[Sugar-devel] A prototype of SugarWeb / SugarAndroid - Technical questions

[Daniel Narvaez]

It's probably possible on android WebView using a custom protocol with
shouldInterceptRequest, I couldn't find anything about Phonegap though.


On 14 November 2013 12:44, Daniel Narvaez <dwnarvaez at gmail.com> wrote:

> Btw it might not be possible to do multiple origins using PhoneGap (or
> Android even), unless you load from a remote server rather than from the
> application content.
>
>
> On 14 November 2013 12:24, Daniel Narvaez <dwnarvaez at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I think there is a pretty fundamental issue we need to figure out, the
>> solution to several of the issues you pointed out depends on this.
>>
>> Should activities be each a separate web application or should all the
>> part of the Sugar web application? Or more technically, should they have
>> the same origin or each a different one?
>>
>> That has major consequences. For example a different origin gives each a
>> separate LocalStorage, which is great for security and namespacing but
>> makes, for example, communicating the xo color more complicated. A lot of
>> others standard web APIs are affected by the origin.
>>
>> Security aside, this also affects how activities are "deployed". Do we
>> want to be able to run activities from a different web server or must
>> everything come from the same? If we want different web servers than I
>> guess we are sort of forced into multiple origins (though you could still
>> download a bundle from a different server and install on the main one).
>>
>> For what it's worth in Sugar 0.100 each web activity has a different
>> origin.
>>
>>
>> On 14 November 2013 10:03, Lionel Laské <lionel at olpc-france.org> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot for your messages regarding my work. Very appreciate to see
>>> enthusiasm here.
>>>
>>> I'm opening a different thread to talk about technical issues.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Technically speaking my prototype is three things:
>>>
>>>    - A Sugar Web Activities that mimic the desktop. This "activity" use
>>>    the Sugar Web Framework (toolbar, xocolor, …) and is written using Enyo
>>>    Framework (not the better JavaScript framework but it's my favorite one
>>>    :-). The framework is "dynamic" so adding new activities is very easy (see
>>>    here [4]). In fact, I hope to integrate a mechanism to install new activity
>>>    from the desktop.
>>>    - A directory name "activities" where I've unzip the content of .XO
>>>    files for all web activities currently on Sugar App Store. The desktop
>>>    activity just switch from an activity to another [5].
>>>    - A PhoneGap encapsulation that allow to generate the Android APK.
>>>    BTW because I'm using PhoneGap Build [1], it will also generate other
>>>    platforms (iOS, webOS, …).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Here are the major issues I've faced building the prototype (all source
>>> code is here [2]):
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>    - Multiple copy of Sugar Framework in each activity. My work was
>>>    mostly a way to group existing Sugar Web activities. BTW I need to upgrade
>>>    a part of the Sugar Web Framework to implement few features (Stop button,
>>>    XO Colors, …). This upgrade concern today the bus.js file (most of the hack
>>>    is here [3]) but this file is copied in each web activities :-( So I had to
>>>    upgrade this file in each activity directory. I think we must find a way to
>>>    allow the Sugar Web Framework to be deployed/referenced one time only.
>>>    - Server side stuff. Today the Sugar Web Framework use Web Sockets
>>>    to communicate with the system layer. It's good when running on Sugar but
>>>    it's not a good idea in a Web-Browser only world because you can't have a
>>>    process to listen Web Sockets. I think we should imagine a way to have a
>>>    Sugar Web Framework that could work in stand-alone mode (without any server
>>>    side). For example by using directly LocalStorage instead of waiting for a
>>>    bus call. It's what I've done to retrieve xocolor [6]
>>>    - HTML5 compatibility issues. Running existing Sugar Web Activities
>>>    on tablets (XO Tablet and Samsung GalaxyTab) raise some issues regarding
>>>    HTML5 compatibility. Specifically some features (CustomEvent object, Blob
>>>    object, window.webkitRequestAnimationFrame, …) used by the framework
>>>    or by activities don't work everywhere due to WebKit compatibility. I think
>>>    we should isolate these features (or avoid using it). Of course one another
>>>    major issue is that the screen size could be very different from a device
>>>    to another. Unfortunately activities are often linked to the XO screen size.
>>>    - Environment. The Sugar Web Framework use an environment object
>>>    (env.js), it seems to be used to detect the current platform but that I
>>>    don't understand exactly how it works. Any explication regarding this point
>>>    will be appreciate.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hope to have your proposal or feedbacks.
>>>
>>> Do not hesitate to ask me for more.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>         Lionel.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> [1] https://build.phonegap.com/
>>>
>>> [2] https://github.com/llaske/SugarWebUI
>>>
>>> [3]
>>> https://github.com/llaske/SugarWebUI/blob/master/lib/sugar-web/bus.js#L150
>>>
>>> [4] https://github.com/llaske/SugarWebUI/blob/master/js/settings.js#L5
>>>
>>> [5] https://github.com/llaske/SugarWebUI/blob/master/js/settings.js#L65
>>>
>>> [6]
>>> https://github.com/llaske/SugarWebUI/blob/master/lib/sugar-web/bus.js#L168
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Sugar-devel mailing list
>>> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Daniel Narvaez
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Daniel Narvaez
>



-- 
Daniel Narvaez
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