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We've been trialling the Native File System API in our PWA Construct 3 (a browser based game editor - https://www.construct.net https://www.construct.net). I t

We've been trialling the Native File System API in our PWA Construct 3 (a browser based game editor - https://www.construct.net https://www.construct.net). I think it's absolutely fantastic, and users love it too - it gives them exactly what they expect from IDE-style software in the browser, such as "Save as" to any location on disk, and the ability to use folder-based projects (that are spread across multiple files). The security concerns are obviously important but I'm pretty confident it's largely mitigated through the permissions model (which is similar to one Windows Store apps use). Also as noted elsewhere, existing web features already allowed reading files and even entire directories; the writing files part is new, and you cannot choose system directories, or ask for too much (e.g. root of the user directory). So in short I think this is great news for the web and a big step towards allowing web apps to reach parity with desktop/native apps, while managing to do it in a reasonably safe way.

dwild 6y ago
> Also as noted elsewhere, existing web features already allowed reading files and even entire directories; None of theses access are persistent though. > the writing files part is new, and you cannot choose system directories, or ask for too much If only that was enough.. there's plenty of important file outside of what will be defined as "system directories" by whoever define them. I love particularly this part of the documentation: > Another risk factor is that of ransomware attacks. The limitations described above regarding blocking access to certain sensitive directories helps limit the damage such an attack can do. Additionally user agents can grant write access to files at whatever granularity they deem appropriate. They are perfectly aware of the risk, yet completely ignore it. At least it won't be whatever the browser define as "sensitive directories".

dwild 6y ago

> Also as noted elsewhere, existing web features already allowed reading files and even entire directories; None of theses access are persistent though. > the writing files part is new, and you cannot choose system directories, or ask for too much If only that was enough.. there's plenty of important file outside of what will be defined as "system directories" by whoever define them. I love particularly this part of the documentation: > Another risk factor is that of ransomware attacks. The limitations described above regarding blocking access to certain sensitive directories helps limit the damage such an attack can do. Additionally user agents can grant write access to files at whatever granularity they deem appropriate. They are perfectly aware of the risk, yet completely ignore it. At least it won't be whatever the browser define as "sensitive directories".