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Labs/F1/Modularity: Difference between revisions
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== Architecture == | == Architecture == | ||
=== Mental model === | |||
While this is obvious, it is important - we need to move to a mental model of F1 using "apps", of which there are many available even though the average user may only have a few installed. Any UX issues or other considerations which arise directly from the OWA model need to be addressed in the context of OWA rather than "worked around" in F1 (in theory at least ;) | |||
=== Authentication === | === Authentication === | ||
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The descriptions below attempt to define the postMessage APIs such that the above remains true while (optionally) allowing an app to support multiple concurrent accounts being used (eg, having 2 twitter accounts configured.) But this hasn't been given a huge amount of thought and needs to be carefully considered. | The descriptions below attempt to define the postMessage APIs such that the above remains true while (optionally) allowing an app to support multiple concurrent accounts being used (eg, having 2 twitter accounts configured.) But this hasn't been given a huge amount of thought and needs to be carefully considered. | ||
=== F1-Specific Features === | |||
==== Service Discovery, Installation and Storage ==== | |||
The F1 UI will need to make a distinction between "installed" apps and "discoverable" apps - currently this distinction doesn't really exist as the number of possible apps is assumed to be small. | |||
The F1 server will be the primary service discovery mechanism. An end-point will be exposed to list the URL of the manifest for all apps which support our service. The service will return both the "internal" apps supported directly by F1 and any other "external" services we know about. A config file or similar will list those external services, so as (say) facebook supports this sharing directly, we make a simple change to that config file and the facebook hosted app is able to be discovered by F1. | |||
F1 will allow the user to "install" these discovered applications. Installed apps will be kept in local-storage using the same basic model as OWA itself. The routines used internally by F1 to enumerate the installed applications should be identical to the OWA counterparts. There will need to be some UI for removing an app, which needs to be different from any UI relating to "disconnect/logout from this app service." F1 will probably relax the OWA restriction about "only one app per domain" simply so all "internal" F1 apps can be hosted together. | |||
==== Other UI and Front-End Issues ==== | |||
The main F1 panel and related code will need to be revamped in a couple of ways: each installed app will get an invisible iframe and all UI config information will be obtained using postMessage with that iframe. ie, the F1 UI will not be able to keep a global list of "services" as it does now, but dynamically build that list by querying each of the apps. Additionally, any service specific UI (both the service specific templates currently applied to F1 and the few hard-coding of service behaviour in the javascript) will need to be removed and implemented using data obtained via the postMessage channel. This means F1 probably doubles the number of iframes in use - one invisible one for each app (pointing at the app's domain), and one visible one for each app (holding dynamically built F1 content.) | |||
Each existing F1 service will need to be broken into its own "app" and all send and auth related functionality etc implemented in each app rather than "globally". This can probably be done simply by having each app load the same javascript module (ie, share the implementation even though it exists in different apps). The F1 server end-points for sharing probably do not need to change. | |||
=== F1 postMessage APIs === | === F1 postMessage APIs === | ||
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[[Labs/F1/Modularity/WebMod-API]] | [[Labs/F1/Modularity/WebMod-API]] | ||
== | == Implementation Plan == | ||
=== Version 1 -- Hard-Wired WebMods === | === Version 1 -- Hard-Wired WebMods === | ||
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At the end of this stage, F1 will look as if it had been designed and implemented *after* the HOWA spec was finalized. Eventually F1 will not host any "internal" services and the backend can be retired. | At the end of this stage, F1 will look as if it had been designed and implemented *after* the HOWA spec was finalized. Eventually F1 will not host any "internal" services and the backend can be retired. | ||