Executable HTML/Javascript Applications on the Desktop?

I'm wondering if there is a way to create a Desktop Application that is essentially a Browser, except that it only runs my Application, doesn't need installation开发者_JS百科 and is a static executable that contains the HTML/Images/CSS/JavaScript packaged into it, with an option to access arbitary embedded resources through JavaScript?

I believe Mozilla/Firefox allows this through their XUL Framework, which is actually used for Applications (see Celtx). However, the last time I looked into it (~3 years ago), it was a horrible experience and overly complicated.

Has this changed? Or is there a WebKit based option?

You should try Chromeless.

.. doesn't need installation and is a static executable that contains the HTML/Images/CSS/JavaScript packaged into it, with an option to access arbitary embedded resources through JavaScript?

Chrome supports .crx files which is essentially a zip file with the resources archived into it. It doesn't technically require installation since it's run on the Chrome browser itself.

I know it's not directly relevant to your question but I think building web apps with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript is the way to go. You can even package it and have it install like an app and distribute it via an app store even.

I went with XULRunner in the end. The latest version is much improved over the one I looked at several years ago.

You could use NW.JS:

https://github.com/nwjs/nw.js

NW.js is an app runtime based on Chromium and node.js. You can write native apps in HTML and JavaScript with NW.js. It also lets you call Node.js modules directly from the DOM and enables a new way of writing native applications with all Web technologies.

Basically you create a folder with your entire html app. On Windows, just add 4 files (or more depending on your needs): package.json, nw.exe, nw.pak, and icudtl.dat. When you run nw.exe, your app will launch in a packaged version of chrome with node.js support. You can access the file system using node commands directly from your original html.

The drawbacks: NW adds ~60MB to your application and additional memory overhead.