Re: starting point: manifests, configs, and the such

On Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 6:20 PM, Brian LeRoux wrote:

> This old chestnut. First we have W3C specs:
> 
> - CACHE MANIFEST [1]
> - config.xml from the widget spec [2]
> 
> And then we have analogues in the native app dev world:
> 
> - Android: AndroidManfiest.xml [3]
> - iOS: Info.plist [4]
> - BlackBerry: config.xml [5] <-- yay!
> - WindowsPhone: App.xaml, WMAppManifest.xml ... possibly others
> - Bada: Application.xml, Manifest.xml
> 
> And then we have other places that have embraced JSON:
> 
> - webOS
> - Symbian

Have you got pointers to the two above? I've not had a chance to see those. 
 
> - Mozilla Open Web Apps
> - Chrome Apps Store Apps
> 
> All of the things (listed earlier) tend to abstract the metadata
> around the contents of the executable package. So, we have some good
> precedents. In the PhoneGap project we decided to embrace and extend
> from config.xml as our starting point. XML, while its lost its shine
> lately, does have explicit mechanisms for validation and extension
> whereas JSON does not (not really).
> 
> Point being, I think this is our most fundamental starting point. We
> can't have an installable web app without this spec, and the spec for
> the config.xml has been evolving but a few things remain that need to
> be addressed:
> 
> 1. CACHE MANIFEST use case
Agreed. 
> 2. items found in the various native platforms not yet addressed

Would like to hear more about these?  
> 3. the concepts around WebIntents/WebActivities
> 

Agreed. Apps as intent handlers.  
> Thoughts on the three points above? Should I start collecting this
> info on our Wiki?
> 
Absolutely! :) 

4. Apps being able to XHR to their own content has come up a lot (so jQuery mobile and other libs can be used more easily). Also, a lot of widget-like apps still use file://, which is bad because it breaks anything depending on an origin (e.g., localStorage). 

Just wondering, what are you guys using in PhoneGap as your local content URI scheme on the various platforms? 

> [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/offline.html#manifests
> [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/widgets/
> [3] http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/manifest-intro.html
> [4] http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Xcode/Conceptual/ios_development_workflow/115-Configuring_Applications/configuring_applications.html
> [5] http://docs.blackberry.com/en/developers/deliverables/30182/Creating_a_BB_Widget_configuration_document_834664_11.jsp

Received on Thursday, 24 November 2011 19:48:13 UTC