Karin Chan

Unity WebApps Available In The Ubuntu 12.10 Official Repositories

<div style="text-align: justify;">The Unity WebApps feature has been available in Ubuntu 12.10 for some time, but besides the Amazon and Ubuntu One Music Store webapps which are installed by default, no other webapps were available for installation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, the <b>webapps that were available in the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/07/install-new-ubuntu-webapps-technology.html" title="Install The New Ubuntu WebApps Technology In Ubuntu 12.04 Or 12.10">preview PPA</a> are available in the official Ubuntu 12.10 repositories</b>, but as separate packages so you can install only the webapps you want and use.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7WEg8N9zzQM/UGZe1OeEifI/AAAAAAAAKaM/f559WMA4k-c/s1600/webapps-messaging-menu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity webapps" border="0" height="313" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7WEg8N9zzQM/UGZe1OeEifI/AAAAAAAAKaM/f559WMA4k-c/s320/webapps-messaging-menu.png" title="unity webapps" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zOFwhQeC5uQ/UGZe2LSKJhI/AAAAAAAAKaU/2eCfjJJpyY8/s1600/webapps-sound-menu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity webapps" border="0" height="262" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zOFwhQeC5uQ/UGZe2LSKJhI/AAAAAAAAKaU/2eCfjJJpyY8/s320/webapps-sound-menu.png" title="unity webapps" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Using these web applications, you get tight desktop integration for popular websites like Gmail, Google Plus, Last.fm radio, Facebook, Google Docs and many others</b>. By desktop integration, I mean not only <b>notifications</b> and an icon on the Unity launcher, but also <b>HUD, ALT+TAB</b>, <b>quicklists</b>, <b>Sound</b> or <b>Messaging Menu</b> support. So, for instance, using these webapps, you can:</div><ul><li>Control Last.fm radio or Grooveshark from the Ubuntu Sound Menu</li><li>See how many unread emails you have in your Gmail or Yahoo Mail inbox from the Ubuntu Messaging Menu</li><li>Get native desktop notifications for Facebook, Gmail, Google+</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Check out this quick video I've recorded, demoing the Unity WebApps desktop integration:</div><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/L2YNR1KU1Xs" width="560"></iframe><br />(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2YNR1KU1Xs">direct video link</a>)</center><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Right now, the following webapps are available in the Ubuntu 12.10 repositories: Amazon Cloud Reader, Angrybirds, BBC News (UK), Cut The Rope, Facebook Apps, Facebook Messenger, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Plus, Google Plus Games, Grooveshark, Hulu, Last.fm, Launchpad, Libre.fm, Linked.in, Live Mail, Mail.ru, Newsblur, Pandora, QQ Mail, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, vk.com, Wordpress.com, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yandex Music, Yandex News and YouTube.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In my test, some webapps didn't work, like Yahoo News for instance. So don't expect everything to work as this feature is still work in progress.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Unity WebApps In Ubuntu 12.10</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Note: if you've added the Unity WebApps Preview PPA, you should purge it because it's most probably not compatible with the new webapps from the repositories (which are now separate packages instead of just one package):</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install ppa-purge<br />sudo ppa-purge ppa:webapps/preview</code></pre><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To install a webapp for a site, search for the site name in Ubuntu Software Center, or search for "webapps" in Synaptic</b> to see all the available webapps (searching for "webapps" in Ubuntu Software Center doesn't work for some reason).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Or, if you wish to install all the available webapps, use the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install unity-webapps-*</code></pre><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">By default, the Unity webapps work with Firefox, but you can also get them to work with Chromium, by installing an extension available in the repositories:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install unity-chromium-extension</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For now, only Firefox and Chromium browsers are supported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please note that you need to use the Chromium version available in the Ubuntu 12.10 official repositories (version 20 at the time I'm writing this post; in my test, it didn't work with Chromium 23).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Once installed, log out and log back in.</b></div><br />For Ubuntu 12.04, see this post: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/07/install-new-ubuntu-webapps-technology.html">Install The New Ubuntu WebApps Technology In Ubuntu 12.04</a><br /><br /><br /><h2>Using Unity WebApps</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Open Firefox or Chromium and visit one of the supported websites. A popup should be displayed, asking if you want to integrate that website with Ubuntu:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b8igRopD-YE/UGZe-kKjGCI/AAAAAAAAKac/FFNz0TKdQLA/s1600/webapp-allow.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity webapps" border="0" height="172" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b8igRopD-YE/UGZe-kKjGCI/AAAAAAAAKac/FFNz0TKdQLA/s320/webapp-allow.png" title="unity webapps" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FJKxS-Zugn8/UGZfO72klXI/AAAAAAAAKak/iy7jVTSteYw/s1600/webapps-allow-chromium.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity webapps" border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FJKxS-Zugn8/UGZfO72klXI/AAAAAAAAKak/iy7jVTSteYw/s320/webapps-allow-chromium.png" title="unity webapps" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Click "Yes" and you're ready to go. If you don't want a website to integrate with the desktop, simply don't click the Yes button or select to never ask again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Firefox extension lets you disable the desktop integration prompt by going to <i>Edit > Preferences</i>, on the General tab, under "Desktop Integration":</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QxPXtxj4Wes/UGZfb4sUU4I/AAAAAAAAKas/FZc920qnAzA/s1600/webapps-firefox-exceptions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity webapps" border="0" height="245" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QxPXtxj4Wes/UGZfb4sUU4I/AAAAAAAAKas/FZc920qnAzA/s320/webapps-firefox-exceptions.png" title="unity webapps" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Here, if you click "Exceptions", you can select some websites to ignore. A similar feature exists in Chromium too, under Advanced Settings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You can set allowed domains and domains for which the browser shouldn't prompt you through Dconf-editor ("dconf-tools" package), under: <i>com > canonical > unity > webapps</i>:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yg0G6BbI0c8/UGZfjdHyFPI/AAAAAAAAKa0/yfJKU5ApN0w/s1600/webapps-dconf.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity webapps" border="0" height="250" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yg0G6BbI0c8/UGZfjdHyFPI/AAAAAAAAKa0/yfJKU5ApN0w/s320/webapps-dconf.png" title="unity webapps" width="320" /></a></div>

Unity WebApps Available In The Ubuntu 12.10 Official Repositories

The Unity WebApps feature has been available in Ubuntu 12.10 for some time, but besides the Amazon and Ubuntu One Music Store webapps which ...