Re: static permission functions on Notification (was Feedback from Safari on Web Notifications)

On Mar 13, 2012, at 1:49 PM, John Gregg <johnnyg@google.com> wrote:

> Well I agree that explicit permission models are not as good as implicit ones where that's possible. But some features do require explicit permission models, and I don't get the idea that simply having a single good way of doing that encourages bad behavior among feature designers.  I would hope that new features for the web platform (a relatively rare thing) are proceeding carefully as in this process here.


Unfortunately, future spec authors might not proceed so thoughtfully. Spec authors already cite precedent as a reason for adopting existing patterns. After all, we should try to keep the Web platform coherent.

There are currently three different permissioning models used by Web APIs: implicit (drag-and-drop), on-demand (geolocation), and explicitly requested (notifications). Explicit permissioning is the least desirable of these three models, and we should discourage it whenever possible.

By only providing a generic API for explicit permissioning, we implicitly elevate that model to be the preferred approach for the whole Web platform. Thus far, the lack of a common API for *any* of the Web's permissioning models has forced spec authors to think hard about how permissioning should work in each case.

In another part of this thread, you said—and I agree—that providing the pattern to follow for explicit permissions is vitally important. We should consider writing a Note discussing the different permissioning models of Web APIs and the trade-offs among them. Spec authors could then refer to this Note when designing features requiring permissioning.

Jon