Mozilla Labs has started eighteen months ago an experiment called Prism, which allows Internet users to bring any website or web based application directly to the desktop. The web experience will be based on the same features like in case of Internet navigation with web browser, but in absence of it. Now, the developers from Mozilla Labs have released Prism 1.0 Beta, alongside a new website, where users can download Prism as a Firefox extension or as standalone application.

Prism should provide the possibilities of creation of a better environment to run web based applications. According to the Mozilla Labs blog, Prism has the following goal: “to bridge the divide in the user experience between web applications and desktop apps and to explore new usability models as the line between traditional desktop and new web applications continues to blur.”

The new features of Prism allow users to interact with web based applications from the desktop in a natural manner, while developers will get an API for adding an enhanced functionality to the websites, in order to offer more options when the users deploy them at the desktop level with Prism:

-Ability to set fonts, proxy settings and other application-specifical settings.
-The ability to clear private data on demand.
-Applications are automatically updated when new Prism versions are available.
-Tray icon support, as well as submenus for dock and system tray menus.
-Support for SSL exceptions.
-New API functionality for allowing Prism-enabled web sites more desktop like power.

The standalone web applications can be accessed and deployed as common desktop applications with Prism, by Windows and Mac OS X users, because Prism also provides full support for Mac OS X 10.4 operating system, as compared with the previous version.

Prism is not a new proprietary platform, like Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight. It is built on Firefox and naturally includes web applications into users desktop.

Anyone can transform a website or web application into a standalone one, capable to run on a desktop computer in its own window with the help of the two flavors of Prism: the Firefox Extension and the standalone Prism application.

The following two videos show a quick tutorial on how to get started with Prism:

Prism for Firefox – Video Tutorial

Standalone Prism Application – Video Tutorial

Related Articles

• Firefox 3.5 RC (Release Candidate) 1 Is Almost Here (0)
• Jetpack Automatically Creates Firefox Add-Ons (0)
• Firefox Will Be Faster With Multiprocess Browsing (0)
• Firefox 3.5.1 Allows Direct Audio Recording To Ogg-Vorbis (0)
• Two New Milestones For Fennec: 1.0 Beta (Maemo) And 1.0 Alpha 2 (Windows Mobile) (0)
• Orca Browser – Great Choice For Those Interested in Trying a New Browser (0)

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Tech & gadgets, Web Developer Articles, Windows Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.