Standardization tasks

Aligned with the High-level roadmap for System Application and related work, we have identified a list of standardization tasks that we need to get started with. We hope to get to a point where we have clear visibility and accountability for contributions from each team/site, assuming responsibility for sub-tasks of Crosswalk.

The page shares its basic structure and boilerplate with Development tasks for consistency.

Table of Contents Runtime and Security Model for Web Applications Tasks Privileged applications extensions (Anssi Kostiainen) Design principles (Anssi Kostiainen) Multiple window support (Hongbo Min) System messages Application lifecycle

Runtime and Security Model for Web Applications

On a high-level, we would like to see the Runtime and Security Model for Web Applications spec to better consider and address non-mobile use cases for desktop, IVI, TV. We believe the current spec is too focused on mobile use cases.

See also: comparison with Tizen

Tasks

Privileged applications extensions (Anssi Kostiainen)

APIs that are not web-facing should be split into their own specification. Anssi proposed on the public-sysapps to split ApplicationManagement interface and other parts of the Runtime spec relevant to privileged applications only into their own spec. Related to issue #4 and issue #92.

Design principles (Anssi Kostiainen)

We need to clarify design principles, scope, use cases, and make sure they align with our high-level goals. Anssi started discussion on public-sysapps. Related to issue #43, issue #95, and issue #97.

Multiple window support (Hongbo Min)

Managing multiple windows is an important use case in non-mobile contexts. Hongbo Min started discussion, related to issue #98 and issue #100. We should revisit these issues and try get the spec better address non-mobile use cases.

Related to multiple window support, we need to investigate how to prevent race conditions (see issue #100). Event pages used by Chrome Packaged Apps is one model to learn from.

Should investigate if window.open() will address all requirements for creating new windows. See also chrome.app.window which provides a more expressive API.

System messages

Event registration for system messages is currently unspecified, see issue #73. See also event registration in the event page model of Chrome Packaged Apps.

Application lifecycle

Clarify how the app lifecycle works, especially pausing/suspending. Perhaps add a lifecycle diagram.

• SysApps runtime
  • Application.state: running, paused, terminated
  • Event handlers:
    • Application.on{launch|pause|resume|terminate}
    • ApplicationManager.on{install|uninstall}
• Chrome Packaged Apps' runtime
  • States (launched, suspended) not exposed via a sync API
  • Event handlers:
    • chrome.runtime.on{Startup|Installed|Suspend|SuspendCanceled|UpdateAvailable|BrowserUpdateAvailable}
    • chrome.runtime.on{Connect|ConnectExternal|Message|MessageExternal}
    • chrome.app.runtime.on{Launched|Restarted}

For comparison with native, see iOS App States and Multitasking