Packages

pages (a la swf, potentially usable for game sites such as Kongregate or
Newgrounds), or usage in an app store (Mozilla marketplace, Chrome app store).

Existing solutions:

Mozilla uses an app manifest, which is a json file sorta similar to
package.json. Chrome has a similar manifest.json that gets zipped up into a
package. Chrome distinguishes from a "hosted app" and a "packaged app".
Packaged are in a .crx, like extensions. These two manifests are different but
similar.

AFAICT, besides Chrome's packaged apps, the only local saving is via the
appcache, if you chose to do it (besides the normal caching). The mozilla docs
reference something about embedding but it's never stated explicitly.

My thoughts:

Combining the manifest.json with Chrome's "Packaged App" would be ideal for
me. However, it is very chrome-specific in what is exposed to apps. Unlike the
mozilla ones (from what I can tell), they have full extension capabilities and
aren't "normal" web apps. What I'd like to see is:

1. Standard manifest.json format for package metadata
2. Standard compression and fileformat (gzipped tarball? regular zip? I lean
away from zip because it seems old and not-very-good-compression).
3. Way to embed packages

For #3, I can imagine game sites making an <iframe src="/games/person/foogame.app">
and there's your game. Boaz mentioned in #bbg that it is more desirable to
have files separate instead of in a tarball.

Thoughts?

Received on Tuesday, 6 March 2012 01:57:01 UTC