Subject: [REMOTEUI] Widex charter proposal draft

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 15:58:09 +0300

Hi,

Please find below the charter proposal for the WiDeX WG.

Regards,
Vlad

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Description of Working Group

UI remoting is a technique whereby a user interface is rendered on other devices than those that run the application logic. 

A widget is an element of a user interface (UI) that displays information or provides a specific way for a user to interact with the operating system and application. Widgets may for instance include icons, pull-down menus, buttons, selection boxes, progress indicators, on-off checkmarks, scroll bars, windows, window edges (that let you resize the window), toggle buttons, forms, and many other devices for displaying information and for inviting, accepting, and responding to user actions.

Widget-level UI remoting provides a mechanism that enables a client device to process widget descriptions received from a server device, keeping the client UI synchronized with the application logic.

The WiDeX (Widget Description Exchange Service) WG will define a standard mechanism that can be used in an IP-based network for conveing initialization, update and eventing information about user visible objects, i.e. widgets.

The WG will strive to preserve an extensible architecture so that the work possibly be useful in the future with other types of descriptive user interfaces beyond those specifically considered by the group.

Specific topics that are NOT goals of this WG are:

	-	XML representation of user interface objects.
	-	Means to establish sessions and support for device coordination.

The WiDeX service definition will define:

	-	A mechanism for synchronizing distributed XML DOM objects by propagating DOM mutations/updates and DOM events.
	-	A set of parameters that need to be negotiated by a service discovery and session setup mechanism in order to start the UI remoting session.
	-	A framework that enables a widget-level UI remoting mechanism using distributed XML DOM synchronization and a service discovery and session setup mechanism as building blocks.

Deliverables:

	-	Requirements document.
	-	Document specifying the stateless protocol for synchronizing XML DOM objects.
	-	Document specifying the framework for widget-level UI remoting.

It is possible that work undertaken in other working groups and even other standards bodies (i.e. W3C) will be referenced by this working group. It is even possible that entire deliverables could be satisfied by the work of other working groups (i.e. discovery protocols). This working group will seek to maximize the use of existing specifications where applicable.

Goals and Milestones:

TBD.

Internet-Drafts:

LRDP: The Lightweight Remote Display Protocol, http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-stirbu-lrdp-00.txt

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From: "Eric Burger" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 16:44:56 -0400

Looks good.

The only comment I would offer is that while the first focus of the
protocol is for the support of updating DOM's that represent user
interfaces, such a protocol should be generally useful for updating
DOM's.

Said differently, the first three paragraphs, or about 60%, of the
proposed charter talk about user interface widgets (menus, drop boxes,
text, etc.).  However, the protocol has NOTHING to do with widgets.  To
my mind, the protocol is about partial synchronization of DOM's.  It
just happens that *your* application for such a synchronization is for
updating remote user interfaces.  *My* application may be for something
entirely different, like pushing state in CCXML.  The beauty of the DOM
is the protocol should not (can not?) care about what the semantics of
the DOM updates are.  If it does, we are doomed.  All we would be doing
is creating a fixed protocol to transfer a fixed semantic DOM.  That
isn't interesting and I would offer would be obsolete by the time we're
done.

I would honor the widget exchange use case by using it as an *example*
of what the protocol is going to be used for.  Since it is cool, one
might even keep the Widex name.  Moreover, the charter might say that
the work group will err on the side of supporting the user interface use
case for DOM synchronization.  However, unless I am mistaken, I do not
see any difference between a "DOM synchronization protocol" and a "User
Interface Widget DOM synchronization protocol."

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked]
[mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of
[email-masked]
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 8:58 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: [REMOTEUI] Widex charter proposal draft

Hi,

Regards,
Vlad

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------

UI remoting is a technique whereby a user interface is rendered on other
devices than those that run the application logic. 

A widget is an element of a user interface (UI) that displays
information or provides a specific way for a user to interact with the
operating system and application. Widgets may for instance include
icons, pull-down menus, buttons, selection boxes, progress indicators,
on-off checkmarks, scroll bars, windows, window edges (that let you
resize the window), toggle buttons, forms, and many other devices for
displaying information and for inviting, accepting, and responding to
user actions.

Widget-level UI remoting provides a mechanism that enables a client
device to process widget descriptions received from a server device,
keeping the client UI synchronized with the application logic.

The WiDeX (Widget Description Exchange Service) WG will define a
standard mechanism that can be used in an IP-based network for conveing
initialization, update and eventing information about user visible
objects, i.e. widgets.

The WG will strive to preserve an extensible architecture so that the
work possibly be useful in the future with other types of descriptive
user interfaces beyond those specifically considered by the group.

	-	XML representation of user interface objects.
	-	Means to establish sessions and support for device
coordination.

	-	A mechanism for synchronizing distributed XML DOM
objects by propagating DOM mutations/updates and DOM events.
	-	A set of parameters that need to be negotiated by a
service discovery and session setup mechanism in order to start the UI
remoting session.
	-	A framework that enables a widget-level UI remoting
mechanism using distributed XML DOM synchronization and a service
discovery and session setup mechanism as building blocks.

Deliverables:

	-	Requirements document.
	-	Document specifying the stateless protocol for
synchronizing XML DOM objects.
	-	Document specifying the framework for widget-level UI
remoting.

It is possible that work undertaken in other working groups and even
other standards bodies (i.e. W3C) will be referenced by this working
group. It is even possible that entire deliverables could be satisfied
by the work of other working groups (i.e. discovery protocols). This
working group will seek to maximize the use of existing specifications
where applicable.

Goals and Milestones:

TBD.

Internet-Drafts:

LRDP: The Lightweight Remote Display Protocol,
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-stirbu-lrdp-00.txt