W3C has formed the Web APIs Working Group, as a part of the Rich Web Client Activity for client-side Web Application development. Some interesting to me deliverables are the following:

  • An API specification for HTTP functionality.

    This generally means standardizing and hopefully improving the XMLHttpRequest interface. The current interface is very limited, imperfect, and yet not widely implemented.

  • An API specification for persistent storage on the client.

    Cookie is an opaque piece of data held by an intermediary. Cookies are small, maximum 4kB od data per cookie including an opaque string. So of course, retrieving and caching data for rich web clients is currently very difficult and limited. This way it is also impossible for a Web application to work offline. This has to be changed.

  • An API specification for drag and drop.

    Rich web clients must provide robust, interactive user interfaces. Drag and drop is a common mechanism used on desktops everywhere. Implementing it in Web application is nowadays tricky and requires a master knowledge of JavaScript, DOM, and CSS.

Other interesting areas:

  • An API specification for a client interface (the Window object).
  • The DOM Level 3 Events specification (in coordination with a future DOM IG/WG).
  • An API specification for timed events.
  • API specifications for other network communication methods.
  • The DOM Level 3 XPath specification (in coordination with the DOM IG/WG).
  • An API specification for monitoring the progress of resources as they are downloaded.
  • An API specification for file upload.