I would like to make a few comments on the 'Integrating Application with Intents ' blog posted on the developers.android side. Specifically, as to the definition of the reserve action and the data specifications.
Neither of these specifications are generic and exhibit a very narrow view of the reservation concept. The restaurant reservation concept should be abstracted as it will have a multitude future implementations in terms of activities and services by other vendors. Action specification presented by the OpenView, "com.opentable.action.RESERVE", incorporates 'opentable' in its namespace. Such common actions, as it is with the restaurant reservation action, should avoid any proprietary names and strive to define a standard action specification that can be used by other activity implementations of the reservation functionality. The generic approach to these specifications should be a driving force for all of us. An example of a generic action specification could be; ACTION SPECIFICATION: "action.RESERV", CATEGORY SPECIFICATION; ''service.food.restaurant". Data specification; as defined by the OpenTable, also violates basic URI format specification; "reserve://opentable.com/2947?partySize=3". The first element of the URI specification should be a protocol specification, 'reserve' is an action name and not a protocol name. The action should be defined in the argument part of the data specification. The domain name should also be a generic name since we do not want to target a specific implementer of the reservation activity. For example; “http://android.com/size=3? datetime=09-11-2009T12:30” . In cases when we do intend to invoke activities implemented by a specific party we should be using a CATEGORY SPECIFICATION; "manufacture.software.company.name.OPENTABLE" or such. This message is not intended as a criticism of the proposed specifications. It is a way to point out a generic nature of abstractions implemented by many activities and the necessity of using generic action, category and data specifications. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
