Apps documentation status

This page aims to track all ongoing Open Web Apps documentation work; each section covers a different topic/task area. For more information about specific API documentation, you should cross reference this page with the API documentation status page.

Summary

Pages No tags Needs* tags Missing tags Editorial reviews Technical reviews Outdated pages Dev-doc-needed bugs Documentation requests
106 2 (2%) 8 (8%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 12 (12%) 80 (76%) 23 (22%) 2 (2%)

See also localization status of this section.

No tags

Found 2 pages. Learn more about how to tag pages.

Needs* tags

Found 8 pages. Learn more about how to deal with meta-tags.

Technical reviews

Found 12 pages. Learn more about how to do a technical review.

Outdated pages

Found 80 pages. These pages haven't been updated in over a year. Outdated pages can have problems with both content and format. Look at these pages and consider: Is this page talking about the Web of today? Does it look consistent with newer pages in this topic area? If not, make any needed changes.

Dev-doc-needed bugs

Found 23 bugs. Learn more about how to resolve a dev-doc-needed bug.

Bug Summary Release
820206 Validate "Webapps:*" message parameters in the parent process B2G C4 (2jan on)
824697 Installing a Hosted App that Preloads the Appcache, updating the appcache, manual syncing the app - no updates found B2G C4 (2jan on)
831246 Enforce the mime type check for webapp manifests same and cross origin, not just cross-origin ---
772358 Enumerate elevated privileges in manifest ---
790558 Add install/update API ---
768931 Each permission in the manifest should support a corresponding "intended usage" ---
1169344 Allow server apps to restrict access to their IAC ports mozilla42
1173666 Expose the URL of the page that calls mozApps.connect to the app exposing the port mozilla42
1137498 Prevent updates changing short_name mozilla39
1000305 Implement new API function for fetching app icons mozilla38
982874 Import / export API for apps mozilla36
965970 Add support to compile asm.js code at install/update time mozilla31
757226 Implement mozApps app.replaceReceipt() mozilla29
849335 Make the FMRadio API privileged mozilla22
821288 Strange behavior when installing multiple hosted apps from the same origin mozilla21
826555 Ensure that updates can't rename an app mozilla21
806624 (dev mode only) Support using hosted apps with certified permissions mozilla19
779982 Change behaviour of getSelf and add amInstalled function mozilla18
786710 The launch_path of a manifest allows for absolute URLs to launch an app at - this should not be allowed mozilla18
789527 Change the way we install packaged apps mozilla18
790870 Implement install/update API during installation of hosted apps mozilla18
781379 getNotInstalled should be under mgmt and return apps from all origins mozilla17
772363 Implement installation API for packaged apps mozilla16

Browse as bug list.

Documentation requests

Found 2 bugs. Documentation request bugs can contain various kinds work related to MDN pages. Read through the bug and ask questions in the bug if in doubt.

Bug Summary
1225601 DOMApplication/DOMApplicationsRegistry should document download-related properties and methods - Web APIs | MDN
1370837 Link is broken , not linking to proper pages

Browse as bug list.

Localizations

Please help us to localize this documentation into different languages. Read more about how to translate.

Language Pages Translated Translations up to date
af 105 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
bn-BD 105 12 (11%) 2 (16%)
de 105 14 (13%) 5 (35%)
es 105 18 (17%) 4 (22%)
fa 105 5 (4%) 0 (0%)
fr 105 48 (45%) 25 (52%)
it 105 9 (8%) 0 (0%)
ja 105 48 (45%) 11 (22%)
ko 105 7 (6%) 1 (14%)
pl 105 2 (1%) 1 (50%)
pt-BR 105 18 (17%) 5 (27%)
pt-PT 105 6 (5%) 0 (0%)
ro 105 2 (1%) 0 (0%)
ru 105 11 (10%) 4 (36%)
zh-CN 105 13 (12%) 4 (30%)
zh-TW 105 14 (13%) 2 (14%)

Content outline

  • Green: complete
  • Yellow: in progress
  • Red: not started
  • Number of stars against article name indicates priority: *** is high, ** is medium, * is low

Build overview

The landing page provides a list of links and description to each section consisting the AppCenter/Build.

App layout

This section is not in the menu: consider to add it or link it by the Build overview

Articles in the app layout section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
**Using the full screen            
*Dealing with portait and landscape-speific layouts            
*Serving a separate view for specific devices            

Installable apps for Firefox OS

Articles in the Installable apps section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
**Creating an application update system There is already some minimal info at updating apps, but this could easily be improved upon. Julien Wajsberg has written a nice little template that allows you to do this, and has agreed to write some notes and a finished demo for us to publish on the subject. His early work on this is at self-updating-packaged-app Install API, done    

Basic data flow

The landing page is ok, but a bit sparse, and would need better examples and recommendations.

Articles in the Basic data flow section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
HTTP basics Karl Dubost wrote some really good HTTP articles for dev.opera.com. Perhaps we could erpublish those?  

 

      
Ajax basics (architecture, technique)            
Data storage systems and Ajax            
Handling offline Ajax and timeouts            
Handling data within the browser Notes: persistant or temporary; technique with cookies vs. storage vs. IndexedDB vs. data attributes). For offline stuff, defer to the Offline section          
Advanced Ajax topics, such as UI interaction and perceived performance            
Links to other useful demos and resources            

Gather and modify data

Chris and Franciov took care of the landing page.

Articles in the Gather and modify data section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
Reading and writing files on your device Reference documentation is okay  

FileHandle API, currently in draft

Device Storage API, done

 ,    
Plotting yourself on the map

Franciov has written the Plotting yourself on the map article+demo.

Geo

Chris has written a simple geolocation demo.

 Geolocation API, done (see Using geolocation)    
Keep it level: responding to device orientation changes Franciov has written the Keep it level: responding to device orientation changes article+demo. Rolling ball Detecting device orientation, done    
Updating phone contacts from the web Franciov has written the Updating phone contacts from the web article+demo, to be kept up-to-date with the latest W3C specifications as soon as they are stable/implemented.

Geo

baron0 (IRC) might be working on a demo

 Contacts API, completed, to be kept up-to-date with the latest W3C specification and bugzilla bugs    
Retrieving Battery status information Franciov has written the Retrieving Battery status information article+demo, to be kept up-to-date with the latest W3C specifications as soon as they are stable/implemented.

Low Energy Messenger

Chris has written a simple Firefox OS app that shows battery level and charged status in two different ways.

 Battery Status API, completed, to be kept up-to-date with the latest W3C specification and bugzilla bugs  

bug 1050749
bug 1050752bug 1050749
Optimizing for high and low network speeds Franciov has written the Optimizing for high and low network speeds article+demo, to be kept up-to-date with the latest W3C specifications as soon as they are stable/implemented. Net Pics Network Information API, done, to be kept up-to-date with the latest W3C specification.    
Near, or far? responding to proximity Franciov has written the Near or far? Responding to proximity article+demo.

Low Energy Messenger

 Proximity API, done    
Responding to light conditions Franciov has written the Responding to light conditions article+demo, to be kept up-to-date with the latest W3C specifications as soon as they are stable/implemented. Xmas Tales Using Ambient Light Events, completed, to be kept up-to-date with the latest W3C specifications, mailing-list discussion, and bugzilla bug    
Web activities can probably fit in here as well.            

User notifications

Chris and Franciov took care of the landing page.

Articles in the Control the display section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
***Notifying users, via system notifications and alarms Three articles written by Chris, covering the general area of detecting when to notify users, how to detect when a deadline is up, and using the notification and vibration apis. We still to write an article about the Alarm API.  

Time/Clock API (Time and Clock), done

Notification API (Using Web Notifications), needs update, see bug

Alarm API (Alarm), done

 , ,   bug 899574
**Wake me up! starting apps in response to events     Simple Push API (Simple Push API), draft    
**Providing user feedback via vibrations     Vibration API, done    

User input and controls

Chris and Franciov took care of the landing page.

Articles in the Control the display section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
***Fullscreen applications     Fullscreen API, draft    
**Locking the screen orientation     Screen orientation API (see Managing screen orientation)    
*Locking the pointer to simulate 3D or locational movement

Franciov: the API docs provides a simple pointer lock demo to show you how to use it to set up a simple control system. The demo uses JavaScript to draw a ball inside a element. When you click the canvas, pointer lock is then used to remove the mouse pointer and allow you to move the ball directly using the mouse.

Simple pointer lock demo

 Pointer Lock API (was Mouse Lock API), draft    
***Drag and drop: a game or a survey implementing drag&drop would be cool to show     Drag Operations, updated in Q3 2014      
***Touch events: a photogallery or a game based on touch events would be cool to show Franciov/Niklas/Andrzej are working on it at the HackOnMDN Berlin   Touch Events, article in need of technical review      
*contentEditable Franciov added a link to a html5demos.com example showing how contenteditable can be used to create an editable document section, the state of which is then saved using LocalStorage. contentEditable demo contentEditable      

Offline apps

Chris took care of the landing page.

Note: check the offline app strategies on Mozilla's Google Drive account.

Articles in the Working offline section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
***Detecting whether your device is offline     XHR, online and offline events, done    
***Offline resources: AppCache versus installable apps. Detecting which one you need    

AppCache, done

Installable apps, done

 ,    
**Storing simple data with localstorage     basic DOM storage written — a number of options to explore here.  
**Stored complex structured data with IndexedDB  

eLibri: A powerful library and eBook reader application, written by Marco Castelluccio, winner of the IndexedDB Mozilla DevDerby.

Chris has written a simple to do list app that stores data using IndexedDB (hasn't everyone?)

Shuhao Wu is also writing an account of Offline SUMO for MDN

 basic /IndexedDB done, will need an update once the  WebIDL switch has occurred Shuhao started writing on about September 10th, check in with him soon.  
*Persisting data from on-device storage to a server-side database   Not sure how possible this is, but it sounds like a great idea to work it out.

 

 

      
***Offline reference app: It would be great to explore Offline best-practices and provide a decent reference app.            

Audio and video delivery

Articles in this section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
***Taking pictures with your webcam   Chris has mostly written a gUM demo. Needs picture storage built into it. Also would be nice to release it after FxOS starts to support gUM!

Camera API (see navigator.mozCameras), done, certified only

gUM, done, currently doesn't work in FxOS

Web Activities, done

 , ,    
**More audio stuff, including Web Audio API. A simple radio, dictaphone, and child's robot voice changer type app all sound like good ideas    

Web Audio API, done, cross browser code available.

Some <audio> material available, but could be better

 ,    
**More video stuff. A custom video player would be good, as well as strategies for serving video to low powered devices    

Some <video> material available, but could be better

    

Audio and video manipulation

Articles in this section

Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
**Canvas/WebGL stuff. An instagram API using canvas would be cool to show.    

Canvas material

WebGL material

 ,    
*Let's talk! Creating real time phone and video conferences     Beginner's material added, reference not done.    

Advanced network communications

The landing page is TBD: consider integrating this section into "Basic data flow", to be renamed as "Data Flow and Network Communication".

Articles in the Advanced network communications section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
*Running tasks in the background with web workers, etc - hard on mobile, battery eating            
**Web sockets / TCP sockets: showing how to use sockets for "Internet of Things" applications would be cool            
CORS            
System Ajax            
Web RTC: showing how to implement a peer-to-peer communication in a real-world example app would be interesting            

Develop games

See https://wiki.mozilla.org/MDN/Development/Game_dev_zone for a wider discussion around games dev docs.

Localization

Articles in this section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
TBD etc.  

 

      

Porting

Articles in this section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
Porting Chrome apps to open web apps Chris has written the starter article, with input from David Clarke. Mark Giffin also interested. David has written a hello world port of the Chrome hello world, but we need more.        

App performance

Articles in this section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
TBD etc.  

 

      

App development FAQ

This section contains a large set of FAQs.

App payments

Articles in the app payments section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
TBD etc.  

 

      

Firefox Marketplace

Articles in the marketplace section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
TBD etc.  

 

      

Firefox OS partners

Articles in the partners section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
TBD etc.  

 

      

User services

Articles in the User services section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
Logging users in with Persona    

There is some Persona information on MDN already (see Identity integration).

    

UP/Cloud apps/personalisation

Mark Mayo did an interesting talk at the Toronto Mozilla summit about the Mozilla cloud technologies — Sync, Persona, push messages, etc.

Note: these articles probably need arranging in a different way, as they could potentially apply to any kind of app, and aren't really a category in their own right. The Mozilla cloud stuff could possibly have its own landing page eventually, although bear in mind that persona already has it's own landing page.

Articles in the cloud apps section
Article Content status Demo/code status Relevant API doc status Tag Schedule Relevant bugs
Using/Updating sync    

 

      
Getting updates (Simple Push, push server, etc.) Push API messages don't contain data, they just tell the process to wake up            
Using Persona in an app            
User personalization (UP)            
geolocation/stumbling/war driving - crowd sourced geodata.            

Topics for coverage in near future

Weekly Apps docs meetings

Please note: This meeting is no longer happening on a regular basis, as the need just wasn't really there for it. A meeting will be annouced and run at any time a need is seen for one.

We have a recurring weekly meeting to discuss apps documentation, and everyone is welcome to join:

Most Thursdays at 9am West Coast US / Midday East Coast US / 5pm UK / 6pm Europe

  • Location: Chris Mills' Vidyo room. Ping chrismills about it in the #devmo IRC channcel
  • For external meeting access: click on the link below to attend: https://v.mozilla.com/flex.html?roomdirect.html&key=jk4t3cgzH5P3. If you do not have a user account, please enter your name in the "Guest Name" field and then click "Join".
  • To join from a telephone, dial the following number: +1 650 903 0800, x92 99905 or +1 800 707 2533, pin 369 - conf 99905

Agendas/notes:

Document Tags and Contributors

Tags: 
 Contributors to this page: jswisher, franciov, chrisdavidmills, fscholz, Jeremie, markg
 Last updated by: jswisher,