For 2.2, I would like to see an exploration into allowing Gaia apps, and apps that can use certified APIs, to be distributed via marketplace channels, and updated outside full OS updates.
That could take a few forms, including just pushing more/all certified APIs to "privileged" status. However, I expect that may not be feasible, so right now I am assuming there will be a continued need for "certified" apps. I wrote up something about this capability here: https://github.com/jrburke/certified-marketplace Feel free to file issues in that repo if you have questions about it. Happy to move the info elsewhere, just wanted to get something up. More importantly, it would be good to figure out the relative priority of this sort of feature for 2.2, which is the primary point of this thread. This sort of capability could be in opposition to some of the UX or product features. For example, I am thinking of the "themeable" feature, to allow apps to be themed, and to have that theming coordinated across apps, and for apps to have a specific dependency on a theme.gaiamobile.org "app". However, this type of app distribution capability is very fitting for our mission, as it allows more people to make certified apps (after being vetted in some way) and to allow those apps to get updates outside of full OS updates. --- If this is just too big of a project for 2.2, then I would like to get an awareness or some sort of agreement for allowing individual apps to follow this path, and to realize it may mean those apps are not able to meet some other goals if they pursue this route. Specifically, I work on the email app, and I believe we could still get to a "updatable via marketplace", and I would like to try for that for 2.2: Email app goes privileged, and the app just lives with what is available to privileged apps. I think this is possible and still have a great, usuable email app. However, it means email not picking up any gaia-wide efforts that my require certified stuff. For 2.2, that could mean things like theming and if custom elements are not fully enabled for non-certified use, any common building blocks. Even if custom elements are available for 2.2, I am sure there will be other things in other releases, just pointing out the need to get wider agreement this pathway is OK for some apps that may be seen as part of "gaia". It also means possible modifications to the l10n.js capability to load localizations from app storage, and to do downloads of localization bundles from somewhere. While I am willing to do the modifications, it would still require some impact on reviewers' time, and likely some server work. To clarify: I want to preserve the existing localizer workflow, just want to modify how an app pulls in the final localizations, see above link for some more background. --- In summary: I would like this “certified” capability considered for 2.2. I am not expecting an immediate resolution, as all the 2.2 work needs to be balanced in total, and is still in planning. This is just to get it on the radar and to call out some of the tensions. Also, dev could start some plumbing now while planning is still in progress, and where it makes sense for the email app, I will start exploring in these areas. James (sending to dev-b2g, as it seems the most appropriate for what this capability spans, and want to avoid cross posting to multiple lists)
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