Web versus native

Chris Mills // Mozilla cmills@mozilla.com // @chrisdavidmills

don’t worry about taking notes:

๏ These slides are all at slideshare.net/chrisdavidmills

๏ developer.mozilla.org

๏ @chrisdavidmills

๏ cmills@mozilla.com

๏ #mdn irc channel on mozilla irc

๏ dev-mdc@lists.mozilla.org mailing list

๏ heavy metal drummer turned web nerd

๏ tech writer @ mozilla

๏ web tinkerer (HTML, CSS, JS)

๏ accessibility whiner

๏ educator

who am i?

mdn!!

what’s the problem?

web versus native, the age-old struggle

the usual arguments

native is better?

๏ faster?

๏ offine?

๏ more integrated, consistent experience?

๏ better developer ecosystem/tools?

๏ more secure?

the usual arguments

๏ web apps accessing other apps?

๏ web apps accessing camera contacts SMS/MMs dialler??

app ecosystem

Firefox os

We have this firefox os thing!

๏ open source project: everyone can get involved

๏ everything runs on the gecko engine

๏ Gaia: UI and suite of default apps

๏ Gonk: the underlying kernel/haL

installable apps

not a new phenomenon, but...

๏ pretty recent concept for web technologies

๏ manifest file defines app (manifest.webapp)

๏ installation controlled by app installation and management apis

{ "version": "0.1", "name": "To-do alarms", "description": "My awesome open web app", "launch_path": "/index.html", "icons": { "128": "/img/icon-128.png" }, "developer": { "name": "Chris Mills", "url": "http://yourawesomeapp.com" }, "locales": { "es": { "description": "Su nueva aplicación impresionante Open Web", "developer": { "url": "http://yourawesomeapp.com" } }, "it": {

manifest example

var manifest_url = location.href.substring(0, location.href.lastIndexOf("/")) + "/manifest.webapp"; function install() { // install the app var install = navigator.mozApps.install(manifest_url); install.onsuccess = function(data) { // App is installed, do something if you like }; install.onerror = function() { // App wasn't installed, info is in // install.error.name alert(install.error.name); }; };

installation example

app types

Apps can be:

๏ hosted: just like a normal web site, but with a manifest and install

functionality

๏ packaged: zipped up, hosted somewhere (like the firefox

marketplace), verified

app payments

you can charge money for web apps

๏ payments api uses payment providers like bango

๏ receipt verification to make sure payments are completed

๏ in-app payments also available (fxPay, mozpay)

web runtime

web rt allows app installation on other platforms

๏ apk factory for android apps, which include native api equivalents

where possible

๏ similar native wrappers for desktop platforms

๏ firefox marketplace/Firefox will generate these

developer experience

developer experience

we want to give the web a first class development experience,

alongside native ecosystems:

๏ documentation

๏ developer tools

๏ frameworks, templates, libraries

documentation

announce new things, provide useful references, give

recommendations:

๏ hacks blog

๏ mdn (app center)

developer tools

developer tools

๏ firefox’s standard toolbox

๏ app manager webide

๏ remote debugging using connect...

๏ you can run gaia on the desktop with firefox mulet

๏ node-firefox

webide

frameworks and libraries

ready made code to make development easier

๏ mortar app templates

๏ Web components

๏ firefox os boilerplate app

๏ phonegap support for firefox os

๏ and of course, ember, angular, backbone, yadda yadda

(device) apis

make it work on the web*...

*ok, ok, using web technologies!

apis!!!

we want to control everything using web technology

๏ apis to handle access to device hardware, system functions, etc.

๏ security handled by permissions, in the manifest

api permissions

different apis have different permission levels:

๏ common apis can be accessed by any app

๏ privileged apis can only be used in packaged, verified apps (e.g.

contacts, camera, device storage)

๏ internal (certified) apis can only be used by vendor-installed apps

(e.g. sms, dialer, bluetooth)

var pick = new MozActivity({ name: "pick", data: { type: ["image/png", "image/jpg", "image/jpeg"] } });

web activities (intents)

web activities

pick.onsuccess = function () { // Create image and set the returned blob as the src var img = document.createElement("img"); img.src = window.URL.createObjectURL(this.result.blob); // Present that image in your app var imagePresenter = document.querySelector("#image-presenter"); imagePresenter.appendChild(img); }; pick.onerror = function () { // If an error occurred or the user canceled the activity alert("Can't view the image!"); };

web activities

var img = '/to-do-notifications/img/icon-128.png'; var text = 'HEY! Your task "' + title + '" is now overdue.'; var notification = new Notification('To do list', { body: text, icon: img });

notification

window.navigator.vibrate(200); // vibrate for 200ms

window.navigator.vibrate([100,30,100,30,100,200,200,30,200,30,200,200,100,30,100,30,100]); // Vibrate 'SOS' in Morse.

vibration

window.addEventListener('devicelight', function(event) { var html = document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0];

if (event.value < 50) { html.classList.add('darklight'); html.classList.remove('brightlight'); } else { html.classList.add('brightlight'); html.classList.remove('darklight'); } });

ambient light events

ambient light events

ambient light events

window.addEventListener("deviceorientation", handleOrientation, true);

function handleOrientation(event) { var alpha = event.alpha; var beta = event.beta; var gamma = event.gamma;

// Do stuff with the new orientation data }

device orientation

device orientation

alpha

betagamma

getusermedia

var constraints = { audio: true };

var onSuccess = function(stream) { // do stuff with your media stream };

var onError = function(err) { console.log('The following error occurred: ' + err); }

navigator.getUserMedia(constraints, onSuccess, onError);

mediarecorder

var mediaRecorder = new MediaRecorder(stream);

record.onclick = function() { mediaRecorder.start(); }

stop.onclick = function() { mediaRecorder.stop(); }

mediaRecorder.ondataavailable = function(e) { var audio = document.createElement('audio'); audio.setAttribute('controls', ''); var audioURL = window.URL.createObjectURL(e.data); audio.src = audioURL; }

nfc

function ndefDiscoveredHandler(activity) { var data = activity.source.data; var tag = navigator.mozNfc.getNFCTag(data.sessionToken); console.log(tag instanceof MozNFCTag); // should print true }

var request = tag.readNDEF(); request.onsuccess = function() { var ndefRecords = request.result; // ndefRecords should be an array of MozNDEFRecord. };

nfc

navigator.mozNfc.onpeerready = function (evt) { var peer = navigator.mozNfc.getNFCPeer(evt.detail); console.log(peer instanceof MozNFCPeer); // should print true; };

var request = peer.sendNDEF(ndefRecords);

var request = peer.sendFile(blob);

Web speech API

๏ work in progress

๏ doing speech synthesis and recognition in javascript, client-side

privileged/certified api examples

๏ CAmERA

๏ FMradio

๏ bluetooth

๏ sms

๏ telephony

๏ Wifimanager

advanced communication

sometimes the web model can be a pain

๏ same origin security

๏ cors/systemxhr

๏ broadcast channels/message channels

๏ request response model

๏ web sockets

๏ webrtc

broadcast channels

// Connection to a broadcast channel var bc = new BroadcastChannel(“test_channel");

// Example of sending of a very simple message bc.postMessage("This is a test message.”);

// Exemple of a simple event handler that only // logs the event to the console bc.onmessage = function (e) { console.log(e); }

// Disconnect the channel bc.close()

channel messaging

var channel = new MessageChannel(); var ifr = document.querySelector('iframe'); var otherWindow = ifr.contentWindow; ifr.addEventListener("load", iframeLoaded, false); function iframeLoaded() { otherWindow.postMessage('Hello from the main page!', '*', [channel.port2]); }

channel.port1.onmessage = handleMessage; function handleMessage(e) { para.innerHTML = e.data; }

offline apps

no connection = no experience

offline is hard

The main problems are as follows:

๏ offline data storage

๏ offline asset storage

๏ detecting available network and reacting to it

offline data

this is not so bad:

๏ indexeddb, localstorage, websql

๏ (datastore api for firefox os)

๏ there’s something available in most browsers

๏ localforage library polyfills across browsers

offline apps/assets

offline app assets are a pain

๏ firefox os packaged apps are installed and available offline

๏ this doesn’t help the web at large

๏ we had app cache…

…this had promise...

CACHE MANIFEST # v1

CACHE: css/app.css index.html js/main.js

js/lib/require.js

...but was actually evil.

detecting network state

network state is also a pain

๏ Network information API is pretty unreliable

๏ you could check xhr responses, but this isn’t ideal

hello service workers!

This could be the answer…

service workers are coming

๏ proxy servers that sits between your app and the browser

๏ intercepting network requests and customising responses

๏ does similar things to app cache (plus a lot more)

๏ granular control over actions

register service worker

if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) { navigator.serviceWorker.register('/sw-test/sw.js', { scope: '/*' }).then(function(sw) { // registration worked console.log('Registration succeeded.'); }).catch(function() { // registration failed console.log('Registration failed.'); }); }

install service worker

this.addEventListener('install', function(event) { event.waitUntil( caches.create('v1').then(function(cache) { return cache.add( '/sw-test/', '/sw-test/index.html', '/sw-test/style.css', '/sw-test/app.js', '/sw-test/image-list.js', '/sw-test/star-wars-logo.jpg' // etc. ); }) ); });

custom request responses

this.addEventListener('fetch', function(event) { event.respondWith( caches.match(event.request).catch(function() { return event.default(); return caches.get('v1').then(function(cache) { cache.add(event.request); }); }).catch(function() { return caches.match('/sw-test/gallery/myLittleVader.jpg'); }) ); });

performance enhancers

performance enhancers

๏ web workers

๏ web audio api

๏ asm.js

๏ emscripten

web workers

web workers

๏ run scripts in a background thread

๏ don’t block the main thread execution

web audio api

web audio api

๏ precise control and manipulation of audio

๏ add effects to audio

๏ split and merge audio streams

๏ spatialise audio

๏ create audio visualisations

audiochannels

audiochannels api

๏ set different audio to play in different importance hierarchy

channels

๏ react to headphones being plugged in or unplugged

๏ more important audio can continue to play in the background, e.g.

music player audio

asm.js

asm.js

๏ a very efficient low-level subset of JS

๏ suitable for ahead-of-time optimizing compilation

๏ Unity3d now has asm.js/WebGL support

emscripten

emscripteN

๏ an LLVM to javascript compiler (well, asm.js, specifically)

๏ compile c++ (and others) into JS and run it on the web

๏ = “very fast shit” ™

๏ See emscripten.org

resources

๏ MDN: developer.mozilla.org/

๏ demos on github.com/mdn

๏ hacks blog: hacks.mozilla.org

๏ look up localforage - polyfill for indexeddb/websql/localstorage

๏ simplewebrtc.com - simple webrtc library

๏ emscripten.org - try quakejs.com

๏ asmjs.org

๏ mzl.la/openwebapps - give us your feedback on what the web

platform needs!

thanks for listening!!

slideshare.net/chrisdavidmills cmills@mozilla.com // @chrisdavidmills