Re: How will regular users know which web apps work offline?

Hi Andrew,

Interesting, thank you for the link! I hadn't heard of the widgets spec,
I'll take a look at it though. Separating the packaging from the offline
storage sounds like a better idea. I hadn't seen much about this so I
figured I'd just throw it out there just in case. Thanks again for the
response.

best,

- Pat

On Sat, Sep 1, 2012 at 8:35 AM, Andrew Betts <andrew.betts@ft.com> wrote:

> > I wonder if it would make sense for the manifest to store metadata about
> the
> > installed application - like it's name, an icon, and a description, so
> that
> > browsers could provide an area where users could browse their offline
> > applications for when they didn't have an internet connection? I think
> this
> > would have benefit to users and lead to more people being aware of
> offline
> > usage.
>
> This is essentially what the Widgets spec is supposed to achieve.  See
> here for an example of a widget configuration:
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/widgets/#example-configuration-document
>
> It makes sense to split packaging a website from providing offline
> storage/caching technologies, since the two are different solutions to
> different problems.  It's true that there is some crossover,
> especially if a widget includes content in its package.  But the
> widgets spec has its own problems, not least of which is a terrible
> name.
>
> Letting users know that your site will work when offline doesn't seem
> like a terribly difficult problem to solve at the application level,
> to be honest.  I think as a developer I'd rather browser vendors spend
> their time on other stuff :-).  But it's certainly a fair point, and
> does need to be considered as part of the UX of your app.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Andrew
>
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