Re: [w3c/manifest] Change the default value for start_url (#670)

> I haven't been keeping up with this space and @philloooo and @dmurph should weigh in on it.

No problem. I'm happy to work with @philloooo and @dmurph on it... just following up on the `id` idea (#988) which relies on `start_url`, which brought me back here. 

> This change is not about changing Safari and Firefox to be aligned with Chrome. This is about changing Safari, Firefox and Chrome to have reliable behaviour.

At this point, I'm mostly just specifying what's shipping. It's not ideal, but I'm not optimistic about changes to engines.   

> From memory, the problem is that document URL isn't stable. It means that if you have a manifest without an explicit start_url, then you essentially don't know what the start URL is going to be when the app is installed, because it will depend on which page the user was on when they clicked the install button. You don't really have an app... you just have an ability to install whatever web page you happen to be on at the time.

Correct.  

> My argument is that if the spec (basically) says "if start_url is omitted, then the site has no control over the installed app's start URL", then there is no contract established between the site and the user agent here. The site cannot expect any particular URL is the start URL, therefore, if the user agent changes the default, it isn't violating any expectation or contract. Therefore, it's safe to change the spec from "no guarantees" to "this is the behaviour", as long as all vendors are willing to change.

That's mostly true, but if the site owner wants start_url stability they can add the explicit start_url - or just add `"start_url": "."` to get the same result as here. I'm thinking that's good enough for now in capturing cross browser behavior. 


-- 
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/pull/670#issuecomment-894994827