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

[Daniel Narvaez]

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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/attachments/20131114/fd7a7cd7/attachment-0001.html>