Joe MooreJoe Moore
 How To Create a Fluid Application for Pivotal Tracker
edit Posted by Joe Moore on Saturday January 31, 2009 at 11:48PM

http://assets.pivotallabs.com/258/original/trackerscreen.jpg

As a developer of web apps, I'm inevitably running 3 or 4 browsers, each with 10 tabs open containing my application under development, Google searches, gotapi (pronounced "got a pie?" of course!), design wireframes, and all kinds of other very important stuff. And in one of those tabs, somewhere, is Pivotal Tracker. Browsers and tabs are great, but sometimes you just want an Application -- notice the capital "A."

Fluid to the rescue! Fluid lets you create Site Specific Browsers, which "provide a great solution for your WebApp woes." In a nutshell, Fluid makes a custom WebKit browser that, when launched, opens just the site you configured it to open, such as Gmail, Pandora, or even Pivotal Tracker. I love that I can maximize the Pivotal Tracker app and boost the font 3 or 4 levels, filling a screen with Tracker goodness without the clutter or navigation buttons, bookmark bars, or tabs. And where is Tracker? Just command-tab!

http://assets.pivotallabs.com/262/original/command_tab_2.jpg

Here's how to create a Fluid application for Pivotal Tracker.

  1. Download and install Fluid
  2. Download the Fluid Icon for Pivotal Tracker
  3. Launch Fluid
  4. Enter the following:
    • URL: http://www.pivotaltracker.com
    • Name: Pivotal Tracker
    • Location: pick one!
    • Icon: pick 'Other...' then find the tracker icon you downloaded earlier http://assets.pivotallabs.com/255/original/screen_149.png
  5. Click Create, then launch it!

Once launched, open the Pivotal Tracker preferences and change the Window Style to "HUD (Black)" under Appearance Preferences Why? Because it looks cool.

http://assets.pivotallabs.com/259/original/twomonitors.jpg

Update

Here is the Fluid icon, upon request.

http://assets.pivotallabs.com/264/original/tracker.png

Comments

  1. Steve C Steve C on February 02, 2009 at 06:53PM

    Hey Joe, can you just attach the fluid file to this post?

  2. Joe Moore Joe Moore on February 02, 2009 at 09:36PM

    Updated with the icon as requested.

  3. Carl Jackson Carl Jackson on February 03, 2009 at 06:19AM

    If you prefer moz try the Prism Firefox extension:

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6665

    which adds a menu item Tools -> Convert Website to Application

  4. Josh Knowles Josh Knowles on February 03, 2009 at 06:19PM

    Does this mean that you'll remove the "Warning: The browser you are using is not officially supported..." that I always see when using Tracker from Fluid?

  5. Bruce Krysiak Bruce Krysiak on February 03, 2009 at 10:27PM

    Yes, please solve the Fluid unsupported browser login message problem!

  6. Chris Blow Chris Blow on February 05, 2009 at 03:52AM

    Thanks for the writeup, not sure why i didn't think of this before. Also, I love your user stories: "test test test test!"

    so true

  7. Paul Paul on May 30, 2009 at 12:01AM

    Hmmm ... After I get past the login screen it launches Safari with the project I'm tracking. What am I doing wrong or am I just being persecuted????

  8. Chris Chris on May 30, 2009 at 02:05AM

    Here's how I solved Paul's problem: add the following two patterns to the whitelist:

    http://www.pivotaltracker.com/* https://www.pivotaltracker.com/*

  9. Paul Paul on May 31, 2009 at 09:57AM

    Thanks Chris, it works like a charm!

    I consolidated and just whitelisted pivotaltracker.com/

  10. Paul Paul on May 31, 2009 at 09:59AM

    I consolidated and just whitelisted pivotaltracker.com/

    That would be (star)pivotaltracker.com/(star)

  11. Mike Mike on August 05, 2009 at 11:42AM

    I was having the same issue as Paul and tried his fix:

    (star)pivotaltracker.com/(star)

    Not sure why but it did not work for me. If you continue having the same problem, try Chris's fix by adding both:

    http://www.pivotaltracker.com/* https://www.pivotaltracker.com/*

    BTW, Pivotal Tracker rocks! Thanks.