WebAPI

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The Mozilla WebAPI team is pushing the envelope of the web to include --- and in places exceed --- the capabilities of competing stacks.

Contributing

WebAPI work is being tracked by Mozilla bug 673923. Find an dependent bug that interests you (and is unassigned), and assign it to yourself.

APIs

Here's a list of the APIs that we're working on. Some of them are done, and some of them we haven't gotten further than acknowledge that we probably need them.

Planned for initial release of B2G (aka Basecamp)

API Bugs Description Progress Availability
WebTelephony bug 674726 Allow placing and answering phone calls as well as build in-call UI. Security Design Complete D A B
Vibration API (W3C) bug 679966 Control device vibration for things like haptic feedback in games. Not intended to solve things like vibration for notification. Done on B2G and Android. Standard in progress.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
WebSMS bug 674725 Send/receive SMS messages as well as manage messages stored on device. Done on Android though might not ship there for security reasons. Done for B2G.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Idle API bug 715041 Get notifications when user is idle. Implemented.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Screen Orientation bug 720794 bug 740188 bug 673922 Get notification when screen orientation changes as well as control which screen orientation a page/app wants. Implemented!
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Settings API bug 678695 Set system-wide configurations that are saved permanently on the device. Implementation done for content, chrome in progress.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Power Management API bug 708964 Turn on/off screen, cpu, device power, etc. Listen and inspect resource lock events. API design and implementation in progress. Security Design Complete D A B
Mobile Connection API bug 729173 Expose signal strength, operator, etc for GSM and other mobile connections. This does not cover WiFi. Complete.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
TCP Socket API bug 733573 Low-level TCP socket API. Will also include SSL support. Implemented, e10s in progress.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Geolocation API Same API since Firefox 3.5 Security Design Complete D A B
WiFi Information API Privileged API to get a list of available WiFi networks. Also get signal strength and name of currently connected network, etc. API drafted, implementation mostly complete.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Device Storage API bug 717103 Add/Read/Modify files stored on a central location on the device. For example the "pictures" folder on modern desktop platforms or the photo storage in mobile devices. Complete
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Contacts API bug 674720 Add/Read/Modify the device contacts address book. v1 Complete, v2 implementation in progress.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Mouse Lock API (W3C) bug 633602 Lock access to mouse and get access to movement deltas rather than coordinates. API being standardized in W3C. Implementation complete. D A B
Open WebApps bug 697006 Install web apps and manage installed webapps. Also allows an installed webapp to get payment information. Everything needed to build a Opeb WebApps app store. Complete
Security Design Complete 		D A B
WebBluetooth bug 674737 Low level access to Bluetooth hardware. API drafted, implementation underway for B2G headset only, must be complete by June/July.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Network Information API (W3C) bug 677166 bug 713199 Get basic information about current network connectivity. Example: "How fast of a connection do I have?". API in W3C. Implemented on Android, not yet started on B2G.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Battery Status API (W3C) bug 678694 Information about battery charge level and if device is plugged in. API in W3C. Implemented!
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Alarm API bug 749551 Schedule a notification, or for an application to be started, at a specific time. Implementation in progress.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Browser API bug 693515 Enables implementing a browser completely in web technologies. Implementation in progress.
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Time/Clock API bug 714357, bug 714358 (notification upon time change) Set current time. Timezone will go in the Settings API. API proposed D2 A2 B
Web Activities bug 715814 Delegate an activity to another application. API finalized, implementation beginning. D A B
Push Notifications API bug 747907 Allow the platform to send notification messages to specific applications. API drafted
Security Discussion Active 		D A B
Permissions API bug 707625 Allow Settings app to manage all app permissions in a centralized location None
Security Design Complete 		D A B
WebFM API bug 749053 For FM radio feature. Security Design Complete D A B
FileHandle API bug 726593 Writable files with locking. Implemented!
No separate security review required. 		D A B
Network Stats API bug 746069 Monitor data usage and expose data to privileged apps Under review. D A B
WebPayment bug 767818 Allow Open Web Apps to initiative payments and refunds for virtual goods. For the server implementation, see WebPaymentProvider. API design and implementation in progress. D A B
IndexedDB (W3C) bug 553412 Client-side storage of structured data and high performance searches on this data Complete
Security Design Complete 		D A B
Archive API bug 772434 Blob support for Zip file contents API drafted, implementation complete. D A B
Ambient light sensor (W3C) bug 738465 Device light sensor support API drafted, implementation complete. D A B
Proximity sensor (W3C) bug 738131 Device proximity sensor support API drafted, implementation complete. D A B
  1. Time change notifications are planned on all plaforms but setting the time will only be on B2G.

Planned for the future

API Bugs Description Progress Availability
Resource lock API bug 697132 Prevent resources from being turned off, for example screen dimming, WiFi turning off, CPU going into sleep mode etc. Complete.
Security Design Complete
UDP Datagram Socket API bug 745283 Low-level UDP API. Planning. (Not P1 for basecamp)
USB file-reading API bug 748350 bug 737153 When enabled, allows mounting of device storage as a USB filesystem on the tethered computer. Must be complete by June/July.
Not really a webAPI, no security design.
Camera API This is part of the larger WebRTC effort. This is a big piece of work so see the link. API and implementation underway.
Security Design Complete
Peer to Peer API This is part of the larger WebRTC effort. This is a big piece of work so see the link. API and implementation underway.
WebNFC bug 674741 Low level access to NFC hardware. So far focusing on NDEF support. API drafted, implementation underway for B2G (not Andorid/Desktop), must be complete by June/July.
Security Design Complete
WebUSB bug 674718 Low level access to USB hardware. Security Design Complete
HTTP-cache API Query what's stored in the browsers http-cache. Add/remove entries. Update expiration time. Get data directly from cache. None
Calendar API Add/Read/Modify to the device calendar. Implementation not planned ATM. If/when implemented, it should mimic WebAPI/ContactsAPI.
Spellcheck API Enable webpages to check if a piece of text is correctly spelled as well as get suggestions for corrections. None
Background services Enable a web application to run in the background and perform tasks like syncing or respond to incoming messages. Initial proposal of API.
Security Design Active
LogAPI Allows to register the user activity on the phone. API proposal exists. Not planned for 1.0.
Keyboard/IME API bug 737110 (WebAPI mailing list post) Enables implementing virtual keyboards. Only exposed to certified apps for V1. Controlled via a setting instead.] D A B

Legend

D = Desktop, A = Android, B = B2G
only available to certified apps on this platform
implemented and preference enabled by default on on this platform
implemented but requires explicitly turning on the preference on this platform
not implemented for this platform
not currently planned for this platform

Process

A draft specification and prototype implementation of new Web APIs will be discussed publicly on our mailing list and at our public meetings (see below). Once we have an API that we feel that we are satisfied with, we will submit the new API for standardization to the W3C.

The goal is to standardize all APIs.

Design Principles

Security

Security will be a central aspect of all the APIs that we design. We wouldn't want any random webpage to be able to read the user's contact list, or able to issue arbitrary commands to any USB device which is hooked up to the user's computer.

In some cases the solution will be to simply ask the user, like we do today for Geolocation for example. In other cases, where security implications are scarier or where describing the risk to the user is harder, we'll have to come up with better solutions.

This is an area where we're still doing a lot of research. I really want to emphasize that we don't have all the answers yet, but that we plan on having them before we roll out these APIs to millions of users.

Low Level vs. High Level

One question that often comes up, is should we do low level APIs, like USB access, or high level APIs, like camera access?

In many cases we are going to want to do both high level and low level APIs, with an initial priority on low level. High level APIs will let us create more friendly APIs, which are both easier to use for developers, and better for users since we can provide better security guarantees. However low level APIs will provide support for a wider range of hardware and use cases and will get the browser out of the critical path for innovation.

Meetings

Meeting Details:

  • Dial-in: Audio-only conference# 98413
    • People with Mozilla phones or softphones please dial x4000 Conf# 98413
    • US/Toll-free: +1 800 707 2533, (pin 4000) Conf# 98413
    • US/California/Mountain View: +1 650 903 0800, x4000 Conf# 98413
    • US/California/San Francisco: +1 415 762 5700, x4000 Conf# 98413
    • US/Oregon/Portland: +1 971 544 8000, x4000 Conf# 98413
    • CA/British Columbia/Vancouver: +1 778 785 1540, x4000 Conf# 98413
    • CA/Ontario/Toronto: +1 416 848 3114, x4000 Conf# 98413
    • UK/London: +44 (0)207 855 3000, x4000 Conf# 98413
    • FR/Paris: +33 1 84 88 37 37, x4000 Conf# 98413
    • Gmail Chat (requires Flash and the Google Talk plugin): paste +1 650 903 0800 into the Gmail Chat box that doesn't look like it accepts phone numbers
    • SkypeOut is free if you use the 800 number
  • San Francisco: Golden Gate Bridge conference room (3rd floor)
  • Toronto: Spadina conference room
  • Join irc.mozilla.org #webapi for back channel

Notes will be taken on etherpad: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/webapi-meetingnotes

Meeting Notes

Create a new weekly agenda from the template: <createbox> align=left type=create preload=WebAPI/0-0-0 default=2025-06-24 prefix=WebAPI/ </createbox>

Remember: You'll still need to link it below!

Communication

Mailing-list / Newsgroup

You can subscribe to the mailing list here: https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-webapi

And the web based API is here: http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.webapi/topics

The newsgroup lives on the news.mozilla.org server and has the name mozilla.dev.webapi

IRC

Find us on irc.mozilla.org in #webapi. Need help to use Mozilla IRC servers?

See also

Demos

Other efforts

Subpages of WebAPI

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