RE: ACTION-929: CTG abstract

Hi

Ref the following, which is up for discussion on tomorrow's call.

The new revision (1r) contains the following text as the Abstract:

--
This document provides guidance to Content Transformation proxies as to
whether and how to transform Web content.
--

And 1.1 Purpose says

--
1.1 Purpose

Within this document Content Transformation refers to the manipulation
of requests to, and responses from, an origin server. This manipulation
is carried out by proxies in order to provide a better user experience
of content that would otherwise result in an unsatisfactory experience
on the device making the request.

The W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group neither approves nor
disapproves of Content Transformation, but recognizes that is being
deployed widely across mobile data access networks. The deployments are
widely divergent to each other, with many non-standard HTTP
implications, and no well-understood means either of identifying the
presence of such transforming proxies, nor of controlling their actions.
This document establishes a framework to allow that to happen.

The overall objective of this document is to provide a means, as far as
is practical, for users to be provided with at least a "functional user
experience" [Device Independence Glossary] of the Web, when mobile,
taking into account the fact that an increasing number of content
providers create experiences specially tailored to the mobile context
which they do not wish to be altered by third parties. Equally it takes
into account the fact that there remain a very large number of Web sites
that do not provide a functional user experience when perceived on many
mobile devices.
--

I guess that taking this together with Eduardo's proposal, the current
Abstract benefits from spelling out what is in the document while not
re-stating what is in the purpose. So how about this:

--
This document provides guidance to Content Transformation proxies as to
whether and how to transform Web content.

Content Transformation proxies alter requests sent by user agents to
servers and responses returned by servers so that the appearance,
structure, control flow or security attributes [??question this] of Web
applications are modified. Content Transformation proxies are mostly
used to convert Web sites designed for desktop computers to a form
suitable for mobile
devices. 

Based on current practice and standards, this document specifies
mechanisms with which Content Transformation proxies should make their
presence known to other parties, present the outcome of alterations
performed on HTTP traffic, and react to indications set by clients or
servers to constrain these alterations.

The objective is to reduce undesirable effects on Web applications,
especially mobile-ready ones, and to limit the diversity in the modes of
operation of Content Transformation proxies, while at the same time
allowing proxies to alter content that would otherwise not display
successfully on mobile devices. 

Important considerations regarding the impact on security are
highlighted.
--

Jo
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: public-bpwg-request@w3.org [mailto:public-bpwg-request@w3.org]
On
> Behalf Of Eduardo Casais
> Sent: 27 April 2009 10:05
> To: public-bpwg@w3.org
> Subject: ACTION-929: CTG abstract
> 
> 
> The action 929 is "Write an abstract for CT" -- to replace the current
> one at
> the start of the document.
> 
> ----------
> 
> Abstract.
> 
> Contrarily to transparent HTTP proxies, Content Transformation proxies
> alter the
> requests sent by clients to servers and responses returned by servers
> to clients
> so that the appearance, structure, control flow or security attributes
> of Web
> applications are modified. Content Transformation proxies are mostly
> used to
> convert Web sites designed for desktop computers to a form suitable
for
> mobile
> devices. On the basis of current practice and standards, the present
> document
> specifies mechanisms with which Content Transformation proxies can
make
> their
> presence known to other parties, present the outcome of alterations
> performed on
> HTTP traffic, and react to indications set by clients or servers to
> constrain
> these alterations.
> The objective is to reduce undesirable effects on Web applications,
> especially
> mobile-ready ones, and to limit the diversity in the modes of
operation
> of
> Content Transformation proxies that developers of such applications
> must contend
> with. Important considerations regarding the impact on security are
> highlighted.
> ICS forms serve to assess the conformance of Content Transformation
> proxy
> deployments against the guidelines.
> 
> ----------
> 
> 
> E.Casais
> 
> 
> 
>

Received on Monday, 8 June 2009 17:19:58 UTC