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So I was just trying out the Ubuntu 12.10 webapps feature, but they don't seem to be working as they should. I notice a few things that (to me) don't work as intended, or shown of in some videos.

  1. Most of them don't integrate with the messaging menu, even if they should. For example, as far as I heard, the GMail WebApp should show in the messaging menu, but it's not there at all. Also, I don't get notifications if a new email arrives.

  2. When you activate a WebApp (for example, Twitter) it won't focus, but instead gives focus to Firefox, which doesn't feel right to me. (there is no arrow on the right side of the Twitter application, it's on Firefox instead).

So right now, the WebApps just feel like glorified bookmarks to me and don't really provide the integration that Canonical announced. Do more people have this problem, or am I doing something wrong?

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  • It's not just you, the web-apps are really buggy for me too.
    – Flimm
    Jan 24, 2013 at 22:03

1 Answer 1

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+50

GMail doesn't show up in the messaging menu!

Well, if this is what you mean, for me it does:

GMail in messaging menu

So, this is probably "just you" or a bug of some sorts.

Some people have the exact opposite problem however - webapps that are still there, although they were removed.

They only give focus to [Browser]!

Well, yeh. That happens for me as well, and as far as I can tell is perfectly intentional.

Webapps act indeed as "glorified bookmarks", as you call them, as they're essentially part of a plugin. They definitely need some improvements (at which point Launchpad comes in handy to suggest them).

Interestingly the focus pip is given to some users. Chromium in particular. (Screenshot from this probably slightly related bug report on Launchpad)

enter image description here

Conclusion

The answer boils down to "It's a bunch of bugs and probably-intended features."

Getting in touch with the WebApps Project team on Launchpad is probably the best course of action, as we can't really help with bugs, and whether or not what of these is a bug is complicated at this stage of development.

I'm sorry we can't help more, and I hope this gets resolved quickly.

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  • Thanks for the detailed answer. That clears things up a lot for me. So it's basically just a combination of bugs and me defining the term "webapp" wrong.. Well, guess I just expected to much from it. :P I do hope that this feature will be further developed in 13.04. I think close integration with all kinds of web applications and services is a very good idea!
    – Gladen
    Jan 24, 2013 at 22:21
  • @Gladen I fully agree. The Webapps definitely have great potential, and I think they were just launched a tad bit too early.
    – user98085
    Jan 24, 2013 at 22:23

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