Install VDAN Tools as an App on Android and iPhone

Short answer: vdan.cz/tools is now a Progressive Web App. Open it in the browser on your phone, add it to the home screen, and it opens full screen like a native app, with all 32 tools inside. No app store, no account, nothing to install beyond a shortcut and a small cache. The steps for Android and iPhone are below.

What you get

• A VDAN icon on the home screen. Tapping it opens the Tools hub without the browser address bar or toolbar.
• Every tool opens inside the app: the Configuration Maximums Explorer, the ESXi Advanced and Kernel Settings Explorer, the ESXCLI and NSX CLI mindmaps, the VCF generators and planners. The system back gesture returns to the hub.
• Ctrl+K search works as on the desktop, and the hub keeps your “Jump back in” list.
• The hub itself opens offline once it has been loaded. The tools need a connection for their data files.
• Updates arrive with the site. There is nothing to upgrade on the phone, and a new release replaces the old cache on the next start.
• Nothing leaves your browser. The tools run client-side, exactly as they do on the website.

Android: Chrome

1. Open https://vdan.cz/tools/ in Chrome.
2. Tap the three-dot menu in the top right.
3. Tap Install app. Older Chrome versions show Add to Home screen instead.
4. Confirm with Install.

Chrome may also show an “Install app” banner at the bottom of the page after a visit or two. Both routes give the same result: a VDAN icon in the app drawer and on the home screen, and a full-screen app with a dark splash screen. Samsung Internet and Edge for Android work the same way, the menu entry is Add page to > Home screen in Samsung Internet and Add to phone in Edge.

Android: Firefox

1. Open https://vdan.cz/tools/ in Firefox and wait until the page has fully loaded.
2. Tap the three-dot menu.
3. Tap Add to Home screen, then Install.

Firefox installs it as a standalone app too. Two things are different from Chrome: Firefox shows no install banner, and the icon carries a small Firefox badge in the corner, which is how Android marks shortcuts created by Firefox. If the icon on the home screen comes out as the generic Android robot, which happened to me on the first try, remove it, reload the hub and add it again. Firefox on the desktop cannot install web apps at all.

iPhone and iPad

1. Open https://vdan.cz/tools/ in Safari.
2. Tap the Share button, the square with the arrow at the bottom of the screen (top right on iPad).
3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
4. Keep the name VDAN or change it, then tap Add.

The icon opens the hub full screen with a black status bar. Since iOS 16.4, Chrome, Firefox and Edge on iOS can do the same from their own Share menu, the entry is again Add to Home Screen. On iOS every browser uses the Safari engine, so the result is identical. iOS shows no install prompt; the Share sheet is the only way.

Desktop

Chrome and Edge on Windows, macOS and Linux show an install icon at the right end of the address bar when the hub is open. The app then runs in its own window, with a VDAN entry in the Start menu or Launchpad. This is handy on a laptop next to a vSphere Client window.

How it works

The vDan WordPress theme serves a web app manifest at /tools/manifest.webmanifest and links it only from the hub and the tool pages. The rest of vdan.cz is unchanged.

{
  "name": "VDAN Tools",
  "short_name": "VDAN",
  "start_url": "/tools/",
  "scope": "/",
  "display": "standalone",
  "background_color": "#0e0f11",
  "theme_color": "#0e0f11",
  "icons": [ 192x192, 512x512, 512x512 maskable ]
}

• start_url is the hub, scope is the whole site, because the tool pages live at their own URLs such as /vmware-configuration-maximums-explorer/. A scope of /tools/ would push every tool out of the app window into a browser tab.
• display: standalone removes the browser UI and keeps the Android status bar. Fullscreen mode would hide the clock and battery too, which is wrong for a reference tool.
• A small service worker at /tools/sw.js is registered with scope /tools/. Firefox for Android installs a web app only when one exists; Chrome no longer needs it. It is network-first and caches only the hub page and the theme’s CSS and JS, never wp-admin, the REST API or a logged-in session.
• The icons are the vD mark from the site header, rendered as PNG. The maskable version gives Android launchers a full-bleed image to cut into their icon shape.

Removing the app

Long-press the icon and choose Uninstall (Chrome), Remove (Firefox, iOS) or drag it to the remove area. Chrome also lists it under Settings > Apps. Removing the app deletes its cache; nothing else was stored.