Web, desktop or one file

The web app, the desktop app and the single HTML file open the same files, draw the same pictures and run the same analyses, and none uploads your data. Start with the web app; the desktop app (macOS and Linux) is for a machine that cannot reach the website, or for an icon rather than a bookmark, and one HTML file for a machine with no network at all. Ways to use chromosomix lists the others.

At a glance

	Web app	Desktop app	One HTML file
Get it	open https://chromosomix.app/	an installer from the releases page	chromosomix-<tag>.html from the releases page
Install	none, or install it as an app	yes	none
Version	the newest build, or any release at its own address	the release you downloaded	the release you downloaded
Updates	offered as a reload	a new download	a new download
Works offline	after one visit	yes	yes, and never uses the network
Remote files, data stores, example sessions, the tutorial	yes	yes	no
Signing in to Google Drive	yes	no	no
Signing in to Dropbox, connecting a bucket	yes	yes	no
A connected folder on your disk, kept across restarts	when installed as an app, in Chrome and Edge	yes	yes, in Chrome and Edge

The web app

Open https://chromosomix.app/ in a recent Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari; there is no account. It serves the newest build, which can be ahead of the latest release: About this viewer names it, and pinned releases keep a version still.

After one visit it works offline, through a reload too; only remote files, the data stores and the example sessions need a connection. A new version waits in a bar, A new version of the viewer is ready, until you press reload.

Install it as an app

• Chrome or Edge: the install button at the right-hand end of the address bar.
• Safari: Share → Add to Dock.
• Firefox does not offer to install it; use it in a tab.

Installed, it opens in a window of its own, from the dock or the start menu. In Chrome and Edge it also keeps a folder you connect on your disk across restarts (in a tab, and in Safari, the folder lasts the visit and its row in the Files column says this visit), and reads restored tabs’ files again without asking; in a tab, the landing page asks once, with a button that allows access to them. A bucket you connect is remembered either way.

The desktop app

Download the installer for your system from the releases page. Its files are named chromosomix-<version>-<os>-<arch>.<ext>:

System	File
macOS, Apple silicon	…-mac-arm64.dmg, or the .zip
macOS, Intel	…-mac-x64.dmg
Linux	…-linux-x64.AppImage: make it executable (chmod +x) and run it
Linux, Debian and Ubuntu	…-linux-x64.deb

There is no Windows installer for now; on Windows, use the web app or the single HTML file.

The unsigned-app warning

The installers are not code-signed, so the first time you open the app, macOS says it cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified. The warning is expected. To open the app:

• in Applications, right-click (or Control-click) chromosomix, choose Open, then Open again in the dialog. You do this once. If the dialog offers no Open, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and press Open Anyway;

• or, in a terminal:

  xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/chromosomix.app

What is different from the web app

Besides the table above:

• No updates of its own: no update bar, and no list of other builds in About.
• Remote hosts see it as app://viewer. A bucket whose CORS settings allow the website by name refuses the desktop app; allowing every origin (*) works for both (Hosting your data).
• A host that compresses what it serves is read by range, where the web app has to download such a file whole and refuses one over 128 MiB.
• The files you opened are kept across restarts, as in the installed web app.
• A menu bar of its own, with no reload and no page zoom.

One HTML file

Every release attaches the whole viewer as one file, chromosomix-<tag>.html (about 14 MB), which opens in your browser with a double-click: for an air-gapped workstation, a laptop holding unpublished data, or a reviewer who will not install an unsigned app.

It opens local files only, as its drop area says: the browser refuses every network read from it. So it has no URL box, and Connect a folder offers this machine alone; maps, tracks, 3D models, analyses, figures and the console are all there. A BAM needs its index dropped with it.

Caution

The single file is checked only in Chromium browsers, such as Chrome and Edge. Two copies of it share their saved sessions and preferences: every page opened from your disk shares one browser storage.

Pinned releases

Every release is kept for good at its own address, https://chromosomix.app/v/<tag>/ (https://chromosomix.app/v/v0.13.0/, say), which takes the same links as the root: name one in a paper or a notebook that must draw the same picture in five years (Link keys).

Recent builds are kept too, by commit: Run build, in About this viewer, opens one in place of yours, with your view and tabs. Files from your disk do not come along: open them again there.

A pinned build’s corner bar, You are running the build from commit …, has newest build to go back. Pinned builds cannot be installed and do not work offline. The desktop app and the single file are pinned by nature; to pin the command line, see Installing it.