Peter - as Nathan alludes, there have been threads related to web
application embedding on this list. WebApps has a "Widget Embedding"
deliverable in its charter and currently, work on this item has not started.
Earlier today I created a document for this subject and it includes
links to related resources as well links to related discussions:
http://www.w3.org/2008/webapps/wiki/WidgetEmbedding
The Problem Statement and UCs + Requirements sections in this document
are empty. Perhaps those interested in moving this deliverable forward
can start with those two topics.
-Art Barstow
P.S. Proposal: use [embedding] as the subject: prefix for related threads
On Nov/26/2010 7:10 AM, ext Nathan wrote:
Peter Dekkers wrote:
I've been developing a platform for running multiple types of widgets in
regular web pages and of course support for the W3C widgets should not be
missing. A very nice specification. I especially like the fact that the
"deployment unit" contains all the files and the spec itself tries to be as
clear and precise as possible.
However the specification seems to be geared towards "standalone desktop
applications", and not so much running the widgets as part of a regular web
page. When I investigated a little more, there doesn't seem however too much
stopping the widget running in an ordinary web page. Two of the main
functions missing that I could identify so far are:
- A widget.onReady() function that gives the page the change to prepare
everything before the widget dependent code is executed.
- Some way to proxy XMLHttpRequest in order to avoid not same origin
security validations. A simple way would be a widget function that simply
rewrites the URL to a proxied URL.
Personally I think it would be great to have the W3C widgets run both inside
a normal webpage and as a standalone application. However is this also
something that might be considered by the people in charge of the
specifications, or is this something that will never be in scope? Any
enlightenment would be great.
P.S For those interested, on http://www.jbaron.com:9090/w3c there are some
Opera widgets running in a web page as a small proof of concept (certainly
not a complete implementation). The same site also has some pages with other
types of widgets.
:) and so it begins, +1 from me Peter, have been wanting Widgets in the
main browser context for a long time - seems like an already
standardized no brainer to me.
You're not the first to ask, and 'm sure you won't be the last.
Best& ty for raising this,
Nathan
