Re: Web Widgets, Where Art Thou?

I always found Widgets (in the MacOS X Dashboard way) as a sort of
self-contained web apps... :-)

2013/7/19 Daniel Buchner <daniel@mozilla.com>:
>
> As some of you are aware, a widget spec or two
> (http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/PR-widgets-apis-20120522/) have been floating
> around for a while. These were never widely adopted for various reasons -
> not the least of which was their complexity.
>
> Well, hold on to your shorts folks: I would like to rekindle the idea of web
> widgets, but with an eye toward simplicity that builds on open web app
> concepts and mechanism.
>
> My proposal is simple:
>
> Widgets are just an alternate (or even the same) app 'launch_path' a
> developer would declared under a 'widget' key in their existing App
> Manifest. The UA would launch this URL in whatever widget UI containers it
> creates, for example: squares on a New Tab, a floating panel, etc., and add
> a few things to the document context - namely: an imperative means for
> detecting the document is being displayed in a widget state, and a new media
> query type 'widget' for styling (especially helpful if the developers
> chooses to use a single origin for their app and widget)
>
> What this allows for:
>
> - Let's us utilize the existing declaration and installation mechanisms for
> web apps (which is the same place widgets are already declared in today's
> common native app packages)
>
> - Provides a great new variant of content for all UAs who already are
> implementing apps
>
> - Delivers huge user benefit at a relatively low cost
>
> "Stupid-Simple Web Widgets: great idea, or greatest idea?...I'm gonna put
> you down for great."
>
> -----
>
> PS - If the word 'widget' makes you feel dirty and sad-faced (which it
> shouldn't, as Android proved and iOS concurred), let's just imagine we're
> talking about the W3 Web Dingus spec for now and focus on the user value
> proposition ;)



--
"Si quieres viajar alrededor del mundo y ser invitado a hablar en un
monton de sitios diferentes, simplemente escribe un sistema operativo
Unix."
– Linus Tordvals, creador del sistema operativo Linux

Received on Friday, 19 July 2013 22:03:08 UTC