Re: Plan to transition Web Notifications spec to LCWD

Hello,

On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 4:24 AM, Jon Lee <jonlee@apple.com> wrote:
> Today, the Web Notifications WG[1] has published a Last Call Working Draft
> of the Web Notifications specification:
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-notifications-20130912/
>
> We're targeting October 24 as the end date for the LC review period.
>
> During the review period, the Web Notifications WG would like to have
> specific review from the WebApps, WebApps Security, System Applications,
> DAP, and Protocols and Formats WGs. Reviews from other groups are welcome.
>
> On behalf of the Web Notifications WG,
> Jon
>
> [1] http://www.w3.org/2010/web-notifications/

I would like to ask whether the following use cases would also be in
the scope of this API.

The Web Notifications spec seems to provide for graphical
notifications raised from web content. Some systems also play sounds,
or blink a LED (color/pattern) or vibrate (in a pattern) as part of a
notification and they sometimes do it in a way that indicates what
type of notification it is, for instance "message arrived", or
calendar alarm, clock alarm, etc. The list of types varies across
different systems, but it is fixed in a given system, so that a
consistent look and feel could be ensured across various applications.

The notification API could provide for applications indicating what
type of notification they request (e.g. message arrived). This applies
both for web apps and system apps.

The API could specify common notification types, and for enumerating /
selecting the available notification types implemented on a particular
system, both for web apps and system apps.

The API may also provide for applications a way to request custom
sounds, LED or vibration patterns for a given notification type. Based
on a dynamic or static internal policy, the system may override these
requests, and eventually notify the application about the condition.

LED's may also be used for signalling there are unseen notifications,
but this behaviour could be encapsulated by implementations, so no
change required on the API.

The API may also provide for applications a way to state preferences
for how to display the notifications, e.g. a popup, system tray,
ticker, or full screen. The system may override these, or show instead
a dialog to the user for setting such options.

Implementations should be able to synchronize graphical notifications
and non-graphical (sound/beep/vibra/LED) alerts, to cover use cases
when e.g. vibration starts together with the graphical notification,
but sound should be delayed a few seconds.

To me it looks like these could be NotificationOption extensions,
either specified in the Web Notification API, or elsewhere.

I would like to ask the Editors and the SysApps WG members whether do
you see these use cases
1) in scope for the Web Notification API,
2) or rather as SysApps specific extensions,
3) or belonging to other specification(s).

If the first, then the question is whether would the Web Notifications
WG accept contributions to the spec regarding the use cases above. In
practical terms, would the WG accept new members at this point?
If the second, the question is how the SysApps group could define such
extensions? Would that require charter mod?
If the third, please advise which specifications would provide for the
additional functionality, and how to synchronize them with the Web
Notification API.

You may also say these use cases are not important for standardization
at the moment, and different platforms can proceed with
implementations as they wish. Even in that case, please consider these
use cases too for the API design, so that later extensions won't break
the API.

Best regards,
Zoltan

Received on Thursday, 19 September 2013 18:53:55 UTC