HTML5 Fat-client Issues and WebID

As I was working on the WebID use cases document this afternoon, it
occurred to me that we will soon see HTML5-powered applications offering
client-side data storage and processing using HTML5’s Web Storage and Web
SQL Database APIs. We need to consider the implications.

What will it mean for WebID as Web applications can be built that persist
data entirely on the client, or at least store data on the client for
processing and even offline consumption?

HTML5 will in essence make it possible to preserve state and allow for
application processing to occur on client-side devices. Instead of a fat
application server entirely responsible for CRUD operations, it will be
possible to create web apps that turn browsers into fat-clients.

Is there a way for WebID to allow for enterprise applications to trust the
browser to process application logic securely?

I searched W3C resources to see what I could find regarding the new HTML5
client-side storage specifications. I found this defunct W3C XG (
http://www.w3.org/TR/webdatabase/ ) that has splintered into two active
groups: http://www.w3.org/TR/webstorage/ and
http://www.w3.org/TR/IndexedDB/ However, this are not directly tied to the
HTML5 specification.

On a side note, I want to draw attention to an important potential point
of confusion. The above two specifications (working drafts) both refer
extensively to the Web interface definition language called WebIDL (
http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-WebIDL-20081219/ ). This is disconcertingly
close to the name of our effort--WebID.

We need to be cognizant of the fact that some people may confuse these
terms. When appropriate, we need to make our best effort to clearly
distinguish our work from this nearly-identical nomenclature that refers
to something vastly different.

Jeff

Received on Monday, 7 March 2011 21:38:25 UTC