>> The web is server + client sides. Trying to "fix" issues you have with
>> client technologies only (appcache, JavaScript, ...) will always be a bad
>> choice.
>
> I disagree, Javascript and web browsers are becoming powerful enough
> to delegate servers to their barebones, just offering storage or
> databases or specific web services, being able to delegate all the
> operatibility to the client-side code. In the new web, web servers are
> just plain ol' API
It's not that much a question of available power, it's just operations that
needs to be done before any file hit the device.
To be available offline, the device has to hit a server first, then the appcache
"magic" happens.
No reason the server couldn't prepare / select what to send to the device: iOS
won't support WebM anytime soon, there is no reason to constantly ask iOS device
the same info again & again. That just makes no sense, and force devs to
produce device/os specific files (manifest) anyway.
And it's not AppCache job to do so. Its job is just make a web document available
offline + make updates simple & easy.
Example : Not being able to update one single file keeping the others cached is a
structural mistake. Sub-manifests sounds like an over-engineered fix to me, just
making things more complicated for developers, browser vendors & for future
evolution of this specification.
Could the problems of not being able to update one single file in the
cache, and not sending WebM files to iOS devices, both be solved by
adding additional file info to the cache manifest?
For example, if the manifest were in JSON:
{'CACHE': [
{'file':'index.html','timestamp':'2013-11-27
00:00:00','expires':'2013-12-02 00:00:00','type':'text/html'},
{'file':'video.webm','timestamp':'2013-11-27
00:00:00','expires':'2013-12-02 00:00:00','type':'video/webm'},
{'file':'video.mp4','timestamp':'2013-11-27
00:00:00','expires':'2013-12-02 00:00:00','type':'video/mp4'}
],
'NETWORK':'*',
'FALLBACK':[['online.jpg','offline.jpg'],['online.htm','offline.htm']],
'SETTINGS':'prefer-online'}
This way, a browser can compare a file's timestamp in the newly
downloaded manifest to the one in its stored manifest to determine
whether or not to download a new version. And an iOS device could ignore
'video/webm' file-types.
-Eli
> --
> "Si quieres viajar alrededor del mundo y ser invitado a hablar en un
> monton de sitios diferentes, simplemente escribe un sistema operativo
> Unix."
> – Linus Tordvals, creador del sistema operativo Linux
