Ready for Trial: URL Protocol Handler Registration for PWAs

[Fabio Rocha]

Contact emails

fabio...@microsoft.com, samue...@microsoft.com, mjac...@microsoft.com, luig...@microsoft.com, dmu...@chromium.org

Explainer

https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers/blob/master/URLProtocolHandler/explainer.md

Specification

(Draft) https://pr-preview.s3.amazonaws.com/w3c/manifest/pull/972.html#protocol_handlers-member

API spec

Yes

Design docs

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NHlWLjAPZ-dyxcz3AoTWibeerDeHW7Vqrx6FmhB0XmE

Summary

Enable web applications to register themselves as handlers of custom URL protocols/schemes using their installation manifest.

Blink component

UI>Browser>WebAppInstalls

Search tags

protocol, web app, protocol handlers, custom schemes

TAG review

https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/482

TAG review status

Issues addressed

Risks

Interoperability and Compatibility

Low; manifest elements will be ignored if unsupported by the client.

Gecko: No signal (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1635272)

WebKit: No signal (https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211401)

Web developers: No signals

Security

https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers/blob/main/URLProtocolHandler/explainer.md#security-considerations

Goals for experimentation

Make sure that the API works as expected and that web app developers can successfully enable their apps to handle protocol links.

Ongoing technical constraints

None

Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and Android WebView)?

No

URL Protocol handler registration is only available on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests?

No

DevTrial instructions

https://web.dev/url-protocol-handler/

Flag name

#enable-desktop-pwas-protocol-handling

Tracking bug

https://crbug.com/1019239

Launch bug

https://crbug.com/1063658

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/5151703944921088

Links to previous Intent discussions

Intent to prototype: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/x4Ev_l9Oj2U/m/6bGPs7MVCwAJ

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.

 

[nightpool]

On Thursday, June 10, 2021 at 6:38:54 PM UTC-4 fabio...@microsoft.com wrote:

Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and Android WebView)?

No

URL Protocol handler registration is only available on Windows, Mac and Linux. 

While registerProtocolHandler is currently only supported on Desktop OSs due to (I presume?) technical restrictions on dynamic intent registration, I believe this change makes it very feasible to include additional intent handlers for installed PWAs. Has your team considered this? There has been a lot of demand for protocol handler registration lately for web apps (see intent threads 1 2 and 3), and I can imagine that this demand would extend to mobile as well if it was technically possible.

[Fabio Rocha]

To be honest, this was not considered and from the beginning we set out to support the same platforms as registerProtocolHandler. Thanks for the heads-up, I will be happy to look into this for mobile if that's the feedback we get from developers.

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