[whatwg] Web Storage: apparent contradiction in spec

On Aug 26, 2009, at 4:55 PM, Michael Nordman wrote:

> What seems inevitable are vista-like prompts to allow something (or  
> prods to delete something) seemingly unrelated to a user's  
> interaction with a site... please, oh please, lets avoid making that  
> part of the web platform.

Doesn't Gears already do this? If I do something like enabling local  
draft storage in WordPress, I get a prompt asking me if I want to  
allow myblog.com to store some local data on my disk, and I click OK  
because after all that's what I asked the site to do.

> I'm assuming that UA will have out-of-band mechanisms to 'bless'  
> certain sites which should not be subject to automated eviction.

If this is out-of-spec and browser-dependent, there won't be a good  
way for an app to request that blessing; it'll be something the user  
has to know to do, otherwise their data can get lost. That seems  
dangerous. In most systems user data loss is just about the worst-case  
scenario of what could go wrong, and you try to prevent it at all costs.

My suggestion to have separate 'important' and 'cache' local storage  
areas would provide such a mechanism in a standard way. The first time  
an app tried to put stuff in the 'important' area, you'd be asked for  
approval. And 'important' stores wouldn't be deleted without your  
consent.

?Jens

Received on Wednesday, 26 August 2009 17:06:42 UTC