HTML active desktop launching local apps

[danfoshizzle]

Wanted to do something like this, I know he uses active desktop to load an local html file, that in turn launches local applications, but not got a clue how to implement it, Anybody got any ideas?

[jazzmista]

A rough idea - using this for the handling (as Active Desktop uses IE as a base of course ) http://www.codingforums.com/showthread.php?t=27750

First off, you would need XAMPP (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) on the base system for a local webserver. Configure it and create a directory within htdocs called something like livedesktop.

I presume you would then have to manually code it or have index.php as your main page and have scripts to add/remove code using $fopen, $fwrite and $fclose in PHP. I did something similar writing to text files for a research project. It shouldn't be too hard to code it so you select an icon using a file upload box (call the file $icon), give it a title ($title) and select the path ($path). On clicking "add", the function $fopen is called to open the main index.php file, the code (in the codingforums.com link above) is written to the main index.php file inside a table cell, which hosts the $icon as an image and the $title underneath that. Not sure about removing the icons though - might have to do that manually!)

[danfoshizzle]

Sounds like a not to distant project, would be awesome for joggler windows!

This guy did it, http://www.studio-lights.com/blog/iphon ... mputer.htm but would like to learn how to do it myself

cheers mate

[jazzmista]

I'll create a quick static mockup and see what happens!

[danfoshizzle]

Yeah would be awesome to see it, cheers mate

[jazzmista]

I've done some code, but it doesn't work on IE10 dev preview (!) and Windows 7+ (I'm on Windows 8) doesn't support Active Desktop. I'm not sure if it would work on XP though. Another option would be to use Visual Basic, although that isn't quite as smooth as having an Active Dekstop background.

[danfoshizzle]

No worries matey I will look into it, It should work on xp though

[jazzmista]

No worries matey I will look into it, It should work on xp though

Decided to spend a few minutes in VB to see what happened, and I made this...


All the functions work, it just needs to look a bit more user friendly. At the moment, you have to manually code everything, although given a bit more time I might be able to fix it! It's at a 800*480 resolution in the screenshot, so it would support full-screen or full-screen with the exception of the task bar. It can also auto run at startup (I think!)!

Is it worth continuing with it?

[danfoshizzle]

If you have the time mate would be awesome if you could

[Mevi]

Did you decide against blue dolphin? I thought that worked really well on the Joggler, with animated icons and a little 'swoosh' sound.