Intent to Implement & Ship: Web Bluetooth exclusionFilters option in requestDevice()

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François Beaufort

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Mar 29, 2023, 2:00:24 AM3/29/23
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Contact emails

fbea...@google.com

rei...@google.com


Explainer

https://github.com/WebBluetoothCG/web-bluetooth/issues/599#issue-1638254435


Specification

https://webbluetoothcg.github.io/web-bluetooth/#ref-for-dom-requestdeviceoptions-exclusionfilters

https://github.com/WebBluetoothCG/web-bluetooth/pull/600


Summary

The "exclusionFilters" option in navigator.bluetooth.requestDevice() allows web developers to exclude some devices from the browser picker. It can be used to exclude devices that match a broader filter but are unsupported.


Blink component

Blink>Bluetooth


Motivation

Allowing web developers, through the "exclusionFilters" option, to exclude from the browser picker some devices that are not supported by the site will improve user experience. Without it, web developers let users pick a device, then have to check using a custom JavaScript helper function and alert the user after they’ve already selected a device, resulting in a poor user experience.


// Request access to a bluetooth device whose name starts with "Created by".

// The device named "Created by Francois" has been reported as unsupported.

const device = await navigator.bluetooth.requestDevice({

  filters: [{ namePrefix: "Created by" }],

  exclusionFilters: [{ name: "Created by Francois" }],

});


TAG review

This small addition to the Web Bluetooth API doesn’t seem to qualify for a TAG review. I’m happy to file one if desired though.


TAG review status

Not Applicable


Risks


Interoperability and Compatibility


Older browsers will ignore exclusionFilters and all devices matching the provided filter will be displayed (the current behavior).


Signals from other implementations (Gecko, WebKit): 


Gecko: No Signal [1]

WebKit: No Signal [1]

Web / Framework developers: Positive https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75815353/web-bluetooth-want-to-exclude-certain-devices-when-using-navigator-bluetooth-re


[1] Both Gecko and WebKit are unlikely to object to this feature specifically, but object to the overall Web Bluetooth API as a whole, hence it doesn't make sense to bug them with specific questions on this.


Activation:

This feature can't be polyfilled. It should be fairly trivial for developers to adopt this new feature.


Debuggability

No specific DevTools changes are required. This feature is treated like any other JS method.

Note that exposing DevTools debugging support for device-access APIs (Web Bluetooth included) is discussed at https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1142566#c20.


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

No, because browser picker implementation is implemented outside of Blink and so isn’t testable fully by web-platform-tests. 


Requires code in //chrome?

No.


Tracking bug

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1427977


Estimated milestones

114


Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/6208474255458304




Alex Russell

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Mar 29, 2023, 11:36:15 AM3/29/23
to blink-dev, fbea...@google.com
LGTM1, but please let the TAG know about this change w/ an FYI.

François Beaufort

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Mar 30, 2023, 6:27:16 AM3/30/23
to Alex Russell, blink-dev

Yoav Weiss

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Mar 30, 2023, 8:35:02 AM3/30/23
to François Beaufort, Alex Russell, blink-dev
LGTM2

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Mike Taylor

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Mar 30, 2023, 8:58:29 AM3/30/23
to Yoav Weiss, François Beaufort, Alex Russell, blink-dev

LGTM3, seems like a useful addition.

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