[w3c/manifest] Procedure for moving manifests and Apps (#850)

It doesn't appear to be documented clearly how redirects play into the manifest, installed apps and similar. It seems that since the manifest URL is the stable identifier and it must be within the originating document's origin it would not be possible to redirect that manifest URL to a new location. Also since the `start_url` and `scope` need to be sameorigin with the document it seems that making the manifest point at the application in the other origin isn't possible.

It appears that with these options the best method is redirecting the app itself. This will move it out of the manifest's scope so URL bars will come back. Ideally the user would eventually get another "Install Banner" and add it back. However this causes a lot of user disruption.

Is there, or are there any intentions to add provisions for moving manifests?

- Sameorigin manifest moves should be possible to do fully automatically. This could be as simple as documenting that a 301 should cause any user agent to change the manifest URL.
- Crossorigin moves. I'm guessing that this would require some user interaction or confirmation? If so it would be nice to be able trigger these dialogs explicitly rather than redirecting and hoping that the user gets a popup or attempting to instruct users how to manually install an app in their browser.

There are also some complications regarding moving the manifest vs moving the app itself. However it seems like the manifest origin isn't too important so most of the trouble ends up dealing with old  document URLs.

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Received on Sunday, 16 February 2020 13:31:09 UTC