Discussion: Widgets

[kuboschek]

The immediate goal for dreamjub is to provide authentication, and a RESTful API into student data.

In the long-term, a homepage for students will be provided. On this page, interchangeable, modifiable widgets will be used to provide commonly useful information at a glance, and also link to the respective app (if there is more information available). This will be hosted at https://jacobs.university

Because widget maintenance and development will be part of the respective app, there are certain issues that need to be addressed:

• Security: How do we isolate widgets from one another, such that they only have access to their own information
• Scope: Where does our widget specification end, what is the interface we provide?

This issue shall serve as a discussion forum for these points.

[kuboschek]

Yesterday we fixed some key points in a long whiteboard discussion:

• We will host widgets ourselves
• Widgets will be submitted using a drag and drop style page on dreamjub
• The format envisions a zip file with filename appname.jub, containing a manifest file and all source files required for the widget to function.
• The manifest specifies the name, description, etc..
• The entrypoint to the widget is a custom DOM element using Polymer.
• Widgets will have access to an API that allows them to retrieve and store a blob to persist their settings.
• Widgets will also be a able to access the current user and their courses.

There are many more points to write, but that's the basics for now. I'll add more details as more of the widget system is implemented.