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Erwic - Easily Run Websites In Containers

Vieb offers a way to start a fixed set of pages in a separate instance. The name of this option is called "Erwic" which is short for "Easily Run Websites In Containers".

Why

This mode is inspired by (and aims to replace) programs such as Franz, Ferdi or Rambox. It can also be used to replace "desktop" apps of Slack, Discord and other Electron apps. These programs are nice but Vieb (and thus Erwic mode) has the following advantages:

  • Use all of Vieb's features in combination with all messaging services and websites
  • Up to date with the latest Electron releases
  • Free and open source (unlike those for Discord, Slack and many other messaging apps)
  • History management including downloads and permissions
  • Reproducible configuration using JSON config file option (--erwic)
  • Use a custom application name, app icon and data location
  • Specify a custom script to be executed once a page loads

How

The browsing data of each app/tab is stored in it's own container. These containers are selected based on the container name that you choose, and do not share any data between them if the name is different. Links that you request to open in a new tab will be opened with your default web browser instead. Links that you request to open using the start arguments will open in a new tab, using the container name that is used by the existing tab with the same domain. The container name of the currently opened tab will be used for the new tab if no matching domains are found. Finally, permissions for microphone, notifications, media devices and camera are now allowed by default. These are only changes to the default Erwic setting values compared to regular Vieb, and if desired, these differences can be changed (back) with the viebrc in the datafolder or with :set.

Multiple pages

Configuration for this is is done with a settings JSON file. You can open a config file with Vieb using the "--erwic" option. It is recommended to add the "--datafolder" startup argument as well, as you can only open one instance of Erwic per datafolder. Below is an example config of how to make a fixed instance for Discord and Slack named "Erwic".

{
    "name": "Erwic",
    "icon": "./example-icon.png",
    "apps": [
        {
            "container": "discord",
            "url": "https://discord.com/app"
        },
        {
            "container": "slack",
            "url": "https://example.slack.com",
            "script": "./example-script.js"
        }
    ]
}

The only required field is the list of apps, but you can specify a custom name and icon for Vieb to use. By default the name Vieb and the Vieb icon will be used. Each app should have a container name and url to open, and optionally a JavaScript file to execute on page load. The path of the icon and scripts can be relative to the config file or absolute. Custom icons aren't very reliable in Electron especially on Linux, so please check their issue tracker first if things don't work out. Apps can also share the same container name to use the same data location for multiple pages. If the container name of an app starts with "temp", all of it's browsing data will be deleted on quit.

Electron apps

It is of course also possible to replace "desktop" clients of messaging apps with Vieb's Erwic mode. For example, you could name the instance "Discord", give it a discord icon and open only discord.com:

{
    "name": "Discord",
    "icon": "/path/to/discord.png",
    "apps": [
        {
            "container": "discord",
            "url": "https://discord.com/app"
        }
    ]
}

If the JSON above would be stored as "discord.json" in for example the home directory, you can start Vieb's version of discord with vieb --erwic=~/discord.json --datafolder=~/.config/Discord. As long as the path to the datafolder is different for each Vieb/Erwic instance, you can create as many as you like to replace all kinds of Electron/web-based apps. The datafolder can be stored at any local location and can be relocated as well.

Shortcuts

Because it's a separate instance of the same application, you will need to make a separate startup shortcut. The approach is operating system specific, but it's usually done in one of two ways.

Context menu option

Right-click on your desktop and create a shortcut to the "Vieb" executable, and set --erwic=/path/to/config/file.json --datafolder=/path/to/datafolder/ as the startup arguments of the program. Usually you can also set a custom icon for the shortcut, which you can also provide as an option the Erwic config file (can be the same or different).

Desktop file

On Linux you can manually add a .desktop file to the applications folder. Usually this folder is located at /usr/share/applications/. There are also user specific application folders, such as ~/.local/share/applications/. In either of these folders (or your distro specific folder) you can add a .desktop shortcut. Below is an example to add Vieb with Erwic mode enabled (and named Erwic) to your start menu.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Erwic
Exec=/usr/bin/vieb --erwic=/path/to/config/file.json --datafolder=/path/to/datafolder/
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/path/to/icon.png
Comment=Easily Run Websites In Containers
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;