Non-visible intents

There are now two disposition types: inline and window, I'm considering 
a non-visible type, which would essentially be a zero-height/width inline.

Consider a backup service, the user merely means to backup, or "copy" 
their file, to a service like dropbox, but has no interest in a window 
popping up, nor seeing an <iframe> confirmation.

Is that a consideration worth extending, or should <iframe> be used 
regardless?


This is a case most often handled, in the present web, by using OAuth 
and creating a new window when authentication fails (or has not taken 
place).

In intents, it might be two-fold, having a "login" intent, and a 
"backup" intent.

I've found that OAuth logins are sufficient for checking credentials: 
I've not needed OpenID.

Though sites haven't standardized on an end-point, most APIs have a 
callback that return a user name and associated information.


Let me point out that an OAuth login intent is always useful. Even if a 
user has logged in, there's every reason to think they may want to 
"switch users".
As for this backup concept, again, I don't need to see a popup window 
every single time I choose to backup a file.

While the <iframe> concept works, it's a bit of a kludge. I'd prefer 
that the author check for confirmation from the target intent and 
display it in a more integrated manner, such as saying "All files have 
been backed up". That's not something an end-point has enough 
information to state.


-Charles

Received on Tuesday, 6 December 2011 22:58:25 UTC