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

[Daniel Narvaez]

Sounds like you can have your own "custom" WebView in Phonegap, so it
should be possible one way or another.


On 14 November 2013 12:48, Daniel Narvaez <dwnarvaez at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>



-- 
Daniel Narvaez
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/attachments/20131114/1f3d39e6/attachment-0001.html>