*Proposed* Web Performance Working Group Charter
The mission of the Web Performance Working Group, part of the Rich Web Client Activity, is to provide methods to enhance aspects of application performance of user agent features and APIs.
Note: New information is highlighted.
| End date | 30 June 2012 |
|---|---|
| Confidentiality | Proceedings are public |
| Initial Chairs | Arvind Jain, Google, Jason Weber, Microsoft |
| Initial Team Contacts (FTE %: 5) |
Philippe Le Hégaret |
| Usual Meeting Schedule | Teleconferences: Weekly Face-to-face: we will meet during the W3C's annual Technical Plenary week (if space available); an additional face-to-face meeting may be scheduled by consent of the participants IRC: active participants, particularly editors, regularly use the #webapps W3C IRC channel |
Scope
As Web browsers and their underlying engines include richer capabilities and become more powerful, web developers are building more sophisticated applications where application performance is increasingly important. Developers need the ability to assess and understand the performance characteristics of their applications, and they need the ability to write more efficient applications, using well-defined interoperable methods.
The Web Performance Working Group's deliverables include user agent features and APIs to measure and improve aspects of application performance. These deliverables will apply to desktop and mobile browsers and other non-browser environments where appropriate and will be consistent with Web technologies designed in other working groups including HTML, CSS, WebApps, DAP and SVG.
Success Criteria
In order to advance to Proposed Recommendation, each specification is expected to have two independent implementations of each of feature defined in the specification.
Out of Scope
The following items are not in scope:
- Does not provide a means to package and transmit the timing information back to a web service.
- Does not provide a method to profile and instrument server side code.
- Does not include performance data analysis techniques or algorithms.
Deliverables
The working group will deliver the following:
- Navigation Timing
- An interoperable means for site developers to
collect real-world performance information from the user agent while
loading the root document of a webpage. The user agent captures the end
to end latency associated with loading a webpage from a web server. This
includes the time associated with fetching the document from the network
to the time associated to load the document within the user agent. This
might include:
- timing associated with the network;
- timings associated with loading the document; and
- information about how the page was loaded, for example number of network requests.
- Resource Timing
- An interoperable means for site developers to
collect real-world performance information from the user agent while
loading resources as specified from the root document of a webpage. The
user agent captures the end to end latency associated with loading
resources from a web server. This includes the time associated with
fetching the resource from the network and the time associated to load
the resource within the user agent. This might include:
- timing associated with the network;
- timings associated with loading the resource in the document;
- a resource may be one of the following elements: iframe, img, script, object, embed and link.
- User Timings
- An interoperable means for site developers to capture timing information with a developer supplied name. The user agent captures the time stamp at the point and time specified in the code executing in the user agent.
- Page Visibility
- An interoperable means for site developers to programmatically determine the current visibility of a document and be notified of visibility changes.
- Efficient Script Yielding
- An interoperable means for site developers to programmatically yield control flow from script to the user agent, and have control flow immediately returned to script once the user agent has processed any pending work.
- Display Paint Notifications
- An interoperable means for site developers to be notified when the user agent needs to repaint the screen.
Other Deliverables
Other non-normative documents may be created such as:
- Test suites for each specification;
- Primer or Best Practice documents to support web developers when designing applications with performance in mind;
- Best practice document explaining how data is commonly gathered between the client and the server.
Milestones
Note: The following table has been updated with the new documents and according to the timetable of current documents.
| Note: The group will document significant changes from this initial schedule on the group home page. | |||||
| Specification | FPWD | LC | CR | PR | Rec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navigation Timing | Oct 2010 | Jan 2011 | Feb 2011 | April 2011 | May 2011 |
| Resource Timing | March 2010 | May 2011 | July 2011 | Oct 2011 | November 2011 |
| User Timing | March 2011 | May 2011 | July 2011 | Oct 2011 | November 2011 |
| Page Visibility | June 2011 | November 2011 | January 2012 | March 2012 | April 2012 |
| Efficient Script Yielding | June 2011 | November 2011 | January 2012 | March 2012 | April 2012 |
| Display Paint Notifications | June 2011 | November 2011 | January 2012 | March 2012 | April 2012 |
Dependencies and Liaisons
W3C Groups
- Web Applications Working Group
- This Working Group develops APIs for client-side development and for markup vocabularies for describing and controlling client-side application behavior. In particular, it develops DOM Core. The WebTiming proposal depends on the WebIDL specification.
- HTML Working Group
- This group will maintain and produce incremental revisions to the HTML
specification. The HTML specification defines the
windowobject. - CSS Working Group
- The group develops and maintains CSS.
- SVG Working Group
- This group continues the evolution of Scalable Vector Graphics as a format and a platform.
- Device APIs and Policy Working Group
- This group create client-side APIs that enable the development of Web Applications and Web Widgets that interact with devices services.
External Groups
- ECMA Technical Committee 39 (TC39)
- This is the group responsible for ECMAScript standardization, and related ECMAScript features like E4X. As the Web Performance Working Group will be developing ECMAScript APIs, it should collaborate with TC39.
- Internet Engineering Task Force
- The IETF is responsible for defining robust and secure protocols for Internet functionality, in particular HTTP.
Participation
To be successful, the Web Performance Working Group is expected to have 10 or more active participants for its duration. The Chairs and specification Editors are expected to contribute one day per week towards the Working Group. There is no minimum requirement for other Participants.
The Web Applications Working Group will also allocate the necessary resources for building Test Suites for each specification.
The group encourages questions and comments on its public mailing lists, as described in Communication.
The group also welcomes non-Members to contribute technical submissions for consideration, with the agreement from each participant to Royalty-Free licensing of those submissions under the W3C Patent Policy.
Communication
Most Web Application Working Group Teleconferences will focus on discussion of particular specifications, and will be conducted on an as-needed basis.
This group primarily conducts its work on the public mailing list public-web-perf@w3.org (archive). The public is invited to post messages to this list.
Information about the group (deliverables, participants, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the Web Performance Working Group home page.
The group will use a Member-confidential mailing list for administrative purposes and, at the discretion of the Chairs and members of the group, for member-only discussions in special cases when a participant requests such a discussion.
Information about the group (for example, details about deliverables, issues, actions, status, participants) will be available from the Web Performance Working Group home page.
Decision Policy
As explained in the W3C Process Document (section 3.3), this group will seek to make decisions when there is consensus and with due process. The expectation is that typically, an editor or other participant makes an initial proposal, which is then refined in discussion with members of the group and other reviewers, and consensus emerges with little formal voting being required. However, if a decision is necessary for timely progress, but consensus is not achieved after careful consideration of the range of views presented, the Chairs should put a question out for voting within the group (allowing for remote asynchronous participation -- using, for example, email and/or web-based survey techniques) and record a decision, along with any objections. The matter should then be considered resolved unless and until new information becomes available.
This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the W3C Process Document and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.
Patent Policy
This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February 2004 Version). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis.
For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, please see the W3C Patent Policy Implementation.
About this Charter
This charter for the Web Performance Working Group has been created according to section 6.2 of the Process Document. In the event of a conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence.
Philippe Le Hégaret
Copyright© 2011 W3C ® (MIT , ERCIM , Keio), All Rights Reserved.
$Date: 2011/03/09 15:32:07 $