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

On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 1:10 PM, Nathan <nathan@webr3.org> wrote:
> 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. 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.
>> - 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.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> 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.
>
> :) and so it begins, +1 from me Peter, have been wanting Widgets in the main
> browser context for a long time - seems like an already standardized no
> brainer to me.
>
> You're not the first to ask, and 'm sure you won't be the last.
>
> Best & ty for raising this,


Have you guys checked out Opera extensions (built on W3C Widgets)? It
gives you an alternative way to think about the problem:

1. The widget can continue to run happily in a self contained environment.
2. Hooks are provided that allow communication with a web document
(via injected scripts).

But sure, embedding zip packages into web pages would also be
interesting and project's like Apache Wookie have done it
successfully. Natively supporting such a thing, however, has had
limited interest.

-- 
Marcos Caceres
Opera Software ASA, http://www.opera.com/
http://datadriven.com.au

Received on Friday, 26 November 2010 17:19:53 UTC