Re: Transferable Objects, was: Re: Web Messaging Intents, was: Re: [DRAFT] Web Intents Task Force Charter

On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 2:42 PM, Charles Pritchard <chuck@jumis.com> wrote:
 > **
 > Thanks for exploring this complex use case. This is an edge case, and 
 > I appreciate you taking the time.
 >
 > Here's my understanding:
 >
 > The following sends an entangled port through intents. The client can 
 > then dispatch a Transferable ArrayBuffer.
 >
 > var channel = new MessageChannel();
 >
 > var intent = new Intent("http://webintents.org/transfer",
 >   "application/octet-stream+myprotocol", channel.port2);
 > channel.port1.onmessage = function (event) {
 >   if(event.data == "OK")
 >   channel.port1.postMessage("DATA", [myArrayBuffer], event.origin);
 > };
 > window.navigator.startActivity(intent);
 >
 > This extra work is to ensure the ArrayBuffer is neutered:
 > http://www.khronos.org/registry/typedarray/specs/latest/#9.2

So my understanding is that we'd be better of with an optional 
sequence<Transferable> parameter in the Intent constructor rather than 
making this behavior specific to a 'transfer' action as suggested above.

I don't see why the target Intent should need to be 
'http://webintents.org/transfer'. Presumably, you might want to transfer 
objects in combination with any other intent.

For example, a valid example for setting up the MessageChannel (by 
transferring channel.port2 to the Intent Handler) above could just be:

var intent = new Intent("http://webintents.org/share",
    "text/uri-list", "http://foo.com/bar", [channel.port2]);

How exactly the transferable objects can be captured by the intent 
handler page should be discussed. I'd imagine the port2 in the 
transferable sequence I passed above would be available at something 
like window.intent.transferData[0].

- Rich

 >
 >
 > -Charles
 >
 >
 > On 11/18/11 1:52 PM, Paul Kinlan wrote:
 >
 > The Pseudo code you have is nearly exactly how we envisaged it.  We just
 > passed the port, then the data over the port as that could be part of the
 > lower level protocol (the 'myprotocol' bit).
 >
 >
 >  P
 >
 > On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 10:40 PM, Charles Pritchard 
<chuck@jumis.com>wrote:
 >
 >> Carrying this thread over to the web intents mailing list.
 >>
 >> The current issue I'm asking about, in this thread, is how we might
 >> present the postMessage transfer semantic in Web Intents.
 >>
 >> Web Intents currently works much like postMessage(message). The
 >> Transferable semantic is relatively new to Web Messaging
 >> and allows the transfer of Array Buffer objects and MessagePorts.
 >>
 >> In pseudo-code:
 >>
 >> var intent = new Intent("http://webintents.org/transfer",
 >>   "application/octet-stream+myprotocol",
 >>  [messagePort, arrayBuffer]);
 >>
 >
 >
 >

Received on Tuesday, 22 November 2011 14:48:05 UTC