How to create a Chrome application out of any website

Making a Chrome application is something I kind of have a basic idea of since they seem to use basic web technology I’m already familar with, although I don’t have experience of making them.

So since I needed to make one for a stock management system I did some research and found a fantastic online tool at applicationize.me

Here is an explanation taken from their website:

Applicationize generates a Google Chrome extension that embeds your favorite web app and places a custom shortcut icon in your app launcher when you install it.

Don’t worry if that’s all nonsense to you — it’s dead simple to applicationize a web app: simply enter its URL, download a customized Google Chrome extension, install, and enjoy.

While trying to install the extension however I encountered this problem where is says “Apps, extensions and user scripts cannot be added from this website”.

There is a way to fix this problem.

First thing to know is the browser extension you download is in a CRX file, which is just a ZIP file with the file extension changed. In other words the file ends with .crx and we want to change it to .zip

I can’t tell you how it works with your specific device. You need to view file extensions and it could be something like this:

• For Windows: https://www.howtogeek.com/205086/beginner-how-to-make-windows-show-file-extensions/
• For Mac: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25381?locale=en_GB

Once you’ve done that extract it into a folder.

Next you need to turn on developer mode in chrome://extensions/ then press “load unpacked” so you can select the folder where you unpacked the zip file into.

This will install the extension.