Container applications running in Browser with HTML5

HTML5 with xpra

To provide containerized applications as HTML5 web applications, you need xpra and the xpra HTML5 client. Example:

#! /bin/bash
read Xenv < <(x11docker --xvfb --printenv x11docker/lxde pcmanfm)
echo $Xenv && export $Xenv
# replace "start" with "start-desktop" to forward a desktop environment
xpra start $DISPLAY --use-display \
     --html=on --bind-tcp=localhost:14501 \
     --start-via-proxy=no

Now you can access your application at http://localhost:14501. Option settings are possible at http://localhost:14501/connect.html. See also the xpra documentation.

HTML5 with GTK3 broadway

Broadway is a GTK3 feature to allow HTML5 web applications. Note that it works for GTK3 applications only. The image needs libgtk-3-bin (debian) or gtk3 (Arch Linux) to be installed. A possible setup with x11docker:

x11docker --tty \
          --env BROADWAY_DISPLAY=:5 \
          --env GDK_BACKEND=broadway \
          -- \
          --publish=8085:8085 \
          -- \
          x11docker/xfce bash -c "broadwayd :5 & xfce4-terminal"

Now you can access the containerized web application at http://localhost:8085.

• A sample setup without x11docker is moondev/gtk3-docker.
• Note that Broadway support in GTK4 might be dropped in future.