Re: Updated Presentation API WebIDL - call for review

On 12 Mar 2014, at 06:49, Mark Watson <watsonm@netflix.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 8:16 PM, Mark Finkle <mfinkle@mozilla.com> wrote:
> > > > Second, the site ought to be able to cause the UA-managed selection list
> > > > to
> > > > appear at a position of its choice, for example close to the icon that
> > > > triggered the list to be shown.
> >
> 
> > > I'd say if the dialog for screen selection immediately appears when
> > > clicking
> > > we don't necessarily need a spatial connection? But if participants of the
> > > group feel strongly about this, we may add this to the specification. I
> > > would argue we may not want to spec where such a dialog appears to allow
> > > more flexibility of implementation on mobile devices?
> >
> 
> > It should be controlled by the site. I am thinking of how this would work on
> > a laptop, say. There is a lot of screen real-estate and you might not want
> > this dialog / drop-down to appear at some place totally disconnected from
> > where you click (not least to reduce how far you need to move the mouse).
> 
> Mobile device UAs might want to have better control over the dialog. Giving control to the site could make for poor user experience. This is similar to the way mobile UAs take over dropdown lists, making them more touch-friendly.
> 
> Sure. So is there a way we can support both the mobile and the laptop / desktop use-case with their different requirements ?

I think there is.

It is an established practice for Web API specifications to leave such details up to the implementation to address the exact concern you have. This allows implementations to do what is aligned with the given platform/UA conventions the user is already familiar with. The user does not need to learn the UI conventions of each web site, rather it is enough to know the conventions of the host platform.

One example could be <input type=“file”> which opens up a different type of a file picker depending on the platform. How and where on the screen the file picker is rendered is not specified, because it is delegated to the host platform and/or the UA. Still users are able to use file pickers.

I believe the same applies to the screen selection dialog discussed herein, unless I’m missing something?

MarkW - do you think this addresses your concern?

Thanks,

-Anssi

Received on Friday, 14 March 2014 14:06:36 UTC