Constructing rich web "desktop" environments

Question

I am aware that this may potentially be an unsuitably broad question, but I am unsure where else to ask about it. Hopefully it can serve as a basis for information for me and other seeking to construct richer web applications.

I am very interested interested in the availability of frameworks that ease the construction of rich web "desktop" apps. The best single example I can think of is AirDroid (demo: http://web.airdroid.com/). I have tried to deduce from studying the HTML and JS itself what it is built by, but it all appears to be proprietary.

If I want to construct something similar in a robust fashion, what are some mature, open source technologies, libraries and frameworks I should be looking into?

Answer 1

I have found at least one framework with the necessary features for implementing the kind of system asked for in the question.

os.js is a Javascript framework with a "web desktop implementation for your browser with a fully-fledged window manager, Application APIs, GUI toolkits and filesystem abstraction.". As such, it has the essential features needed to craft a rich desktop environment, along with an underlying toolkit helping to tie it to backend functionality.

This is a good, extendable starting for crafting more basic solutions.

Reference: http://os.js.org/