltShift Generator

An application for adding camera effects to images quickly.

It is possible to play with blur, color, vignetting settings of images.

uBooks

An invoicing application which is specially built with freelancers in mind.

It is possible to add clients, projects & use the built-in timer to auto-calculate the time worked on projects.

The application also creates invoices & financial reports.

P.S. If the installer fails, try this address.

Time, Task & Project Management

Doit.im

Doit.im helps you organize tasks & focus on items in hand, so that you can closely track the process of your work.

Besides the tasks, it is possible to add projects where sub-tasks can be created.

ToDoDoc

ToDoDoc is a very well-thought project/task & to-do-list manager.

You can use tags for reaching to related actions easier.

PhiToDo

It is a powerful task manager where tasks can be shared with friends & time spent on each task can be displayed.

The application comes with two versions: web & desktop.

Scattrbrain

This is a very simple task-tracking application with a beautiful interface.

Just enter the tasks, select the due date & mark-them complete once done.

FlashTrack Database

A task tracking application which can track the time worked on each task. It can also export reports to MS Excel.

Hourly

Hourly does one thing & does it well. It tracks times you worked on projects & tasks.

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