Introduction to Web Intents

Paul Kinlan (@paul_kinlan)
G+: plus.ly/paul.kinlan

Jan Kleinert (@jankleinert)
G+: plus.ly/jan.kleinert

There is a solution in the works

How does it work?

1. Service registers its intention to handle an action for the user
2. App requests to start an action (share, edit, pick, ...)
3. User selects which service to handle the action

Sound familiar?

Simple Sharing Demo

<intent
   action="http://webintents.org/share"
   type="image/*"
   href="shareimage.html" >

When launched, data on:

window.intent

Service: I provide a sharing service

var intent = new Intent("http://webintents.org/share", 
                        "text/uri-list", 
                        window.location.href);
window.navigator.startActivity(intent);

Client App: I need a sharing service

Action

var intent = new Intent("http://webintents.org/share", 
                        "text/uri-list", 
                        window.location.href);
window.navigator.startActivity(intent);

A verb.

• http://webintents.org/share
• http://webintents.org/edit
• http://webintents.org/pick
• http://webintents.org/save
• + many more

Type

var intent = new Intent("http://webintents.org/share", 
                        "text/uri-list", 
                        window.location.href);
window.navigator.startActivity(intent);

A description of the data being used

• Mime-types
• Activity Streams

Data

var intent = new Intent("http://webintents.org/share", 
                        "text/uri-list", 
                        window.location.href);
window.navigator.startActivity(intent);

The data by value or reference (URL)

Can be complex types such as images, audio or documents

And then what?

We can do two-way communication

Client:

var intent = new Intent("http://webintents.org/pick", "image/*");
window.navigator.startActivity(intent, function(intentData) {
// Do something with the response
});

Service:

window.intent.postResponse({  ... some data ...  });

We can do long-lived connections*

* - next version of the shim

Client:

var channel = MessageChannel();
var intent = new Intent("http://webintents.org/pick", 
 "image/*",
 channel.port1);
window.navigator.startActivity(intent);

Service:

window.intent.postResponse({  ... some data ...  });

Demo

JavaScript Shim

<script src="http://webintents.org/webintents.min.js"></script>

Examples

Contribute!

Thank you!

webintents.org

groups.google.com/group/web-intents

We want your feedback! What are your use cases?