Re: How to standardize new Offline Web app features? [Was Re: Offline Web Applications status]

On 4/3/2011 11:20 PM, Ian Hickson wrote:
> On Sat, 2 Apr 2011, Arthur Barstow wrote:
>> Perhaps subscribers to both lists (Mike Smith, Maciej, Hixie) could
>> provide some guidance on which list to use for Offline Web applications
>> (again, I'm OK with public-webapps) and which Bugzilla product/component
>> to use to file feature requests for Offline Web apps.
> If one wants to send e-mail and be guaranteed a response, then the
> whatwg@whatwg.org list will be most effective.
>
> If one wants to discuss the issue within the W3C context, then
> public-html@w3.org is the list most appropriate for the current spec text.

I'd prefer to see discussion continue on public-webapps . I'm not 
against cross posting.

"Offline" apps are the first and only instance of an 'installable' 
applications implementation across vendors.

At some point, I hope to see some discussion about an installation manifest,
for apps which require privileges across origins and/or other enhanced 
access.

This seems to be the direction things are going (from Google's Chrome):
<link rel="chrome-application-definition" href="arbitrary-manifest.json">
chrome.app.install()

That scheme allows the author to provide a user with a choice, prior
to prompting them for permissions.

For an application vendor, that's mighty helpful, as some users reject:
"Do you want to grant this website access to 
EVERYTHING--or-it-will-not-work",
but accept: "Do you want to grant this website access to this one domain".

Google Chrome
http://code.google.com/intl/en-US/chrome/apps/docs/no_crx.html
chrome.app.install()

Mozilla Firefox
https://mozillalabs.com/blog/2011/03/first-developer-release-of-web-apps-project/
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/OpenWebApps/The_Manifest
navigator.apps.install()

Those two vendors are converging.

<link rel> seems more appropriate for icons. Apple is taking that route.

HTML manifest files seem appropriate for requesting same-origin exceptions,
which is part of why I'm keeping an eye on this thread.

Those .install() calls are still a good idea, as vendors have their own 
unique extensions and distribution mechanisms.

I don't expect to get background pages / content pages into a web apps 
spec any time soon.
They're the same concept across Firefox/Chrome/Safari, but there are a 
lot of surrounding details.


-Charles

Received on Monday, 4 April 2011 07:07:00 UTC