Create a Linux native app using Nativefier

Generated by DALL·E 2.
Generated by DALL·E 2.

I'm sometimes disappointed by the lack of native apps on Linux for popular software. Of course, it has gotten better over the years, but it still happens that I sometimes find an excellent piece of software that doesn't support Linux.

I tried using Remember the Milk because I got excited that they offer a native Linux app. But the UI felt really dated and navigating around the interface felt clumsy. But, I told myself, it's 2020, to-do apps are the go-to starter app for fancy new web frameworks like React, so there should be some friendly UI alternative.

And there was! I found TickTick, and it's beautiful. The UI is so fantastic that you just use it and intuitively know how it all works as if by instinct. You press the checkbox, and it marks the item as complete! (This sounds silly, but this was a two-click process with Remember the Milk). Markdown just works for typing up some stuff under a task. It had a lovely flat aesthetic which I appreciated.

However, there is no native Linux app. They have a web app, but for a to-do app that I have open every day, I wanted it to be a separate app from the browser with its own icon and everything. But then I thought of Electron, which uses Chromium to make native apps using web technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. So I trusted my guts and did a quick search, and sure enough, I discovered Natifiefier, a popular program to turn any web page into a native app (including Linux!).

I'll repeat the steps I did to set up TickTick as a native desktop app for Linux for myself on Gnome. Spoiler alert: I'm super happy with the result.

Setup TickTick as a native app on Ubuntu Gnome

First, download and install Nativefier.

$ sudo npm install -g nativefier

Now simply use nativefier to turn the TickTick web app into an executable app on your platform.

$ nativefier --name TickTick ticktick.com

Edit the package.json file to have the correct program name of TickTick instead of the name it automatically gave it.

{"name":"TickTick","version":"1.0.0","description": "..."}

Move the resulting program folder to /var/opt for safe-keeping.

$ sudo mv TickTick-linux-x64/ /var/opt/

Create a softlink for the executable in /var/opt/TickTick-linux-x64/.

$ sudo ln -s /var/opt/TickTick-linux-x64/TickTick /usr/local/bin/ticktick

Now we're ready to create the desktop launch application. Create a new file at /usr/share/applications/ticktick.desktop and paste in the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=TickTick
Icon=/usr/share/icons/ticktick.png
Exec=/usr/local/bin/ticktick
Terminal=false

Notice the icon reference? I found a nice icon with transparency you can download to use. Just put it at the specified path above, /usr/share/icons/ticktick.png.

Now you should see a launch application for TickTick with the proper icon! It behaves just as I would expect a native app to behave. I'm thrilled with it.

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