Formerly known as node-webkit, NW.js lets you convert pretty much any HTML5 project into a desktop app.
First, make sure you have the right versions of npm and node installed. I updated npm and ended up updating node via nvm to maintain various versions of node and getting the right one for NW.js.
To launch the test app, I ran this command via Terminal:
open -n -a nwjs --args "/Users/your_usr_name/path_to_project/html_nwjs_test"
There’re a few other options on the project’s Github page. Do check it out.
If your package.json has a “window” node that looks like what I have below (aka no window chrome, no taskbar functionality), keep in mind that on OS X you can just launch Activity Monitor and use that utility to shut your app down when you’re ready:
{ "name": "HTML5 Desktop Test App", "main": "index.html", "window": { "title": "HTML5 Screensaver Test", "frame": false, "toolbar": false, "fullscreen": true, "always-on-top": true, "show_in_taskbar": false } }
I’m sure Windows Task Manager or Windows Explorer has a similar option.
When the app’s ready, nw-builder seems like a good option to create executables for multiple platforms (win32, win64, osx32, osx64, linux, etc). It seems a bit annoying that for Windows, nw-builder outputs a bunch of .dll files along with the .exe.