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Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

andregarzia.com

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Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#11

Post by diggan »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #3

As the article explains, Offline Web App is being used to mean Progressive Web Application (the standard terminology). ( edit Turns out that's not quite right, see diggan's reply.) From the article: > You’d almost think they had an App Store to promote or something. There's certainly a tension here. I'm still not sure why more vendors don't make iOS PWAs to get around the App Store payment rules. Perhaps related: Ver…

offline web apps are different than PWA. A PWA doesn't necessarily work offline, but more is independent from the connection / loading of it. I do think most PWAs do work offline, but doesn't mean it's a requirement to call it a PWA.

Similarly, an offline capable web app is not necessarily a PWA, as PWA carries a lot of features to it besides being offline capable.

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#12

Post by fierarul »

arghwhat wrote: post #4

Better title: Apple restricts tracking by limiting browser storage, which hurts my particular app. Browsers need to be severely limited due to them running arbitrary code from the web. Doesn't matter if it's an offline web app. If you want more access, make a native app (with or without web technologies).

But browsers are severely sandboxed already. What the article is talking about is:

> deleting all local storage (including Indexed DB, etc.) after 7 days

which I can see how it might help privacy (since you could be tracked via local storage too) but also how it might break any potential web app that might need data to last more than 7 days.

> If you want more access, make a native app

But then, everybody will complain about yet another Electron app, right? Not to mention that you have to fork over $99 and go through the signing / notarization hoops that change from one week to the other.

I think in the name of privacy and security only Apple and some select few corporations will be allowed to make software in the future. macOS / iOS and Windows 10 are evolutionary dead ends in many ways.

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#13

Post by m-p-3 »

vanderZwan wrote: post #6

I would be OK with 7 days being the default with a permission model where I can grant a website longer storage time. Actually, I'd be even happier if any form of offline storage required explicit user permission anyway.

There's certainly a balance to achieve there. Too few permissions prompt and you lose control, and too many and you get desensitized or even worse annoyed at them.

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#14

Post by yohannparis »

bg0 wrote: post #5

I really appreciate this link. I would have never seen this otherwise. It's kind of a disappointment for us on the enterprise side. Our main offering is an offline app where people are disconnected from the internet for weeks and we use localStorage to validate who they are. It's a bit vague about how this affects apps that don't use safari. Nevertheless, we might have to start to really think about the user experien…

Webkit's website says: "[..] deleting all of a website’s script-writable storage after seven days of Safari use without user interaction on the site."

It is not clear that a user coming to your website before the 7 days, even offline, is exempt of it.

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#15

Post by alexcroox »

Are we absolutely sure they don't just mean the localstorage containers that aren't part of the current domain? In the same way they are clearing cookies from a different domain, and not the ones that belong to the current domain.

EDIT: Clarification from a Webkit dev https://twitter.com/alexcroox/status/1242559843354972161

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#16

Post by akmarinov »

m-p-3 wrote: post #10
arghwhat wrote: post #4

Better title: Apple restricts tracking by limiting browser storage, which hurts my particular app. Browsers need to be severely limited due to them running arbitrary code from the web. Doesn't matter if it's an offline web app. If you want more access, make a native app (with or without web technologies).

> If you want more access which is somewhat ironic, because the goal of a web app is to break free of the walled garden and become OS-independant.

No way that's happening on iOS as long as Apple takes 30% off the top

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#17

Post by bg0 »

yohannparis wrote: post #14
bg0 wrote: post #5

I really appreciate this link. I would have never seen this otherwise. It's kind of a disappointment for us on the enterprise side. Our main offering is an offline app where people are disconnected from the internet for weeks and we use localStorage to validate who they are. It's a bit vague about how this affects apps that don't use safari. Nevertheless, we might have to start to really think about the user experien…

Webkit's website says: "[..] deleting all of a website’s script-writable storage after seven days of Safari use without user interaction on the site." It is not clear that a user coming to your website before the 7 days, even offline, is exempt of it.

Yea, we actually don't use safari at all in our app. So this might not have an effect but it's pretty vague.

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#18

Post by marcosdumay »

m-p-3 wrote: post #13
vanderZwan wrote: post #6

I would be OK with 7 days being the default with a permission model where I can grant a website longer storage time. Actually, I'd be even happier if any form of offline storage required explicit user permission anyway.

There's certainly a balance to achieve there. Too few permissions prompt and you lose control, and too many and you get desensitized or even worse annoyed at them.

There's no balance. You just let the user set any permission and make the prompts unobtrusive.

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#19

Post by oefrha »

The argument would be stronger if the post got into what privacy protection in Safari isn’t available in the Apple News app. Instead there’s a seemingly random plug for a content blocker app I’ve never heard about, which upon further inspection happens to be sold by the author.
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