Re: Why aren't most devices virtual web services?

is localhost "free" or is there an efficiency penalty - I believe I've  
heard it said that there is a real  performance cost, but could be  
mistaken.

regards, Frederick

Frederick Hirsch
Nokia



On Jan 13, 2010, at 2:31 PM, ext John Kemp wrote:

> Hi Frederick,
>
> On Jan 13, 2010, at 2:05 PM, Frederick Hirsch wrote:
>
>> Mark, my concern was that these (e.g. OAuth others noted) all seem  
>> to imply network connectivity, yet there might be a requirement to  
>> have contact book access (to give an example) without network access.
>
> If you imagine that you have a local Web server running, and  
> providing the contacts API, then if a remote site were to access  
> that service (from off-device), it might send an HTTP request to do.  
> This would be a standard Web scenario, and the remote requester  
> would have to know the DNS name or IP address of the device if it  
> wished to make an HTTP request.
>
> However, imagine if that same Web server, running on the device, is  
> accessed from some other piece of software (like a browser ;),  
> running on the same device. It might still be secured by OAuth,  
> CORS, UMP or something else. The method of access, however, will not  
> be over a network as such - it will be a "localhost" connection  
> essentially (either to a local Web server, or a cached copy of a  
> document acquired from somewhere else). I believe that is the case  
> you are thinking of?
>
> The difference in the use of device Javascript APIs is that the  
> requester in these cases is the one who has written some Javascript  
> using the Device API specifications. That requester won't need to  
> know the IP address of the device in order to use that device's  
> services, because the device requested a page that contains the  
> Javascript calls, and makes a response containing the API calls  
> (which are essentially then a request whose results don't have to  
> leave the device).
>
> In all of these cases, though, I am not sure that any extra network  
> connection is needed in order to use OAuth tokens, or any of the  
> other mechanisms suggested to secure the APIs. The requester should  
> be authorized to access the API of course. In the "offline" case, if  
> you were to use OAuth tokens, then the device would ask the user  
> whether the cached page could access her contacts, and give the  
> cached/localhost page an OAuth token to use in accessing that API.
>
> Regards,
>
> - johnk
>
>>
>> regards, Frederick
>>
>> Frederick Hirsch
>> Nokia
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 13, 2010, at 1:23 PM, ext Mark S. Miller wrote:
>>
>>> Still catching up. Answering out of order.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 7:26 AM, Frederick Hirsch <Frederick.Hirsch@nokia.com 
>>> > wrote:
>>> use of OAuth.
>>>
>>>
>>> That was just an example of one approach to the inter-site  
>>> authorization problem. Others are CORS and UMP. As I said in the  
>>> initial proposal, I don't think this WG should try to pick a  
>>> winner in this debate. They should just position device APIs so  
>>> that they can leverage whatever the winner is, by recasting  
>>> devices as RESTful GET/POST apis. By so doing, we reduce the  
>>> security issues to a previously unsolved problem ;).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> regards, Frederick
>>>
>>> Frederick Hirsch
>>> Nokia
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 13, 2010, at 9:55 AM, ext Robin Berjon wrote:
>>>
>>> On Jan 13, 2010, at 15:50 , Frederick Hirsch wrote:
>>> Is there a requirement to allow local access to contacts, for  
>>> example, even when disconnected from the network? How would this  
>>> work in this model, or is disconnected operation not a  
>>> requirement? It seems a mobile device should still operate as much  
>>> as possible when disconnected.
>>>
>>> That's entirely orthogonal. Either the web server is local, or  
>>> (perhaps more likely) it is emulated by the user agent. You never  
>>> go to the network, whether connected or not.
>>>
>>> I thought the proposal was to go to the network for authorization,  
>>> in which case it is not orthogonal.
>>>
>>> I don't read that in the original proposal, can you clarify which  
>>> part you're thinking of?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Robin Berjon
>>> robineko — hired gun, higher standards
>>> http://robineko.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Cheers,
>>> --MarkM
>>
>>
>

Received on Wednesday, 13 January 2010 19:49:24 UTC