Web Intents - Action Features (part 4)

These are things which I think users/developers will need/benefit from
for all Actions:
§7 Client Request Inspector
§8 Partner Inspector
§9 Self Test
§10 Manual Providers

Ideally certain test harnesses for Actions will actually be
contributed as real products to help cover these items. Now, we
obviously can't in spec say "All Actions Must have" these things, but
it would be nice to strongly encourage someone to provide them
especially since the odds are that they need to be written in the
first place.

§7 Client Request Inspector

Each Action should have a "Client Request Inspector". This is probably
akin to "Preview" in e.g. "Print". Such a thing lets you see what data
goes over the wire. In the printing example it lets you see if you
accidentally included "Lorem Ipsum" or "Confidential".

§8 Partner Inspector

Each Action needs a "Partner Inspector".
This is probably even more critical than a "Client Request Inspector".
This would address a <get-temperature2> Action exposed by a
"Temperature Sensor" that happens to return a "Biometric ID" unique to
me in its data. An Inspector would enable one to learn about this and
take some action to address it. For some systems, making such things
is fairly easy.

Encouraging people to ensure that §7 and §8 are developed and shipped
/ highlighted quickly will be necessary.

§9 Self Test

We might even want to have a "Self Test" feature.
For a Self Test, a "Partner" would provide a "Client request"
for which the "Partner" can define expected Timings+Results.
- Note that Printers have self tests, as do many instruments
(including Thermometers).

§10 Manual Providers

We could benefit from "Manual Providers" (stubs) for input see Example
B [1], the Theremometer.

Example C:
I want to be able to look up Restaurants in Seoul (I've never been
there) - actually, I should offer Banks as my example (I needed those
more in Paris than Restaurants). If I'm using a Client that wants to
have me provide a Partner for a <get-location> Action in order to look
for a Restaurant/Bank in an area, then I'll need to be able to use a
"Manual Provider".

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-intents/2011Nov/0011.html

Received on Tuesday, 22 November 2011 23:58:12 UTC