Widgets

Marcos Caceres (QUT) :: WDS ::26 September, 2007

Interaction designer/developer by trade
Joined W3C Web Apps Formats WG in 2006
Edit:
Widgets 1.0 Requirements
Widgets 1.0 Specification (with Anne van Kesteren, Opera Software)
XBL 2.0 Primer (with Lachlan Hunt)
Doing a PhD on widgets
05/27/09

What are Widgets and Widget Engines?
Problem (lack of standards)
How to address the problem
Widget 1.0 Spec
Packaging
Runtime instances
05/27/09

A single function application
Made from web technologies (easy to build)
Usually access local info or web services
Types:
Desktop
Mobile
Web
Physical
05/27/09

DESKTOP WIDGETS
WEB WIDGETS
05/27/09 Yahoo! Widgets and Sidebar iGoogle Gadgets

MOBILE WIDGETS
PHYSICAL WIDGET
05/27/09 Webwag WidgetStation

Software on which widgets run.
Dashboard, Sidebar, Yahoo, Google Gadgets
05/27/09 Dashboard (Apple Inc.) Yahoo! Widgets engine

05/27/09 Widget: “An end-user's conceptualisation of an interactive single purpose application for displaying and/or updating local data or data on the Web, packaged in a way to allow a single download and installation on a user's machine or mobile device.” [Widget-reqs]

Make a web page
Zip it up
Publish it online (or send it out)
… or at least it should be that easy.
05/27/09

To make a widget more useful:
Ajax (web 2.0 stuff)
Web services
RSS/podcasts
Web APIs/mashups
Access to device
Camera, SMS, etc
05/27/09

Anyone
Enterprise uses
Eg: SAP
05/27/09 SAP Prototype Widget [SAP] “… in the U.S. marketing spending on mobile widgets will reach [US]$500 million by 2010, up from about $2 million [in March 2007]” [BusinessWeek] “ 2007: year of the Widget?” [Newsweek]

No interoperability across widget engines
Security issues not fully resolved
Are all user needs met?
Enterprise requirements
Internationalisation
Accessibility
How will they work on phones?
Mobility
Persistent storage? Keeping costs down.
05/27/09

PACKAGING
Format and Media Type
Automatic Updates
Auto-discovery
Embedding in HTML
Digital Signature
WIDGET INSTANCE
Initialisation (bootstrapping)
Metadata/Preferences
DOM APIs and Events
Cross-widget communication
Rendering
Security model
05/27/09

Format
Zip (version 2)
Deflate or uncompressed
Excludes support for:
64Bit
Encryption
Splitting
Unicode 
Maximize interoperability
Media Type
application/widget
Extension
*.wgt
05/27/09

Keep widget up to date
Widget engine periodically checks for updates:
Is the Version number
HTTP Caching control
Etags, Last modified date
What happens when there is no caching info?
What happens when a widget is auto generated?d
05/27/09

AUTO-DISCOVERY
Auto-discovery enables a browser to identify and install a widget that is associated with an web page.
<a rel="widget“ href=“my.wgt“>Widget</a>
EMBEDDING IN HTML
HTML4/XHTML
Using <object>
HTML5?
We will be approaching HTML-WG.
<widget src=“my.wgt”>
<div>…Fallback content…</div>
</widget?>
We are still investigating how to do this.
05/27/09

XML Digital Signature
Sign everything in a package
Signed Info
Crypto algorithm
Signed value
Key info
Digital certificate
Manifest
The files
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Signature xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
<SignedInfo>
<CanonicalizationMethod
Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xml-c14n-20010315"/>
<SignatureMethod
Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#rsa-sha1" />
<Reference URI="#References"
Type="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#Manifest">
<DigestMethod
Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
<DigestValue>725x3fVasdfvBGFGjhjyDSFvUk=</DigestValue>
</Reference>
</SignedInfo>
<SignatureValue>MC0E~LE=</SignatureValue>
<KeyInfo>
<X509Data>
<X509Certificate>MI...lVN</X509Certificate>
</X509Data>
</KeyInfo>
<Manifest Id="References">
<Reference URI="config.xml">
<DigestMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1" />
<DigestValue>j6...8nk=</DigestValue>
</Reference>
<Reference URI="index.html">
<DigestMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
<DigestValue>lm...34=</DigestValue>
</Reference>
<Reference URI="pictures/picture1.gif">
<DigestMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
<DigestValue>pq...56=</DigestValue>
</Reference>
</Manifest>
</Signature>
05/27/09

BOOTSTRAPPING
Automatically finding the start folder and file:
HTML, XML, SVG support (?)
Internationalized context
/en/,/en-au/ ,/en-us/
Automatically launching the start file and configuring the application
METADATA
config.xml
Metadata/Preferences
Widget (id, version, width, height, start)
title
Author (url, email)
description
License
Namespace  :
http://www.w3.org/ns/widgets
05/27/09

Leverage JavaScript+XHR
Widget Object
openURL(url);
preferenceForKey(key)
setPreferenceForKey(value, key)
Extensions to window
resizeTo, resizeBy, moveTo, moveBy
Events
state change, modal priorities
Cross widget communication
HTML 5’s model
05/27/09

SECURITY MODEL
No yet specified.
Should we lock it down or open it up?
Disk access?
Cross-domain requests?
Plugins? Flash? Java? Executables?
RENDERING
Handling transparency in irregularly shaped widgets
05/27/09

[email_address]
Widget images (Microsoft Vista Sidebar)
References
[HTML5]
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/
[BusinessWeek]
Kharif, O. (2007, March 27). Widgets Gone Wireless. Retrieved 5 21, 2007: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/tc20070327_532303.htm
[SAP]
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/5598
[Widget-reqs]
http://www.w3.org/TR/widget-reqs/
[Widget-spec]
http://www.w3.org/TR/widget/
05/27/09

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Widgets

by Marcos Caceres on Oct 04, 2007

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