App for iOS/Android

[alecpl]

I'm just thinking that it would make sense and give us an opportunity to get some popularity or money for the Roundcube project if we had a simple native app for Android and iOS that:

• costs <5 euro/dollar,
• does account management (remembering Roundcube URLs and user names) with optional user passwords store,
• it's main task would be to execute web browser (in full screen or some "built-in" mode), force elastic skin use, auto-login the user and maybe auto-close the app on user logout.

I have no idea about native apps, but I guess it should not be very hard to implement for someone with knowledge. I think it could get quite popular if "blessed" by Roundcube as official or sth. Of course, all that assuming elastic skin is successful and works nice on mobile.

Any volunteers?

[marclaporte]

Until that happens, the low hanging fruit is to turn Roundcube into a Progressive Web App (PWA)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_app

[taalas]

I would second the suggestion to use a PWA until a native app is developed. This would make it possible to:

• use Roundcube in Fullscreen mode without browser controls
• add Roundcube to Homescreen, including a pre-defined icon (and splash screen on iOS). Chrome will trigger to "Add to Homescreen" option automatically now if a set of requirements is met (see beforeinstallprompt https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/app-install-banners/)
• give the app a native feel

This can be achieved by:

• adding a PWA manifest file and referencing it in the website header
• add other header meta tags for iOS compatibility
• add and register a Service Worker, that handles the fetch event (the handler can be empty though iirc)
• add optional icon and splash screen graphics

This does not solve the account management issue but will improve the overall user experience alot imho.

[taalas]

Any updates on this? Is a PWA planned for the next or any upcoming release?

[taalas]

Starting with version 76 Google Chrome is now displaying an install button in the omnibox to allow easier installation of PWAs on desktop. Since PWAs are becoming more and more prominent do you have any plans to support this in the near future?

[alecpl]

Work in progress https://git.kolab.org/diffusion/RPK/browse/dev%252Fpwa/plugins/pwa/. What needs to be done is more testing and serviceworker cache code review (we should not cache everything).

[taalas]

@alecpl Excellent. Thanks for the heads-up!