What is the difference between an App in a Modal window or in an App panel

[ubacher]

What is the difference between running an App in a Modal window or in an App panel?
Can I see the difference by inspecting the code? (I tried)

Can I convert between the two?

[Mario]

Normal apps run in App Panels. Modal apps run in separate modal app windows, blocking the IMatch user interface.
For the app itself it is irrelevant in which 'mode' it is run.

You can easily convert between the two app types by modifying the app.json file of your app.

The Structure of app.json Files documentation explains the details.

[sinus]

Ah, thanks, VERY interesting for the question and the answer. 

[ubacher]

Can we use modalClose in both types of apps to close the window?

more general: how do we exit an app/close a window/app?

Am I understanding this right: An app window is just a chrome browser with the index.html document loaded.

[Mario]

You cannot close or exit an app. As long as it is loaded in an App Panel, it will show whatever it shows and run JavaScript if required. To stop an app, either load another app or close the app panel.

IMatch.modalClose() will close only apps running in a separate modal window. It has no effect on apps loaded in an app panel.

Am I understanding this right: An app window is just a chrome browser with the index.html document loaded.

In principle. There is more to it but that's the general gist.