Chromium Blog
News and developments from the open source browser project
Connecting Web Apps with Web Intents
giovedì 4 agosto 2011
In today’s browser ecosystem, web apps are completely disconnected or require the use of complicated APIs in order to make use of a third-party service, e.g., posting a comment to Twitter from your custom publishing domain. What if we could give sites the ability to leverage these services without any knowledge of the chosen service, except that it provides some set of predefined functionality?
Android OS addresses this problem with Intents, a facility for late run-time binding between components in the same or different applications. In the Intents system, the client application requests a generic action, e.g. share, and specifies the data to pass to the selected service application. The user is given a list of applications which have registered that they can handle the requested intent. The user-selected application is created in a new context and passed the data sent from the client, the format of which is predefined for each specific intent type.
We are hard at work designing an analogous system for the web: Web Intents. This web platform API will provide the same benefits of Android Intents, but better suited for web applications. When designing the system, we have first and foremost been interested in creating a simple, easy-to-use API. With Web Intents, you will be able to connect your web app to a service with as little as two lines of code! Chrome will perform the heavy lifting for you. As with Android, Web Intents documents an initial set of intent actions (edit, view, share, etc.) that likely cover the majority of use cases on the web today; however, as the web grows and sites provide more functionality, new intent actions will be added by services that document these intents, some more popular than others. To foster development and use of intents, we plan to create a site to browse existing intents and add new intents.
Consider an online photo storage site run by a cash-strapped startup: the developers don’t have the resources to add image editing abilities to their app, but they feel the site won’t be a hit without it. The Web Intent system will make it easy for them to offer this with little effort.
var intent = new Intent(Intent.EDIT, ‘image/png’, getImageDataURI());
window.navigator.startActivity(intent, loadEditedImage);
// This callback will be called when the service replies with the edited
// image data.
function loadEditedImage(data) {
var image = document.getElementById(‘image’);
setImageData(image, data);
}
When the user visits her favorite memegen service, the site will request registration to handle the EDIT intent for files of type ‘image/*’ using the following declaration:
<intent
action=”http://webintents.org/edit”
type=”image/*”
/>
When the user initiates the EDIT action, this service is presented to the user, along with other registered image editors. Once the user selects Meme Generator, the referenced site is opened in a new context and is able to load the image data from the intent payload:
var intent = window.intent;
memeImg.src = intent.data;
memegenForm.onsubmit = function() {
// Transform the image - meme it.
addMemeTaglines(memeImg, memeTopText, memeBottomText);
// Send the generated meme back to the client.
intent.postResult(getImageData(memeImg));
};
Once
postResult()
is called, the Meme Generator context is closed and the output data is sent back to the client via the callback passed to
startActivity()
.
Mozilla is also actively
exploring
this problem space. In fact we’re working closely with Mozilla engineers to unify our two proposals into one simple, useful API. Visit the
examples
page to try out the feature in any current browser. To explore using the API in your site, check out out the
JavaScript shim
, which provides an implementation of the API for browsers that have not implemented this feature. We are rapidly prototyping this feature, so check back soon for an announcement when Web Intents is available behind a flag in Chrome.
Posted by James Hawkins, Software Engineer
Etichette
$200K
1
10th birthday
4
abusive ads
1
abusive notifications
2
accessibility
3
ad blockers
1
ad blocking
2
advanced capabilities
1
android
2
anti abuse
1
anti-deception
1
background periodic sync
1
badging
1
benchmarks
1
beta
83
better ads standards
1
billing
1
birthday
4
blink
2
browser
2
browser interoperability
1
bundles
1
capabilities
6
capable web
1
cds
1
cds18
2
cds2018
1
chrome
35
chrome 81
1
chrome 83
2
chrome 84
2
chrome ads
1
chrome apps
5
Chrome dev
1
chrome dev summit
1
chrome dev summit 2018
1
chrome dev summit 2019
1
chrome developer
1
Chrome Developer Center
1
chrome developer summit
1
chrome devtools
1
Chrome extension
1
chrome extensions
3
Chrome Frame
1
Chrome lite
1
Chrome on Android
2
chrome on ios
1
Chrome on Mac
1
Chrome OS
1
chrome privacy
4
chrome releases
1
chrome security
10
chrome web store
32
chromedevtools
1
chromeframe
3
chromeos
4
chromeos.dev
1
chromium
9
cloud print
1
coalition
1
coalition for better ads
1
contact picker
1
content indexing
1
cookies
1
core web vitals
2
csrf
1
css
1
cumulative layout shift
1
custom tabs
1
dart
8
dashboard
1
Data Saver
3
Data saver desktop extension
1
day 2
1
deceptive installation
1
declarative net request api
1
design
2
developer dashboard
1
Developer Program Policy
2
developer website
1
devtools
13
digital event
1
discoverability
1
DNS-over-HTTPS
4
DoH
4
emoji
1
emscriptem
1
enterprise
1
extensions
27
Fast badging
1
faster web
1
features
1
feedback
2
field data
1
first input delay
1
Follow
1
fonts
1
form controls
1
frameworks
1
fugu
2
fund
1
funding
1
gdd
1
google earth
1
google event
1
google io 2019
1
google web developer
1
googlechrome
12
harmful ads
1
html5
11
HTTP/3
1
HTTPS
4
iframes
1
images
1
incognito
1
insecure forms
1
intent to explain
1
ios
1
ios Chrome
1
issue tracker
3
jank
1
javascript
5
lab data
1
labelling
1
largest contentful paint
1
launch
1
lazy-loading
1
lighthouse
2
linux
2
Lite Mode
2
Lite pages
1
loading interventions
1
loading optimizations
1
lock icon
1
long-tail
1
mac
1
manifest v3
2
metrics
2
microsoft edge
1
mixed forms
1
mobile
2
na
1
native client
8
native file system
1
New Features
5
notifications
1
octane
1
open web
4
origin trials
2
pagespeed insights
1
pagespeedinsights
1
passwords
1
payment handler
1
payment request
1
payments
2
performance
20
performance tools
1
permission UI
1
permissions
1
play store
1
portals
3
prefetching
1
privacy
2
privacy sandbox
4
private prefetch proxy
1
profile guided optimization
1
progressive web apps
2
Project Strobe
1
protection
1
pwa
1
QUIC
1
quieter permissions
1
releases
3
removals
1
rlz
1
root program
1
safe browsing
2
Secure DNS
2
security
36
site isolation
1
slow loading
1
sms receiver
1
spam policy
1
spdy
2
spectre
1
speed
4
ssl
2
store listing
1
strobe
2
subscription pages
1
suspicious site reporter extension
1
TCP
1
the fast and the curious
23
TLS
1
tools
1
tracing
1
transparency
1
trusted web activities
1
twa
2
user agent string
1
user data policy
1
v8
6
video
2
wasm
1
web
1
web apps
1
web assembly
2
web developers
1
web intents
1
web packaging
1
web payments
1
web platform
1
web request api
1
web vitals
1
web.dev
1
web.dev live
1
webapi
1
webassembly
1
webaudio
3
webgl
7
webkit
5
WebM
1
webmaster
1
webp
5
webrtc
6
websockets
5
webtiming
1
writable-files
1
yerba beuna center for the arts
1
Archive
2024
ago
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
2023
nov
ott
set
ago
giu
mag
apr
feb
2022
dic
set
ago
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2021
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2020
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2019
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2018
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2017
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2016
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2015
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2014
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2013
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2012
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2011
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2010
dic
nov
ott
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2009
dic
nov
set
ago
lug
giu
mag
apr
mar
feb
gen
2008
dic
nov
ott
set
Feed
Follow @ChromiumDev
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
