Apps/Overview
Web applications are universal applications. The run on any device. They use standard technology that works on desktop PCs, smartphones, and tablets. They can be installed on devices automatically when users authorize their devices, and are personalized so that users keep their preferences and data with them wherever they go.
Mozilla-provided products to support Web Applications
Firefox: The Best Browser Runtime for Applications
Firefox will provide the best browser-based runtime for applications. It will have the richest set of APIs, the best user experience of navigating and running applications, and the safest and easiest-to-use user controls. It communicates with the application cloud to keep the user's application choices and data always up-to-date.
Mobile Firefox allows web applications to run full screen, with rich user interactions (touch, orientation, motion) and access to device APIs. Desktop Firefox is fast and efficient, and allows applications to run in tabs (full or pinned), windows, or full screen. All Firefox runtimes have a robust but easy-to-use permission system that makes it easy to provide rich APIs to trusted applications, or applications from a trusted source, while safely viewing untrusted content.
Read More:
- Mozilla's WebAPI project
- Web Apps on Firefox Home Tab
- dev-platform thread on advanced permissions
- UI mockup of application permissions - need link
Firefox: The Best Runtime for Native Applications
The capabilities provided by a web browser can also be separated and turned into a standalone application. These applications can interact with operating systems in a more "native" way; for example, they can have their own icon in a task bar or dock, act as a target for document-opening requests, and be copied between devices with a drag-and-drop to a file server.
The Mozilla platform can support this both by running a "no-label" version of the user's installed Firefox (as in WebRunner), or by creating a custom executable for a target operating system (as in Chromeless). The creation of native runtimes for web applications could be performed on the client, or on the server. Custom executables can be distributed through native application stores or offered directly for download by developers.
On Android, we can provide a more "native"-seeming experience through rich browser-based APIs; where appropriate, however, we can create or interact with native executables.
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The Mozilla Application Marketplace: The Most Complete, Trusted Directory of Web Apps
Mozilla operates an Application Marketplace, which is a safe, fast, fun place for users to find web applications, and for developers to reach their customers. It is a reference implementation for a web application store, which developers can download and set up on their own domains. It is implemented as a web application, and is easily reachable from the Firefox browser or from any other web browser on mobile or desktop. It understands the characteristics of major web browser platforms and helps users configure their devices to get the best experience.
The Marketplace is a payment processor, providing a place for developers to list their applications and for users to purchase them. It also supports in-app purchasing (by itself being an application), allowing developers to offer digital goods to their users after install. The Marketplace also allows developers to list applications that are free, or that are sold by the developer on their own site.
The Marketplace understands the complexity of delivering web applications to multiple platforms. It provides a features-and-capabilities system that shows users apps that can run on their platform, and suggests available platforms for the user's device if a more capable platform could provide a better experience.
Read More:
- Application Marketplace - link needed
- Mozilla Marketplace App - link needed
App Storage in the Cloud
Mozilla will implement and host a generic "application cloud" service, which can be freely called by any store, dashboard, or application. It provides a full implementation of the Application Client API in HTML5, and runs on any modern browser. This service can run purely locally (with no user login), or can store all of the user's applications on the server, for access across all of a user's devices. This service is visible to users through an easy-to-use "application dashboard", which always has their applications ready for use.
This service will store the user's applications and any receipts needed for proof-of-purchase; at some near point it will also include per-application storage for user data, allowing applications to give users a consistent experience across devices.
Read More:
- Web Client Application API
- App Cloud Service - need link
User Identity Service
Mozilla has proposed a decentralized identity system that allows applications to verify a user's identity. Mozilla will host HTML5-based APIs for browsers that do not have native support for this system, and will provide robust and scalable identity verification services for domains that do not participate directly in the system.
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Standardization and API Development to Support Applications
Mozilla provides APIs, and works with other browser vendors to define standards, that enhance the web application ecosystem
Well-defined application metadata
Mozilla is working with other vendors to define standard application metadata, to allow applications to describe themselves to browser runtimes.
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Client-side APIs for web applications
Mozilla has proposed, and hosts an HTML5 implementation of, an application storage API.
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Decentralized identity
Mozilla has proposed, and hosts an HTML5 implementation of, a decentralized identity verification system.
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Web Application Receipts
Mozilla proposes a standard web application receipt format, to allow proof-of-purchase claims to travel from stores to applications using user-centric storage. This allows users to log into a new device and receive all their applications, including paid content, with no additional steps required.
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Web Application Activities
Applications can expose "Activities," which are an application-to-application communication system. This system allows an application (or website) to request access to a user's preferred service, and for a message to flow between the application and the service.
Use cases for this feature include link sharing, social graphs or contact lists, personal profile data, payment processing, travel planning, and media preferences.
Read More:
- Activities specification (in-progress)
- Web Intents (related work by Google Chrome team; conversations with this team are ongoing)