Some iCab users asked me, if iCab 4 can use the latest WebKit nightly builds instead of the built-in WebKit component of Mac OS X. This is indeed possible, and thanks to an Automator Script by David Hall, this is also very easy to do. All you need are the following three files…
- a copy of iCab 4
- the Automator Script from David Hall
- a binary copy of the WebKit nightly builds
Now copy the iCab 4 application, the WebKit application and the Automator Script iCabWK into the Applications folder of your Mac. Make sure that neither iCab nor WebKit are running and double-click the Automator Script iCabWK. This will launch iCab so that it will use the WebKit framework that is located within the WebKit application.
To check if iCab is really using the WebKit nigthly build, you can download the WebKitDetect script from the WebKit nightly web page and open it in iCab. It will tell you which version of WebKit is currently used. But please make sure that you’ve configured the Identity setting of iCab (in the “View” menu) to the default value “Best compatibility“. The latter is important because changing the identity setting will change the value of the browsers “UserAgent” information, and the WebKit detection script is using the UserAgent information to determine the WebKit version that is used.
If you want to use the WebKit nightly within iCab, please always start iCab by double-clicking the iCabWK Automator Script. If you double-click iCab directly, or launch it indirectly by opening a HTML file or an URL, iCab will use the WebKit that is built-in into the system.