Application Foundations/ApplicationLifecycle

Description

People expect their apps to be useful even when there is no network (“offline”), to do the right thing when the network returns (“sync”), to take into account location-specific information (“geofencing”), to be easy to launch on their device (“manifest”), to respond to notifications (from the local device or remote server), to make the most of resource from the device ("battery level" and "wake lock"), and so on. The Application Lifecycle Foundation deals with the range of context changes that may affect an application.

From Application Foundations for the Open Web Platform

Use cases

• Use cases for offline web apps
• Use Cases and Requirements for Installable Web Apps
• Scenarios for using packages on the Web
• Requirements for Standardizing Widgets
• a few use cases for push notifications
• Background Sync use cases:
  • Notification when next online to upload new content (email, docs, tweets, saved state)
  • Periodic synchronization opportunities (static resources, content updates (e.g., docs, articles email), logging)

Existing Work on the Web

Relevant specs:

• Service Worker
• Manifest
• Packaging
• Push Notifications
• Background Sync
• Page Visibility
• Quota (?)
• App Lifecycle
• app: URL
• Task Scheduler
• Geofencing
• Wake Lock

Native equivalents

• Managing the Activity Lifecycle on Android
• The App Life Cycle on iOS
• App activation and deactivation for Windows Phone 8

Work plan

Goals

• accelerate development & deployment of these technologies (core to one of the biggest “gap to native”)
• document a consistent view of how these technologies work together
• identify gaps for a next generation of use cases in this space

Potential milestones

• Feb 15: gather links to relevant use cases
• Feb 28: proposed framework for prioritizing use cases
• March 15: List of prioritized use cases
• March 15: Review of capabilities of native platforms in this space
• March 15: Map of use cases to Web technologies
• April 15: Proposed prioritization of actions for staff / WG with suggestions for additional resources investment
• April 24: Report for progress on application foundation due for AC meeting
• May 5: AC meeting starts