nativefier/CATALOG.md

Build Commands Catalog

Below you'll find a list of build commands contributed by the Nativefier community. They are here as examples, to help you nativefy "complicated" apps that need a bit of elbow grease to work. We need your help to enrich it, as long as you follow these two guidelines:

1. Only add sites that require something special! No need to document here that simplesite.com works with a simple nativefier simplesite.com 🙂.
2. Please add commands with the strict necessary to make an app work. For example,
   • Yes to mention that --widevine or some --browserwindow-options are necessary...
   • ... but don't add other flags that are pure personal preference (e.g. --disable-dev-tools or --disk-cache-size).

---

General recipes

Videos don’t play

Some sites like HBO Max and Udemy host videos using DRM.

For those, try passing the --widevine option.

Settings cached between app rebuilds

You might be surprised to see settings persist after rebuilding your app. This occurs because the app cache lives separately from the app.

Try deleting your app's cache, found at <your_app_name_lower_case>-nativefier-<random_id> in your OS’s "App Data" directory (Linux: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or ~/.config , MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ , Windows: %APPDATA% or C:\Users\yourprofile\AppData\Roaming)

Window size and position

This allows the last set window size and position to be remembered and applied after your app is restarted. Note: PR welcome for a built-in fix for that :) .

nativefier 'https://open.google.com/'
  --inject window.js

Note: Inject the following javascript as windows.js to prevent the window size and position to reset.

function storeWindowPos() {
  window.localStorage.setItem('windowX', window.screenX);
  window.localStorage.setItem('windowY', window.screenY);
}
window.moveTo(window.localStorage.getItem('windowX'), window.localStorage.getItem('windowY'));
setInterval(storeWindowPos, 250);

---

Site-specific recipes

Google apps

Lying about the User Agent is required, else Google Login will notice your "Chrome" isn't a real Chrome, and will: 1. Refuse login, 2. Break notifications.

This example documents Google Sheets, but is applicable to other Google apps, e.g. Google Calendar, GMail, etc. If firefox doesn’t work, try safari .

nativefier 'https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets' \
  --user-agent firefox

Outlook

nativefier 'https://outlook.office.com/mail'
  --internal-urls '.*?(outlook.live.com|outlook.office365.com).*?'
  --file-download-options '{"saveAs": true}'
  --browserwindow-options '{"webPreferences": { "webviewTag": true, "nodeIntegration": true, "nodeIntegrationInSubFrames": true } }'

Note: --browserwindow-options is needed to allow pop-outs when creating/editing an email.

Udemy

nativefier 'https://www.udemy.com/'
  --internal-urls '.*?udemy.*?'
  --file-download-options '{"saveAs": true}'
  --widevine

Note: most videos will work, but to play some DRMed videos you must pass --widevine AND sign the app.

HBO Max

nativefier 'https://play.hbomax.com/'
  --widevine
  --enable-es3-apis
&& python -m castlabs_evs.vmp sign-pkg 'name_of_the_generated_hbo_app'

Note: as for Udemy, --widevine + app signing is necessary.

WhatsApp

nativefier 'https://web.whatsapp.com/'
  --inject whatsapp.js

With this --inject in whatsapp.js (and maybe more, see #1112):

if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {
  caches.keys().then(function (cacheNames) {
    cacheNames.forEach(function (cacheName) {
      caches.delete(cacheName);
    });
  });
}

Spotify

nativefier 'https://open.spotify.com/'
  --widevine
  --inject spotify.js
  --inject spotify.css

Notes:

• You might have to pass --user-agent firefox to circumvent Spotify's detection that your browser isn't a real Chrome. But maybe not.
• Inject the following javascript as spotify.js to prevent "Unsupported Browser" messages.

function dontShowBrowserNoticePage() {
  const browserNotice = document.getElementById('browser-support-notice');
  console.log({ browserNotice });
  if (browserNotice) {
    // When Spotify displays the browser notice, it's not just the notice,
    // but the entire page is focused on not allowing you to proceed.
    // So in this case, we hide the body element (so nothing shows)
    // until our JS deletes the service worker and reload (which will actually load the player)
    document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].style.display = 'none';
  }
}

function reload() {
  window.location.href = window.location.href;
}

function nukeWorkers() {
  dontShowBrowserNoticePage();
  if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {
    caches.keys().then(function (cacheNames) {
      cacheNames.forEach(function (cacheName) {
        console.debug('Deleting cache', cacheName);
        caches.delete(cacheName);
      });
    });
    navigator.serviceWorker.getRegistrations().then((registrations) => {
      registrations.forEach((worker) =>
        worker
          .unregister()
          .then((u) => {
            console.debug('Unregistered worker', worker);
            reload();
          })
          .catch((e) =>
            console.error('Unable to unregister worker', error, { worker }),
          ),
      );
    });
  }
}

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
  nukeWorkers();
});

if (document.readyState === 'interactive') {
  nukeWorkers();
}

• It is also required to sign the app, or many songs will not play.
• To hide all download links (as if you were in the actual app), inject the following CSS as spotify.css:

a[href='/download'] {
  display: none;
}

Notion

You can use Notion pages with Nativefier without much hassle, but Notion itself does not present an easy way to use HTML buttons. As such, if you want to use Notion Pages as a quick way to make dashboards and interactive panels, you will be restricted to only plain links and standard components.

With Nativefier you can now extend Notion's functionality and possibilities by adding HTML buttons that can call other javascript functions, since it enables you to inject custom Javascript and CSS.

nativefier 'YOUR_NOTION_PAGE_SHARE_URL'
  --inject notion.js
  --inject notion.css

Notes:

• You can inject the notion.js and notion.css files by copying them to the resources/app/inject folder of your nativefier app.
• In your Notion page, use [notionbutton]BUTTON_TEXT|BUTTON_ACTION[/notionbutton], where BUTTON_TEXT is the text contained in your button and BUTTON_ACTION is the action which will be called in your JS function.

/* notion.js */

// First, we replace all placeholders in our Notion page to add our interactive buttons to it.
window.onload = 
  setTimeout(function(){
    let htmlCode = document.body.getElementsByTagName("*");
    for (let i = 0; i <= htmlCode.length; i++) {
      if(htmlCode[i] && htmlCode[i].innerHTML){
        let match = htmlCode[i].innerHTML.match(/\[notionbutton\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/notionbutton\]/);
        if (match && typeof match == 'object'){
          let btnarray = match['1'].split("|");
          let btn_text = btnarray[0];
          let btn_action = btnarray[1];
          htmlCode[i].innerHTML = htmlCode[i].innerHTML.replace(match['0'], "<button class=\"btn-notion\" btnaction=\"" + btn_action + "\"  >"+btn_text+"</button>");
        }
      }
    }
    let buttons = document.querySelectorAll(".btn-notion");
    for (let j=0; j <= buttons.length; j++){
      if(buttons[j].hasAttribute("btnaction")){
        buttons[j].onclick = function () { runAction(buttons[j].getAttribute("btnaction")) };
      }
    }
  }, 3000);

// And then we define your action below, according to our needs
function runAction(action) {
    switch(action){
      case '1':
        alert('Nice One!');
        break;
      default:
        alert('Hello World!');
    }
}

After that, set your css file as follows:

.notion-topbar{ /* hiding notion's default navigation bar for a more "app" feeling */
  display:none; 
}
.btn-notion{ /* defining some style for our buttons */
  background-color:#FFC300;
  color: #333333;
}
.notion-selectable.notion-page-block.notion-collection-item span{
  pointer-events: auto !important; /* notion prevents clicks on items inside databases. Use this to remove that. */
}