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

andregarzia.com

441–450 of 927 posts

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

#441
post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically it's disallowing third-party JITs / executable data. Which is a good thing all-in-all.

Actually the guidelines specifically ban non-webkit rendering engines. > 2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript.

At a minimum we can be thankful that Apple's rules force web developers to care about one additional browser.

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

#442

I don't understand what the problem is. I can easily go to the settings area and delete my entire browser cache (Remove All Website Data), in fact if you are running low of space it even tells you to do it. Why are people assuming things stored on a browser are a good place to store things. Nothing stored on a browser should be assumed to be forever.

If you read the article, that's the issue the author was talking about: it's basically impossible to make an app that can store its data locally, instead of on some web server.

All apps that you download from App Store can live offline, where they're usable without Internet or trusting some faraway web server.

You can't make a web app that can do that, and to some people it smells like Apple trying to force developers to release through App Store.

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

#443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With all due respect, this comes off as apologizing for Apple's disagreeable design choice. If anything, it should be on Apple and the browser vendors to make local storage more useful by default, not less useful. Your suggestions might as well be aimed at browser vendors, who could conceivably offer user friendly controls for local storage (e.g. import/export without the dev panel). But as is usually the case each o…

I strongly oppose Apple's anti-consumer practices in their App Store policy, PWA policy (non-existent) and similar places. I just believe this (localStorage policy) is not one of those cases. Agreeing with Apple's disagreeable design choices isn't an apology, it's an honest opinion. If these choices are disagreeable, which I believe they are, they must be also agreeable by definition.

There's one simple thing that Apple could do. Do not delete local data if user bookmarked page from that website (or pinned it to home screen for mobile devices). Now bookmarked website treated like an "app" with slightly less restrictions and some random website data will be eventually purged (although I believe that 7 days should be extended to few months).

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

#445

That is terrible if you are working on a pwa game to cache assets offline. There should be some opt-in approach similar to location tracking in the background like some apps do. That seems way worse than simply having local data be relied upon. Not cool.

What's the problem with the client having to re-download those assets if they don't play for a week? Seems long enough that I'd expect a patch download on a typical gaming platform, for example.

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

#446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Web applications added to the home screen are not part of Safari and thus have their own counter of days of use."[1] From WebKit: [1] https://webkit.org/blog/10218/full-third-party-cookie-blocki... A Note On Web Applications Added to the Home Screen As mentioned, the seven-day cap on script-writable storage is gated on after seven days of Safari use without user interaction on the site.” That is the case in Safari.…

> Web applications added to the home screen are not part of Safari and thus have their own counter of days of use. Their days of use will match actual use of the web application which resets the timer. Can anyone explain this with an example? So web apps added to the home screen will have their storage wiped under some scenarios? If not, what does "have their own counter" mean? How are web applications added to the h…

> Can anyone explain this with an example?

Note this is totally based on my reading of the GP:

>> As mentioned, the seven-day cap on script-writable storage is gated on after seven days of Safari use without user interaction on the site.”

I'm understanding this to mean: you access Site A and it stores data to your local storage on day 0. Then you use Safari for Sites B, C, and D, but not A for the next 7 days. Since Safari has been used for 7 days without using Site A, Site A's data is cleared.

>> Web applications added to the home screen are not part of Safari and thus have their own counter of days of use. Their days of use will match actual use of the web application which resets the timer.

I'm understanding this to mean there's no distinction between Safari and Site A anymore. Since you can't use Site A for 7 days without using Site A, Site A's data is never cleared.

It would make much more sense for them to just disable the counter in this case, or at least just explain it that way. It would be less confusing.

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

#447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With all due respect, this comes off as apologizing for Apple's disagreeable design choice. If anything, it should be on Apple and the browser vendors to make local storage more useful by default, not less useful. Your suggestions might as well be aimed at browser vendors, who could conceivably offer user friendly controls for local storage (e.g. import/export without the dev panel). But as is usually the case each o…

> If anything, it should be on Apple and the browser vendors to make local storage more useful by default, not less useful. Not if the features allow for increased web tracking.

I don't think that web tracking must be fought at expense of user UI. It's fine to fight web tracking by introducing measures that don't break honest websites. It's not fine to fight web tracking or anything by crippling user experience with honest websites.

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

#448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Web applications added to the home screen are not part of Safari and thus have their own counter of days of use."[1] From WebKit: [1] https://webkit.org/blog/10218/full-third-party-cookie-blocki... A Note On Web Applications Added to the Home Screen As mentioned, the seven-day cap on script-writable storage is gated on after seven days of Safari use without user interaction on the site.” That is the case in Safari.…

> Web applications added to the home screen are not part of Safari and thus have their own counter of days of use. Their days of use will match actual use of the web application which resets the timer. Can anyone explain this with an example? So web apps added to the home screen will have their storage wiped under some scenarios? If not, what does "have their own counter" mean? How are web applications added to the h…

If you add the Twitter PWA to the homescreen and don’t use it for seven days, it’s storage will be reset and you’ll have to log in again.

I think WebKit’s handling of local storage is the prime example of how optimizing for privacy to the exclusion of every other consideration is user-hostile

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

#449

I don't understand what the problem is. I can easily go to the settings area and delete my entire browser cache (Remove All Website Data), in fact if you are running low of space it even tells you to do it. Why are people assuming things stored on a browser are a good place to store things. Nothing stored on a browser should be assumed to be forever.

If you read the article, that's the issue the author was talking about: it's basically impossible to make an app that can store its data locally, instead of on some web server. All apps that you download from App Store can live offline, where they're usable without Internet or trusting some faraway web server. You can't make a web app that can do that, and to some people it smells like Apple trying to force developer…

I don't really understand this. If you want to make something local, make an app and distribute through the app store, that's what it is for. A web app on the other hand is connected by definition, no?

Apple forcing local apps to distribute through the app store is a feature.

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

#450
post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also about IndexedDB. Imagine native apps had all their data wiped if you don't open them (with an active internet connection) every 7 days. Not just on an iPhone, but also on macOS.

The big difference is native apps require explicit user content to get installed, while localstorage can be used by any website without user consent. If browsers asked approval before using localstorage, we wouldn’t have this decision.

Installation of web app performed by bookmarking it or by pinning it to home screen. That's performed by explicit user decision and must be honored by browser if it wants to make a distinction between random website and useful website.
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