Prism updated and improved
I’ve been using Prism (software from Mozilla Labs that enables you to set up Web tools as desktop applications) for a few months now. My initial impressions of it are here. Even though Prism has a few quirks, it’s been easy and fun to use.
But last week I stumbled across some good news: Prism has been updated — it’s now at version 0.9. This version has a few new features, and a few bugs have been ironed out of it.
What’s new?
Most of Prism’s new features appear to be under the hood. The Web applications run more smoothly, and a few of the quirks — like suddenly not being able to enter text in a field that uses rich formatting — are history.
The dialog box that’s used set up the links to your Web apps has changed for the better. There are more options, including:
- Whether or not to send the shortcut to the desktop.
- Use the pre-configured Prism icon for a Web app, or choose a custom one.
And you can now tell Prism to remember your login information.
Another new feature is that Prism stores the settings for each Web app that you configure in a folder named WebApps in your home directory.
One interesting feature for Firefox 3 is an extension that enables you to create Prism applications from within the browser itself. When the final version of Firefox 3 is released, I’ll definitely give this a try.
A minor annoyance
When I installed the update, I (of course) immediately tried to launch one of my existing Web apps. Instead of the application opening in a new window, the dialog for adding a new Web application appeared. I had to add each one from scratch. Luckily, I didn’t have many applications configured. But it was still a bit of a chore.
Since I don’t use Prism bundles, which are pre-configured Web apps, I don’t know whether or not they’re affected by the updated. If you have any experience with this, please leave a comment.
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