Re: [Widgets] running widgets in a regular web page ???

On 26 Nov 2010, at 07:34, Peter Dekkers wrote:

> I've been developing a platform for running multiple types of widgets in regular web pages and of course support for the W3C widgets should not be missing. A very nice specification. I especially like the fact that the "deployment unit" contains all the files and the spec itself tries to be as clear and precise as possible. 
> 
> However the specification seems to be geared towards "standalone desktop applications", and not so much running the widgets as part of a regular web page. When I investigated a little more, there doesn't seem however too much stopping the widget running in an ordinary web page.

I think the original landscape report mostly focussed on desktop-based widget engines, but the spec itself is geared these days to be a general packaged-web-app format for use in browsers, mobile devices, desktops, TVs and appliance, and all kinds of other uses. 

> Two of the main functions missing that I could identify so far are:
> 
> - A widget.onReady() function that gives the page the change to prepare everything before the widget dependent code is executed.

Hmm, not sure about this one?

> - Some way to proxy XMLHttpRequest in order to avoid not same origin security validations. A simple way would be a widget function that simply rewrites the URL to a proxied URL.

We do this in Apache Wookie:

http://incubator.apache.org/wookie/faq.html

> Personally I think it would be great to have the W3C widgets run both inside a normal webpage and as a standalone application. However is this also something that might be considered by the people in charge of the specifications, or is this something that will never be in scope? Any enlightenment would be great.

Again, see Apache Wookie:

http://incubator.apache.org/wookie/

There are also a few other browser-based W3C Widgets implementations out there I've come across.

> P.S For those interested, on http://www.jbaron.com:9090/w3c there are some Opera widgets running in a web page as a small proof of concept (certainly not a complete implementation). The same site also has some pages with other types of widgets. 

Cool, its got one of mine! :-D

> 
> 
> regards,
> 
> Peter