WebAPI: Difference between revisions

From MozillaWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 52: Line 52:
|-
|-
| [[WebAPI/WebMobileConnection|Mobile Connection API]]
| [[WebAPI/WebMobileConnection|Mobile Connection API]]
|  
| {{bug|729173}}
| Expose signal strength, operator, etc for GSM and other mobile connections. This does not cover WiFi.
| Expose signal strength, operator, etc for GSM and other mobile connections. This does not cover WiFi.
| API prototype exists.
| Implementation in progress.
|}
|}


Revision as of 23:28, 21 February 2012

The Mozilla WebAPI team is pushing the envelope of the web to include --- and in places exceed --- the capabilities of competing stacks.

Contributing

WebAPI work is being tracked by Mozilla bug 673923. Find an dependent bug that interests you (and is unassigned), and assign it to yourself.

APIs

Here's a list of the APIs that we're working on. Some of them are done, and some of them we haven't gotten further than acknowledge that we probably need them.

API Bugs Description Progress
WebTelephony bug 674726 Allow placing and answering phone calls as well as build in-call UI. Basic functionality done. Some work remaining
Vibration API bug 679966 Control device vibration for things like haptic feedback in games. Not intended to solve things like vibration for notification. Done on B2G and Android. Standard in progress.
WebSMS bug 674725 Send/receive SMS messages as well as manage messages stored on device. Done on Android though might not ship there for security reasons. Mostly done for B2G.
Idle API bug 715041 Get notifications when user is idle. Implementation in progress.
Screen Orientation bug 720794 bug 673922 Get notification when screen orientation changes as well as control which screen orientation a page/app wants. Notification API implement. Locking API still being designed. See following thread.
Settings API bug 678695 Set system-wide configurations that are saved permanently on the device. Implementation in progress.
Resource lock API bug 697132 Prevent resources from being turned off, for example screen dimming, WiFi turning off, CPU going into sleep mode etc. Implementation in progress.
Mobile Connection API bug 729173 Expose signal strength, operator, etc for GSM and other mobile connections. This does not cover WiFi. Implementation in progress.

Use Cases

We are aiming at providing all the necessary APIs to build a basic HTML5 phone experience within the next 3-6 months.

Application Required APIs
Dialer Telephony & Messaging API, Contacts API
Battery Battery API
Address Book Contacts API
SMS Telephony & Messaging API, Contacts API
Clock -
Camera Camera API, Filesystem API
Gallery Filesystem API
Calculator -
Settings Device Status API, Settings API
Games Accelerometer API, Mouse Lock API, Vibration API
Maps Geolocation API, Contacts API
Apps OWA API
NFC WebNFC
Bluetooth WebBluetooth

Mozilla will most likely not implement the FileSystem API. For local file access, we have implemented FileReader and plan to implement parts of the FileWriter specification. A file system abstraction can additionally be built on top of IndexedDB.

Legend
Work in progress, see linked bug
Implemented but not shipped yet
Shipped in Firefox already

Process

A draft specification and prototype implementation of new Web APIs will be discussed publicly on our mailing list and at our public meetings (see below). Once an initial implementation is available on trunk, we will submit the new API for standardization to the W3C.

Design Principles

Security

Security will be a central aspect of all the APIs that we design. We wouldn't want any random webpage to be able to read the user's contact list, or able to issue arbitrary commands to any USB device which is hooked up to the user's computer.

In some cases the solution will be to simply ask the user, like we do today for Geolocation for example. In other cases, where security implications are scarier or where describing the risk to the user is harder, we'll have to come up with better solutions.

This is an area where we're still doing a lot of research. I really want to emphasize that we don't have all the answers yet, but that we plan on having them before we roll out these APIs to millions of users.

Low Level vs. High Level

One question that often comes up, is should we do low level APIs, like USB access, or high level APIs, like camera access?

In many cases we are going to want to do both high level and low level APIs, with an initial priority on low level. High level APIs will let us create more friendly APIs, which are both easier to use for developers, and better for users since we can provide better security guarantees. However low level APIs will provide support for a wider range of hardware and use cases and will get the browser out of the critical path for innovation.

Meetings

  • Tuesday @ 10:00am PDT
  • Dial-in: Audio-only conference# 254
    • People with Mozilla phones or softphones please dial x4000 Conf# 254
    • US/Toll-free: +1 800 707 2533, (pin 4000) Conf# 254
    • US/California/Mountain View: +1 650 903 0800, x4000 Conf# 254
    • US/California/San Francisco: +1 415 762 5700, x4000 Conf# 254
    • US/Oregon/Portland: +1 971 544 8000, x4000 Conf# 254
    • CA/British Columbia/Vancouver: +1 778 785 1540, x4000 Conf# 254
    • CA/Ontario/Toronto: +1 416 848 3114, x4000 Conf# 254
    • UK/London: +44 (0)207 855 3000, x4000 Conf# 254
    • FR/Paris: +33 1 84 88 37 37, x4000 Conf# 254
    • Gmail Chat (requires Flash and the Google Talk plugin): paste +1 650 903 0800 into the Gmail Chat box that doesn't look like it accepts phone numbers
    • SkypeOut is free if you use the 800 number
  • No vidyo since the phone-vidyo bridge is too unreliable
  • *1 to unmute yourself
  • join irc.mozilla.org #webapi for back channel

Communication

Mailing-list / Newsgroup

You can subscribe to the mailing list here: https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-webapi

And the web based API is here: http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.webapi/topics

The newsgroup lives on the news.mozilla.org server and has the name mozilla.dev.webapi

IRC

Find us on irc.mozilla.org in #webapi. Need help to use Mozilla IRC servers?

See also

Demos

Other efforts

Subpages of WebAPI

Retrieved from "https://wiki.mozilla.org/index.php?title=WebAPI&oldid=399856"