RE: ISSUE-133 -- How do our definition of Web Page and the Robustiness section interact?

I like this text. Will there be any text in the sections mentioned that
points back here? That would be helpful for implementers I think.

 

E.g. As stated in section 4.1 extensions to the user agent should either
conform to this section or defer to the user agent.

 

Joe

 

________________________________

From: public-wsc-wg-request@w3.org [mailto:public-wsc-wg-request@w3.org]
On Behalf Of Mary Ellen Zurko
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 9:21 PM
To: Joe Steele
Cc: public-wsc-wg@w3.org
Subject: RE: ISSUE-133 -- How do our definition of Web Page and the
Robustiness section interact?

 


Here's my crack at it. Sorry it's so late; my hotel's network was down
last night. I propose adding a paragraph to the end of 4.1, which I
present in its entirety, as the first two paragraphs substantially
motivated discussion on this. The idea is to explicitly address what we
expect extensions to do, with some tips on specific areas of interest. 


http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/drafts/rec/rewrite.html#interaction-overview
<http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/drafts/rec/rewrite.html#interaction-overview
> 

When this specification speaks of a "Web user agent
<http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/drafts/rec/rewrite.html#def-user-agent> " to
describe the application through which a user interacts with the Web,
then this term is used on a conceptual level: No assumption is made
about implementation details; the "Web user agent" may denote a
combination of several applications, extensions to such applications,
operating system features, and assistive technologies.

This specification makes no specific assumption about the content with
which the user interacts, except for one: There is a top-level Web page
<http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/drafts/rec/rewrite.html#def-page>  that is
identified by a URI [RFC3986]
<http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/drafts/rec/rewrite.html#ref-URI> . This Web
page might be an HTML frameset, an application running on top of a
proprietary run-time environment, or a document in a format interpreted
by plug-ins or external systems served as part of a Web interaction. The
page's behavior might be determined by scripting, stylesheets, and other
mechanisms.

A common web user agent is a web browser with some number of plug-ins,
extensions, or call outs to external systems which render particular
document formats. Changes to the web user agent, such as the addition or
removal of these applications or features, can render a web user agent
non conformant. User agent extensions which call TLS or present TLS
secured content will need to conform to [ref Applying TLS to the Web],
or ensure they defer handling of those requirements to some other
portion of the user agent. User agent extensions will need to neither
obscure nor degrade the rendering of [ref identity signal and trust
anchor signalling], [ref additional security context information], the
[ref TLS Indicator], and [ref Error Handling and Signaling]. In
addition, extensions will need to conform to [ref Error Handling and
Signaling] for all security related errors it handles. Extensions will
need to conform to the [ref Robustness] recommendations, with particular
attention to [ref 7.1.2 keeping security chrome visible], [ref 7.3
handling of pop ups], and [ref 7.4 APIs exposed to web content]. It is
expected that extensions will either trivially support this
recommendation (by neither participating in nor interfering with the
topics covered), or will test their conformance in a configuration with
a conforming user agent, and document the requirements they participate
in.