- From: Ben Francis <notifications@github.com>
- Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2023 09:01:38 -0700
- To: w3c/manifest <manifest@noreply.github.com>
- Cc: Subscribed <subscribed@noreply.github.com>
- Message-ID: <w3c/manifest/issues/1097/1705487351@github.com>
This is going to be fun 🙂 The definition of a web app is something I've [blogged about](https://tola.me.uk/blog/2014/10/03/what-is-a-web-app/) in the past, and [Alex Russell's blog post](https://infrequently.org/2015/06/progressive-apps-escaping-tabs-without-losing-our-soul/) is an often quoted source for the definition of a "Progressive Web App". Wikipedia has a decent [definition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application) of a web application: > _"A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection."_ The Web App Manifest specification arguably describes a special class of web applications, that is [installable web applications](https://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/#installable-web-applications). If I was to attempt a concise and relatively broad definition of an "installable web application" from an end user's point of view, I would say something like: > _"An installable web application is an interactive website which can be installed locally on a user's device in order to receive special treatment from a user agent, such as a custom application launcher, additional permissions or an enhanced display mode."_ However, it sounds like what @mgiuca was hoping for is a definition of the internal representation of an installed web application (i.e. an `App` object) inside a user agent, from the point of view of an implementer of this specification. I would suggest that's a couple of steps removed from defining the term "web application", but if that's what you're looking for then I might start with something like: > _"An `App` object is an internal representation of an installed web application inside a web user agent, derived from a collection of metadata parsed from a Web App Manifest during an installation process. Those metadata can be used by a user agent to give special treatment to a collection of web resources within a defined URL scope and identified by a unique identifier."_ -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/w3c/manifest/issues/1097#issuecomment-1705487351 You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Message ID: <w3c/manifest/issues/1097/1705487351@github.com>
Received on Monday, 4 September 2023 16:01:45 UTC