[cap-talk] Granting access to web services

[Mark Seaborn]

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 11:18 PM, Kenton Varda <kenton at google.com> wrote:

> Maybe we should be thinking of it as the power box providing links to sites
> which might be used to obtain the desired resource.
>

You can just use bookmarks for that:  your "take a photo" web app can be a
regular bookmark.


>
> So for example, if a requester wants a picture, the power box would present
> the user with:
> - Use blank picture.
> - Use your avatar picture.
> - Link to paint app, which you can use to create other pictures.
>   - List of previous pictures created with this app.
> - Link to camera app, which you can use to take pictures.
>   - List of previous pictures created with this app.
> - Link to filesystem app, where you might find pictures.
>   - List of recently-opened picture files.
>

So this doesn't need a powerbox, it's just a file browser with links to web
apps for creating new files.  (I don't mean "just" in a bad way; this is a
fine way of doing things.)


For example, in the camera case, the user would use the camera's web
> interface to take a picture, then drag and drop *just the picture* onto
> the requester.
>

I am fine with supporting this mode of interaction.  It's just that it's
less discoverable.  For example, to grant geolocation access to a maps app,
you would have to open a geolocation app (from your bookmarks) and drag and
drop its geolocation object to the maps app.  How can the maps app indicate
that it expects you to do this to enable its use of geolocation?

I think we should support both types of interaction.  Which is preferable
depends on your workflow.  If you are starting from a tab containing the
service, drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste is preferable.  If you are starting
from the requester tab, the powerbox dialog is preferable.  Consider the
case of uploading a file:

1) Suppose I'm writing an e-mail in Gmail (actually, I am...).  I want to
attach a file quickly.  I select "Attach file" and "Browse filesystem", and
it takes me to a directory browser (an interactive provider) in a new tab.
This is much like the interaction in current browsers for uploading a local
file.

2) Suppose I'm browsing through my photo album on a Tahoe filesystem.  I
find a picture that I want to upload to Flickr.  When I go to Flickr's
Upload button, I *could* select "Browse Tahoe filesystem" from the powerbox
dialog, but that involves re-navigating to find the file.  So instead there
are two other options:

a) Drag-and-drop the file from the Tahoe tab onto Flickr's Upload button;

b) In the Tahoe tab, register the individual file as a new service in the
powerbox ("Copy").  Select the file from the powerbox dialog from Flickr's
Upload button ("Paste").  This is a kind of copy-and-paste interaction,
using the powerbox's provider list as the clipboard.  I envisage that there
could be a way of registering services temporarily, so that these services
can be removed from the list easily, rather like the "Clear List" button in
Firefox's Downloads list.

Cheers,
Mark
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