Re: [widgets] Widget modes

Hi everyone,
It would be good if the Widgets spec was careful to study potential
conflicts with similar attributes in Google/OpenSocial Gadgets and OpenAjax
Metadata. Google Gadgets has:

OpenSocial/Google Gadgets:
  <content view="canvas|profile|home|preview">
* http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/ui.html#views

*
http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/reference/#gadgets.views.ViewType


OpenAjax:
  <content view="default|edit|help|insert">
*
http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/OpenAjax_Mashable_Widgets#view_attribute


Over at OpenAjax Alliance, we are in the process of examining our spec for
web widgets  to align better with Google Gadgets. There is a good chance we
will change our 'view' attribute to re-use the same keywords as
OpenSocial/Google Gadgets when used for the same purpose. The W3C doesn't
have to do that since there are different namespaces for the different XML
vocabularies anyway, but at least it makes sense to spend a little time
studying what's happening at OpenSocial and OpenAjax to see if it makes
sense to attempt to share the same markup.

Jon




                                                                           
             SUZANNE Benoit                                                
             RD-SIRP-ISS                                                   
             <benoit.suzanne@o                                          To 
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             quest@w3.org                                          Subject 
                                       [widgets] Widget modes              
                                                                           
             01/29/2009 08:34                                              
             AM                                                            
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           




Hi all, about the widget windows modes, I wanted to share the following
points:

*** Wording ***
In the wordings of the modes, I think that the wording used in some of the
modes are too specific to existing platforms, therefore I propose the
following names:
      Icon: I’m not sure this one is really a mode as it is already dealt
      with in the rest of the spec in the right manner with a static image
      format
      Iconized: this mode will allow to define an icon that can be adapted
      to the content status, for example a weather icon will display the
      right cloud or sun based on the real time information. This is
      possible using the svg, but I believe this is one of the modes of
      displaying information in a widget.
      Expanded: this is the reference to the existing floating mode in the
      spec or the undocked mode for vista
      Minimized: this is the reference to the existing docked mode in the
      spec but is too restrictive in the wordings
      Full screen: now for this one my worry is more the fact that there
      are other attributes that should be available for this mode as the
      display can be specific to the orientation (landscape or portrait)
      and to the size of the screen’s device (vga, qvga, ...)
      Hidden: I like the proposition from mark to allow a widget to run as
      a background task that can awaken an action, so you would probably
      need to add this as a mode as well.
      Settings: I would also like to add the settings of the widget as a
      specific mode as this will largely simplify the coding of the widget
      where all the various screens to display will all be defined as
      modes.

***Context***
The way I see this implemented is that based on the platform actions (drag
on a widget bar for example) the platform would switch from one view to the
other. Or based on a code input in the hidden mode, a widget would be able
to call it’s Minimized mode through the code. In this context the one thing
that needs to be included is how to pass parameters from one mode to the
other, but that could be resolved using some kind of parametered
declaration.

***Usage***
I do not see the mode as an element, but as an item of the content element,
see examples below.

***Code example***
In the format to use the modes I propose the following as a bases for
discussions:
<content src="miniview.html" mode=”minimized”/>
<content src="index.html" mode=”expanded” default=”true” flying=”true”/>
<content src="fullscreen-vga.html" mode=”fullscreen” width=”640”
height=”480”/>
<content src="fullscreen-wvga.html" mode=”fullscreen” width=”854”
height=”480” orientation=”landscape”/>
<content src="fullscreen-wvga.html" mode=”fullscreen” width=”854”
height=”480” orientation=”portrait”/>
<content src="minimumbackgroundaction.js" mode=”idden”/>
<content src="settings.html" mode=”settings”/>


What do you think?

Best Regards, Benoit



      Benoit  Suzanne
      Widget Factory Project Manager - Orange Labs - FT/RD/SIRP/SOL/SLAM
      t. +33 (0)145 298  198 - m. +33 (0)680 287 553
      benoit.suzanne@orange-ftgroup.com.