Wifi API question

[David Bruant]

Hi,

I'm having fun documenting the Wifi API :-)

I have a question regarding something I read on the IDL file [1] (I
don't have a device with remote debugging working around me, I'll
probably test when I do)
/**
* Returns the list of currently available networks.
* onsuccess: We have obtained the current list of networks.
request.value
* is an object whose property names are SSIDs and
values are
* network objects.
* onerror: We were unable to obtain a list of property names.
*/
nsIDOMDOMRequest getNetworks();

In theory, it feels like a good idea, but in practice, objects in
JavaScript aren't that nice. I worry that naive code playing with this
kind of objects may break in a way or another if someone has fun
renaming its SSID to "__proto__", "__noSuchMethod__" (magic property
names) or "hasOwnProperty" (shadowing issues with Object.prototype).

After some investigation, it looks like it's actually an array or
array-like object [2]. Is the comment outdated?
I don't have strong opinions (yet :-) ) on what the API should look
like, but for string->value data structures, please prefer ES6 Maps [3]
as they won't have the magic property and shadowing/collision hazards
that objects have.

David

[1] http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/dom/wifi/nsIWifi.idl?raw=1
[2]
https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/blob/079b57f45f2e272ceb4e0f3f067cc3d829b3f2b4/apps/settings/js/wifi.js#L331-L334
[3]
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Map

[Jonas Sicking]

I agree, using SSIDs as property names would seem problem. Either using an
array or a Map seems like good solutions.

/ Jonas

>
> David
>
> [1]
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/dom/wifi/nsIWifi.idl?raw=1
> [2]
https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/blob/079b57f45f2e272ceb4e0f3f067cc3d829b3f2b4/apps/settings/js/wifi.js#L331-L334
> [3]
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Map

> _______________________________________________
> dev-webapi mailing list
> dev-w...@lists.mozilla.org
> https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-webapi

[Blake Kaplan]

On 6/23/13 10:28 AM, David Bruant wrote:
> After some investigation, it looks like it's actually an array or
> array-like object [2]. Is the comment outdated?

Oops, yeah. We changed the return value of getNetworks from being a map
to an array in [1]. The comment should say that we simply return an
array now with each element being a unique SSID. It probably isn't worth
going back to an associative array because the keys now would have to be
based on SSID + security (and possibly other criteria in the future) and
no would longer have meaning.

Good catch and thanks for pointing this out.

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=736104
--
Blake Kaplan