6 ms·

Introducing Background Sync Web API

54 points by toni 11y ago

agluszak 11y ago
But is it going to be a general standard implemented in other browsers?
- coda_ 11y ago
  All I could find was this, from the article: "It’ll be a while before all browsers support background sync, especially as Safari and Edge don’t yet support service workers." It talks about using code to check to see if it's supported in the user's browser under "Progressive Enhancement".
  - jaffathecake 11y ago
    It's got a spec https://wicg.github.io/BackgroundSync/spec/ https://wicg.github.io/BackgroundSync/spec/, and Mozilla is interested https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/m/#!topic/blink-dev/t9apD7cQb6I https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/m/#!topic/bli...
- bl4ckdu5t 11y ago
  It works only in Chrome Canary
nickspacek 11y ago
This should be great. I work on a Cordova app where data submissions by the user are queued in some custom iOS code and regularly attempted if there is connectivity. When I read about Service Workers it sounded like they would be able to do this as part of standard HTML, but I didn't see any examples of people using them that way.
matthewbauer 11y ago
With great power, comes great responsibility. edit: nvm, didn't see execution time cap
steven777400 11y ago
This kind of capability will be very beneficial in making web apps behave more like a first-class native application. For example, I frequently "send" an SMS when I have no service knowing it will be processed later when the network is restored (without manual intervention).
indubitably 11y ago
> Open Emojoy. FTFY: > Open Emojoy. In Chrome.
- jaffathecake 11y ago
  This is covered in the paragraph before. "if you want to try this you’ll need either Chrome Dev for Android, or Chrome Canary for desktop."
thetmkay 11y ago
(Slightly tangential) does anyone else predict and hope for a looser coupling between client and server? Even in the age of increased connectivity, an app or static client experience, rather than streaming (except for obvious cases like video and music), in my mind would greatly improve the web for the user. Especially if not every user action can be tracked with an AJAX request. I've only started looking into building apps offline-first (late to the party) but with tech like CouchDB, service workers etc - it's becoming much easier to build a more decentralized online experience (and interestingly return to an earlier epoch).
lewisl9029 11y ago
This is exactly the kind of functionality that I was missing when I was building Toc [1], a decentralized messaging app built on web technologies and Cordova. Since mobile devices tend to pause apps rather aggressively, getting the Cordova app to retry message sending in the background required messing with native plugins, and getting the browser app to do this was simply not possible at the time. Glad to see this feature finally become a proper web standard! [1] http://toc.im/ http://toc.im/
bl4ckdu5t 11y ago
If this is only available in chrome canary right now it may only take the next version of chrome stable to get it and 3 years for other browsers to agree on it. I hope it doesn't go that way with this feature again because it's something the web really needs

54 points by toni 11y ago

agluszak 11y ago

But is it going to be a general standard implemented in other browsers?

coda_ 11y ago
All I could find was this, from the article: "It’ll be a while before all browsers support background sync, especially as Safari and Edge don’t yet support service workers." It talks about using code to check to see if it's supported in the user's browser under "Progressive Enhancement".
- jaffathecake 11y ago
  It's got a spec https://wicg.github.io/BackgroundSync/spec/ https://wicg.github.io/BackgroundSync/spec/, and Mozilla is interested https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/m/#!topic/blink-dev/t9apD7cQb6I https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/m/#!topic/bli...
bl4ckdu5t 11y ago
It works only in Chrome Canary

nickspacek 11y ago

This should be great. I work on a Cordova app where data submissions by the user are queued in some custom iOS code and regularly attempted if there is connectivity. When I read about Service Workers it sounded like they would be able to do this as part of standard HTML, but I didn't see any examples of people using them that way.

matthewbauer 11y ago

With great power, comes great responsibility. edit: nvm, didn't see execution time cap

steven777400 11y ago

This kind of capability will be very beneficial in making web apps behave more like a first-class native application. For example, I frequently "send" an SMS when I have no service knowing it will be processed later when the network is restored (without manual intervention).

indubitably 11y ago

> Open Emojoy. FTFY: > Open Emojoy. In Chrome.

jaffathecake 11y ago
This is covered in the paragraph before. "if you want to try this you’ll need either Chrome Dev for Android, or Chrome Canary for desktop."

thetmkay 11y ago

(Slightly tangential) does anyone else predict and hope for a looser coupling between client and server? Even in the age of increased connectivity, an app or static client experience, rather than streaming (except for obvious cases like video and music), in my mind would greatly improve the web for the user. Especially if not every user action can be tracked with an AJAX request. I've only started looking into building apps offline-first (late to the party) but with tech like CouchDB, service workers etc - it's becoming much easier to build a more decentralized online experience (and interestingly return to an earlier epoch).

lewisl9029 11y ago

This is exactly the kind of functionality that I was missing when I was building Toc [1], a decentralized messaging app built on web technologies and Cordova. Since mobile devices tend to pause apps rather aggressively, getting the Cordova app to retry message sending in the background required messing with native plugins, and getting the browser app to do this was simply not possible at the time. Glad to see this feature finally become a proper web standard! [1] http://toc.im/ http://toc.im/

bl4ckdu5t 11y ago

If this is only available in chrome canary right now it may only take the next version of chrome stable to get it and 3 years for other browsers to agree on it. I hope it doesn't go that way with this feature again because it's something the web really needs