W3C

– DRAFT –
MiniApps Working Group Monthly Meeting

27 May 2021

Attendees

Present
An Qing, Angel, Dan_Zhou, Julien, Kjos, Manvi, martin, tomayac, Wenli, xfq, xiaoqian, Yongjing_Zhang, Zhoubingqing, zitao
Regrets
Ming
Chair
Angel
Scribe
xfq, xiaoqian

Meeting minutes

Status review of existing deliverables (against FPWD/CR plan)

Manifest

angel: any progress on the MiniApp Manifest? It was published as FPWD

Yongjing_Zhang: for manifest
… I think there's still the i18n issue
… Huawei will propose some content for i18n
… Zitao is working on that

angel: timeline?

Yongjing_Zhang: ideally we would like to address the issue by the end of next month

zitao: for i18n
… per previous discussions we should align with WAM
… they have some candidate solutions
… we should double check and harmonize with them

angel: anything else?

zitao: we have done some homework

zitao: looked at issues in CG
… about TV and IoT

<angel> https://github.com/w3c/miniapp/issues

zitao: we should see whether we need to add members for them
… I'd like to prepare some PRs and discuss with you all

angel: do you think we can start review the PRs in the next meeting?

<martin> Current discussion of i18n in the Web Application manifest WG: https://github.com/w3c/manifest/issues/676

zitao: yes

Lifecycle

QingAn: I sent a PR

<angel> https://github.com/w3c/miniapp-lifecycle/pull/9

QingAn: you can open the preview link

[QingAn goes through the PR]

QingAn: I added Web IDL

QingAn: made the spec more readable

QingAn: hope to get feedback and consensus for publishing FPWD

angel: let's hear if there's any comment or question from people on the call

[silence]

angel: maybe people need some time to digest
… any objection on merging the PR?

[silence]

angel: then we will merge this PR, and send a two-week CfC for publishing FPWD
… any comments or questions on lifecycle?
… let's move to Packaging

Packaging

<angel> https://github.com/w3c/miniapp-packaging/pull/24

Yongjing_Zhang: two PRs
… refinement about the media types section in annex

[Yongjing_Zhang goes through the major changes]

Yongjing_Zhang: magic number is the same as ZIP

angel: not sure about the wording
… "intend to"

Yongjing_Zhang: will remove it eventually, as the spec moves forward

angel: any other comments about this PR?

[silence]

<angel> https://github.com/w3c/miniapp-packaging/pull/23

angel: security and signature

[Yongjing_Zhang goes through the diff page]

Yongjing_Zhang: I made some editorial changes

Yongjing_Zhang: not technical

Yongjing_Zhang: moved a figure to Annex B

martin: The figure was in section 6 (Security), it's better in the annex.

Yongjing_Zhang: add a note about sub-packages

Yongjing_Zhang: need more work

angel: do you think you need more time or we can merge it now?

Yongjing_Zhang: I think we can merge it now
… there were some reviews
… seems OK
… not technical change
… just for readibility

angel: any objections on merging this PR?

[silence]

Manifest

<angel> https://github.com/w3c/miniapp-manifest/issues/8

angel: we discussed this in the CG

xfq: this is different from the CG issue

xfq: the CG issue is about API, and this issue is about manifest member

CG issue

angel: this is an old issue

xfq: It is not clear to me if this is just a default orientation when the user opens a MiniApp (the user can change it when using the MiniApp)

xfq: or a locked orientation (the user can't change it)

xfq: we should align with Web App Manifest

Yongjing_Zhang: agreed

QingAn: also agree we should align with web app manifest

angel: any other comments?

[silence]

Resolution: let's make it align with Web App Manifest, and close this issue

<angel> https://github.com/w3c/miniapp-manifest/issues/19

angel: another issue, opened ~1 month ago, about sub-package

xfq: wonder if we should specify this in the Manifest spec and the Packaging spec

xfq: we need to hear MiniApp vendors' opinions

Yongjing_Zhang: yes, this is a useful feature, we should specify it
… in my previous PR, we should discuss it in the current stage
… in the packaging spec, need a section for sub-package

xfq: yep, also in the Manifest spec

Yongjing_Zhang: yes, need some work
… maybe not be easy

xfq: L1 feature? or defer it?

Yongjing_Zhang: depends on the willingness of the group

Yongjing_Zhang: if there's no interest we can solve other issues first, like the i18n issue

Yongjing_Zhang: the page layout / template issue is also more important

QingAn: very interesting topic
… we need to look into the scope of this issue, it could be bigger than what's described in the issue
… a miniapp page or some a part of the page is not necessarily rendered locally
… it may also be rendered in the cloud and then downloaded to the local device
… whether it has an independent render
… which part of the mini app page can be rendered first
… extending the Manifest spec may not be enough
… we can do some work in the Packaging spec
… let's keep the discussion open

xfq: yes, this is a more advanced feature

angel: shall we have an extra meeting for this? or GitHub discussion first

QingAn: let's discuss in the GitHub issue first

QingAn: if we have consensus on the direction we can make a PR
… make it an issue for both Manifest and Packaging

Yongjing_Zhang: sure, we will be happy to work on this

QingAn: I volunteer to do some work on this

angel: thank you

Addressing

Dan_Zhou: We are still discussing internally

Dan_Zhou: we plan to submit a PR before the next CG meeting

Widget

angel: any update?

[silence]

White Paper

xiaoqian: saw some issues about the MiniApp Standardization White Paper
… the white paper was published by the Chinese Web Interest Group
… I wonder the MiniApps WG would like to work on it

angel: it makes sense to transfer the white paper to the CG

xiaoqian: we can't publish /TR in the CG

angel: but it's not in the WG charter

xfq: I think the WG can publish non-normative documents

angel: any objections on taking it from the Chinese IG?

[silence]

angel: let's try to review it next time

angel: to see if we can come up with a plan on updating the white paper

Packaging

martin: re Packaging
… per WG charter we should publish it as FPWD in Q2 2021
… time is tight
… we need to decide the file/directory structure
… this is really important
… style, template
… it's something we need to define
… need to decide as soon as possible
… what CSS modules we support
… XML template, data binding, event handling

https://github.com/w3c/miniapp/issues/160

martin: related to UI comoponents
… we need to define how to define components first
… we can continue to discuss in GitHub

angel: thank you, martin

Publication process

xfq: since some people are new to W3C working groups, let me briefly introduce the W3C process

xfq: in the W3C Process, a Recommendation-track document passes through three levels of stability

xfq: Working Draft (WD) is the design phase of a W3C spec

xfq: the first official Working Draft is called the “First Public Working Draft” (FPWD)

xfq: publishing FPWD usually means that the Working Group as a whole has agreed to work on the spec

xfq: the second phase, Candidate Recommendation (CR) is the testing phase of a W3C spec

xfq: this phase is about using tests and implementations to test whether the spec is implemented

xfq: the transition to the next stage is “Proposed Recommendation” (PR)

xfq: during this phase the W3C Members need to approve the transition to REC

xfq: Recommendation is the completed state

xfq: regarding the publication of working drafts, there are two points I would like to discuss with the group.

xfq: first, we can use echidna to publish specs

xfq: by "publish" I mean publishing to the W3C website

https://github.com/w3c/echidna

xfq: I recommend using echidna, because almost all groups are using it

xfq: it can greatly reduce the time required to prepare publishing the spec

xfq: second, we can use GitHub Actions to build/validate/publish the working drafts for every commit, it depends on whether we need it

WebPerfWG

WebDriver

WebAppSec

WebRTC

xfq: ^ FYI - some links to other groups' decision

xfq: can we publish with echidna? also can we use GitHub action to publish WDs?

Yongjing_Zhang: Will this change our editing process?

xfq: no

xfq: if we use echidna, we don't need to send an email to webreq@w3.org for publication

angel: I'd like to suggest we explore both option

AOB

<xiaoqian> Next meeting: 24 June, same time

[adjourned]

<martin> Thanks! Undertood, I used it locally before

<martin> I agree it's better using that tool

Summary of resolutions

  1. let's make it align with Web App Manifest, and close this issue
Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 136 (Thu May 27 13:50:24 2021 UTC).