- From: Matt Giuca <notifications@github.com>
- Date: Wed, 02 May 2018 21:18:09 -0700
- To: w3c/manifest <manifest@noreply.github.com>
- Cc: Subscribed <subscribed@noreply.github.com>
- Message-ID: <w3c/manifest/issues/668/386187707@github.com>
There are two problems. The versioned manifest is not the problem that we're dealing with here. - Problem 1: Sites change their manifest URL every time they update. This means they effectively are publishing a new app every time they update. - Problem 2: Sites do not specify `start_url` in their manifest. This means effectively you get a different app depending on which page you were on when you installed the site. > One example of a site that will be affected is weather.com, which has manifests at "versioned" URLs such as https://weather.com/weather/assets/manifest.507fcb498f4e29acfeed7596fe002857.json. If the manifest URL uniquely identifies a PWA then a "new" PWA will be created every time weather's manifest is deployed or moved. This is already a problem (Problem 1), and my proposed change doesn't make it any worse. Right now, an app is uniquely identified by the tuple (*manifest URL*, *document URL*), so if the manifest URL changes, it's a new app. My proposal is to remove *document URL* from that tuple. It will still be a problem that if the manifest URL changes, it's a new app. I don't want to talk too much about Problem 1 here. I agree it's a problem but we're talking about it elsewhere (GoogleChrome/lighthouse#2570, GoogleChromeLabs/gulliver#323). For Problem 2: I noticed weather.com also doesn't have a `start_url`, which means according to the manifest spec, it should create a unique app for each page of the site. **However** it looks like Chrome, at least, considers the manifest invalid if it doesn't have a `start_url`: > "Site cannot be installed: the start URL in manifest is not valid" Given that this is the case, it seems it would not be breaking any existing expectations if we made `start_url` mandatory in the manifest spec. -- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/w3c/manifest/issues/668#issuecomment-386187707
Received on Thursday, 3 May 2018 04:19:50 UTC