Re: Proposal for a Permissions API

--  
Marcos Caceres


On September 4, 2014 at 4:24:56 PM, Florian Bösch (pyalot@gmail.com) wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 10:18 PM, Marcos Caceres wrote:
>  
> > This sets up an unrealistic straw-man. Are there any real sites that would
> > need to show all of the above all at the same time?
>  
> Let's say you're writing a video editor, you'd like:
>  
> - To get access to the locations API so that you can geotag the videos
> - Get access to the notifications API so that you can inform the user
> when rendering has finished.
> - Get user media to capture material
> - Put a window in fullscreen (perhaps on a second monitor) or to view
> footage without other decorations

A developer can then have a "Let's get started!" screen, where they explain why they need each feature before they request it.  

> Of course it's a bit contrived, but it's an example of where we're steering
> to. APIs don't stop being introduced as of today, and some years down the
> road, I'm sure more APIs that require permissions will be introduced, which
> increases the likelihood of moving such an example from the realm of
> unlikely to pretty common.

Absolutely. I the above, a dev could still ask for each API as needed. Like:

"Ok, let's get your camera working. We need you to grant us access to it". 

<Get user media> 

"Great! will you want to geotag your videos? If so, confirm the prompt. You can always turn this off in the app later."

<geolocation> 

(or a checkbox-like option in their app - this can be enabled during recording even!) 

"fullscreen" is just a button in the UI: works just like it does today. 

None of the above e require all permissions to be asked at once. 

There is a great article that discusses this approach:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/04/the-right-way-to-ask-users-for-ios-permissions/

Received on Thursday, 4 September 2014 20:33:56 UTC