Total lack of clarity in Gadget Lifecycle Events
Opened this issue · 1 comments
Original author: jasn...@gmail.com (March 14, 2012 17:47:12)
SPECIFICATION BUGS ONLY - Description
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The current description of the Gadget Lifecycle Events in the Core Gadget spec is pretty much useless as is... see the discussion below...
Mar 14, 2012
James M. Snell: Hey Ryan... question.. has anyone on your side given much thought to how to gadget lifecycle events play out with regard to embedded experiences?
James M. Snell: if so, is there any documentation available I can use to help clarify the discussion around events in the spec.
RYAN J. BAXTER: which lifecycle events are u referring to
James M. Snell: gadget lifecycle events in the core gadget spec
James M. Snell: http://opensocial-resources.googlecode.com/svn/spec/trunk/Core-Gadget.xml#LifeCycleEvents
RYAN J. BAXTER: ok, i just wanted to know which ones because there are ones from a container point of view and one from a gadget dev point of view
RYAN J. BAXTER: to answer your question, no i haven't
James M. Snell: ok.. the discussion currently in the spec around this is pretty much useless as is and provides zero clarity to how it should be handled... for one there is no notion of events "from a container point of view" and ones "from a gadget dev point of view" ...
RYAN J. BAXTER: well it depends on who the target audience is right? why would u want to document gadget lifecycle from a container perspective in the core gadget spec?
James M. Snell: gadget developers need to understand the relevant gadget lifecycle events they can hook in to using the Link rel="event.*" mechanism
James M. Snell: as well as understand what those event notification messages will look like
RYAN J. BAXTER: agree
James M. Snell: also, they need to understand the difference in the lifecycles between a gadget registered with a container and installed on a page vs. a gadget that comes into the system via an embedded experience
James M. Snell: the latter may never be registered initially and the container may completely forget about it later
RYAN J. BAXTER: so maybe we need to distinguish it more...for example I can install a gadget but not render it
RYAN J. BAXTER: and I may close a gadget but not unistall it
RYAN J. BAXTER: those are critical differences when it comes to EE
James M. Snell: yes... the specific lifecycle states need to be defined explicitly
James M. Snell: "register", "install", "open", "close", "uninstall"
RYAN J. BAXTER: what is register?
James M. Snell: adding the gadget to a containers catalog
RYAN J. BAXTER: ok...
James M. Snell: it's a distinct action than installing it on a page
RYAN J. BAXTER: that would probably have to be optional
James M. Snell: which is distinct from opening (rendering) the gadget
RYAN J. BAXTER: you may not always "register" a gadget though
James M. Snell: right... I know... there might never be an install or uninstall either
James M. Snell: e.g. the container may put the gadget on the page automatically
RYAN J. BAXTER: i guess
James M. Snell: another may be "configure" or "update"
James M. Snell: the problem is, none of this is defined in the spec currently so I can't specify any of this in a rewrite unless we get agreement
RYAN J. BAXTER: we need to define what install and uninstall really mean from a gadget dev point of view, my initially impression is that in order to render a gadget on the page it would need to be "installed" but i could be wrong
RYAN J. BAXTER: yup agree
James M. Snell: ok
James M. Snell: thx... I'm going to open a issue
RYAN J. BAXTER: ok
James M. Snell: do you mind if I simply copy part of this chat transcript into the issue... I don't want to have to retype everything ;)
RYAN J. BAXTER: nah thats cool
James M. Snell: thx
Document affected:
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1.) Please attach a patch for the document if appropriate.
2.) Post a thread at
http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial-and-gadgets-spec/topics
linking to this issue report.
3.) Post a comment on this issue, linking back to the thread.
Original issue: http://code.google.com/p/opensocial-resources/issues/detail?id=1272
From jasn...@gmail.com on March 14, 2012 23:21:46
See http://docs.opensocial.org/display/OSD/Core+Gadget+-+Gadget+Lifecycle+Events for new draft text for this section and several proposed changes...