RE: A followup/writeup on our Monday discussions (was Re: Continuing discussion on Polyfills)

> if the Web Publication itself doesn't point to a Web App as a fallback, it should still be possible to read the publication entirely from the first resource to the last (just like any normal website)

 

Sorry if I've missed this in older discussions, but what happens in the web pub fallback model? Does the browser have to manipulate the page to inject code, or is there just a handoff of the url to some application the user has installed on their system, or something else? I don't want to spend a lot of time on intermediary support structures, but am not sure I understand the pattern yet.

 

If the fallback app is only available through the web pub manifest, which I assume has to be true, then web pubs are only fully realized when the manifest has at least support for fallbacks. I agree publications need to be navigable with no support, but if we fail to generate timely support for manifests it also means no ability to polyfill features. I'm not necessarily arguing that's a bad thing, but it does have the potential to limit exposure to web publications.

 

Matt

 

From: Hadrien Gardeur [mailto:hadrien.gardeur@feedbooks.com] 
Sent: February 7, 2018 1:48 PM
To: Matt Garrish <matt.garrish@gmail.com>
Cc: Romain <rdeltour@gmail.com>; Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org>; W3C Publishing Working Group <public-publ-wg@w3.org>
Subject: Re: A followup/writeup on our Monday discussions (was Re: Continuing discussion on Polyfills)

 

 But this still requires the user agent to be web publication-aware, at least to the extent that it knows to inject the app code when it doesn't provide its own interface, no? If it's not, the user doesn't get anything (which maybe is life).

 

* if the Web Publication itself doesn't point to a Web App as a fallback, it should still be possible to read the publication entirely from the first resource to the last (just like any normal website)
* if it does provide a Web App as a fallback, this app can implement one or more affordances from the publication mode (offline access, easier way of moving between resources from the default reading order, TOC, user settings, pagination...)

The Web App itself wouldn't get in the way of another WP-aware user agent that way.