Features

Website-to-App Conversion

• Simple GUI with website URL, app name, output folder, and AdBlocker toggle
• CLI with the same options as the GUI: --url, --out, --name, --no-adblock
• Generated apps are standalone executables with the URL baked in via config injection

Built-in AdBlocker

• Bundled EasyList snapshot, parsed and matched against every network request
• Per-app toggle: enable AdBlocker at build time, or disable it with --no-adblock
• Cosmetic rules (##) are ignored in this release; network rules (||, @@||, ^) are supported

Generated App Experience

• Navigation toolbar with Back / Forward / Reload
• System-tray icon with Show / Hide / Quit
• Per-app persistent cache and cookies at %APPDATA%\WebTop\<app_name>\

---

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2022 (MSVC, x64)
• CMake: 3.20+
• Qt 6 (Widgets, Concurrent)
• Rust: 1.75+
• Internet access on first build (CEF download)

Quickstart

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/Louiml/WebTop.git
cd WebTop

# Download CEF + build the runtime stub
.\scripts\build_stub.ps1

# Configure and build the builder (GUI + CLI)
cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<path-to-Qt6>
cmake --build build --config Release

# Launch the GUI builder
.\build\Release\webtop_builder.exe

# Or use the CLI directly
.\core\target\release\webtop_cli.exe --url https://example.com --out C:\Apps --name Example

The output folder will contain <name>.exe plus the CEF runtime files (libcef.dll, locales/, Resources/, etc.). Run <name>.exe to launch your site as a desktop app.

---

Project Layout

webtop/
├── core/      Rust core (FFI lib + CLI). Patches stub, copies CEF, emits output.
├── builder/   Qt6 GUI front-end (C++). Calls Rust via FFI; CLI passthrough.
├── runtime/   CEF runtime stub (C++). Reads embedded config, blocks requests.
├── scripts/   CEF download, stub build, EasyList refresh, CEF bundle.
└── dist/      Built stub.bin + bundled CEF runtime files.

How It Works

The Rust core appends a blob to a copy of stub.bin:

[ stub.exe ]
[ u64 cfg_len ][ cfg_json      ]   url, app_name, adblock
[ u64 flt_len ][ easylist text ]
[ u64 blob_offset ][ "WBAPP\0\0\0" ]   16-byte trailer

The generated exe reads its own file at startup, locates the WBAPP magic trailer at EOF, and deserializes the config + EasyList filters. If AdBlocker is enabled, CefResourceRequestHandler::OnBeforeResourceLoad cancels any request whose URL matches an EasyList network rule.

Notes / Limitations

• Windows only (CEF binary distribution x64)
• Single-folder output (~200 MB per app due to CEF runtime files)
• AdBlocker matching is a simplified subset of EasyList (no regex, no $third-party / $domain= options yet)
• Tray icon uses the default application icon