Hi Daniel
While widgets were (unfortunately) not widely adopted, a few companies
(including mine) are using it and it does the job for many simple
issues. It's true that the complexity of the spec vs the service
provided was not really a good deal.
However, what you describe makes sense. I know there are other members
who have been pushing a lot in the past to keep widgets alive. May be
they'll also pop in.
Regards
JC
Daniel Buchner wrote:
As some of you are aware, a widget spec or two
(http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/PR-widgets-apis-20120522/) have been floating
around for a while. These were never widely adopted for various reasons
- not the least of which was their complexity.
Well, hold on to your shorts folks: I would like to rekindle the idea of
web widgets, but with an eye toward simplicity that builds on open web
app concepts and mechanism.
My proposal is simple:
Widgets are just an alternate (or even the same) app 'launch_path' a
developer would declared under a 'widget' key in their existing App
Manifest. The UA would launch this URL in whatever widget UI containers
it creates, for example: squares on a New Tab, a floating panel, etc.,
and add a few things to the document context - namely: an imperative
means for detecting the document is being displayed in a widget state,
and a new media query type 'widget' for styling (especially helpful if
the developers chooses to use a single origin for their app and widget)
What this allows for:
- Let's us utilize the existing declaration and installation mechanisms
for web apps (which is the same place widgets are already declared in
today's common native app packages)
- Provides a great new variant of content for all UAs who already are
implementing apps
- Delivers huge user benefit at a relatively low cost
"Stupid-Simple Web Widgets: great idea, or greatest idea?...I'm gonna
put you down for great."
-----
/PS - If the word 'widget' makes you feel dirty and sad-faced (which it
shouldn't, as Android proved and iOS concurred), let's just imagine
we're talking about the W3 Web Dingus spec for now and focus on the user
value proposition ;) /
