FDC3 for Web Browsers Discussion group 19th September 2024

[kriswest]

Group overview

Group convened to discuss how to enable FDC3 use in a web browser, without the use of a browser extension (such as fdc3-desktop-agent or a container).

Issue: #896
Mailing list discussion: https://groups.google.com/a/finos.org/g/fdc3/c/jCvlLjokBLs
Pull request: #1191

In a recent email on the FDC3 mailing list, @kriswest wrote:

... I also want to add that there is clearly significant interest in the community in enabling FDC3 use on the web. There is a strong use case in that it would enable better onboarding journeys with less drop-off (where you use an app on the web with others before adopting a desktop container or similar).

and:

But there are also additional challenges such as how to make the API available reliably without importing a proprietary module from a particular vendor into every app, how to deal with more than one implementation of API/Desktop Agent in the browser at once, how to do this reliably and securely within the browser sandbox etc.. Work needs to be done in the Standard to solve these issues and to make web browser use possible in a future FDC3 Standard version - which I believe is possible (and likely to involve using a vendor-agnostic FDC3 NPM module to detect and connect to API implementation(s)). However, we're going to need to do that work to enable the aforementioned API implementations to be compliant and if we fail to hold the line now on compliance with the current version of the FDC3 Standard, that may never happen.

Shared doc with current draft: https://tick42-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/finsemble_datastore_interop_io/EZ0dfTCdRlJCnIF3C_1Oit0BF3fsXyvlMbisXp722DC9Kg?e=H2y7fn
Pull request currently under review: #1191

Relevant issue tags

Current open issues that relate to the above concepts with the label:

Meeting Date

Thursday 19th September 2024 - 11am (US eastern timezone EDT) / 4pm (London, BST)

Zoom info

• Join Zoom Meeting
• Meeting ID: 969 4029 4948
• Passcode: 636931
• Dial-in:

  Country	International Dial-in	Toll-free Dial-in
  US	+1 929 205 6099 (New York)	877 853 5247
  UK	+44 330 088 5830	0800 031 5717
  France	+33 1 8699 5831	0 800 940 415
  Find your local number	https://zoom.us/u/ad2WVnBzb8

Meeting notices

• FINOS Project leads are responsible for observing the FINOS guidelines for running project meetings. Project maintainers can find additional resources in the FINOS Maintainers Cheatsheet.

• All participants in FINOS project meetings are subject to the LF Antitrust Policy, the FINOS Community Code of Conduct and all other FINOS policies.

• FINOS meetings involve participation by industry competitors, and it is the intention of FINOS and the Linux Foundation to conduct all of its activities in accordance with applicable antitrust and competition laws. It is therefore extremely important that attendees adhere to meeting agendas, and be aware of, and not participate in, any activities that are prohibited under applicable US state, federal or foreign antitrust and competition laws. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

• FINOS project meetings may be recorded for use solely by the FINOS team for administration purposes. In very limited instances, and with explicit approval, recordings may be made more widely available.

• A Discussion Group has no direct decision-making power regarding the FDC3 standard - rather it is intended that anything they propose or work on will result in proposals (via Github issues and PRs) for the Standards Working Group participants to consider and vote on for inclusion in the standard.

Participation Requirements

Note: Meeting participants are expected to accept the terms of the FDC3 license (Community Specification License), understand the governance process and have a CLA in place.

Please click the following links at the start of the meeting if you have not done so previously.

• View the CSL
• View the GOVERNANCE of the Project
• Click here to start a PR.
  • Edit the page to add your details.
  • Hit the save button.
  • Click "Create Pull Request".
  • Click "Accept" on the EasyCLA dialog in the PR's discussion section.
• Click here to send email to become a voting participant on the FDC3 Project

Tracking Attendance

Note: Meeting participants are expected to add a comment to this GitHub issue in order that we can track attendance of FDC3 project meetings. Please do this at the start of the meeting.

Agenda

• Convene & roll call, review meeting notices (5mins)
• Review action items from previous meeting (5mins)
  • FDC3 for Web Browsers Discussion group 29th Aug 2024 #1321
• Review of Standard documentation draft (40mins)
  • FDC3 for Web specification #1191
• Next steps for adoption and software implementation (10mins)
• AOB & Adjourn

Minutes

• @kriswest provided an overview of the documentation changes in the FDC3 for the web PR:
  • FDC3 for Web specification #1191
  • Deep links to docs for review:
    • API overview now links out to Support Platforms for details of API access: https://deploy-preview-1191--fdc3.netlify.app/docs/next/api/spec#implementation-language
    • Supported platforms now recommends the use of getAgent() for gaining access to an API implementation for web apps: https://deploy-preview-1191--fdc3.netlify.app/docs/next/api/supported-platforms
    • getAgent() reference docs for app implementors: https://deploy-preview-1191--fdc3.netlify.app/docs/next/api/ref/GetAgent
    • AgentError enumeration added for connection issues: https://deploy-preview-1191--fdc3.netlify.app/docs/next/api/ref/Errors#agenterror
    • New Desktop Agent specifications section:
      • Preload Desktop Agents (existing implementations using window.fdc3): https://deploy-preview-1191--fdc3.netlify.app/docs/next/api/specs/preloadDesktopAgents
      • Browser-Resident Desktop Agents: https://deploy-preview-1191--fdc3.netlify.app/docs/next/api/specs/browserDesktopAgents
      • Web Connection Protocol (WCP): https://deploy-preview-1191--fdc3.netlify.app/docs/next/api/specs/webConnectionProtocol
      • DesktopAgent Communication Protocol (DACP): https://deploy-preview-1191--fdc3.netlify.app/docs/next/api/specs/desktopAgentCommunicationProtocol
  • A number of minor formatting issues, typos and errors in flow diagrams were identified during the review, @kriswest to correct.
• All participants were encouraged to:
  • Continue review offline and report any issues found
  • Attend the Standards Working Group on Thursday 26th September and provide their view on whether the current proposal should be adopted as part of the FDC3 2.2 scope.

Action Items

• @kriswest correct formatting issues, types and diagram issues identified during review
  • Fixed in d4e45c4

Rolled over and/or still in progress:

• @robmoffat @kriswest to to review @Roaders work on generating type predicates automatically using TSMorph
• @Davidhanson90 to look into tear-down patterns for subagents - moved to FDC3 2.3 scope.
• @kriswest to ensure that a README and screencast video is provided on maintaining schemas and code generation.

Untracked attendees

Full name	Affiliation	GitHub username

[paulgoldsmith]

Paul Goldsmith / Morgan Stanley

[robmoffat]

Rob Moffat / FINOS 🌵

[kriswest]

Kris West / interop.io 🚀

[watson-ew]

Chris Watson / Elgin White 👋

[novavi]

Derek Novavi / S&P Global

[Roaders]

Giles Roadnight / Morgan Stanley 🐱

[openfin-johans]

Johan Sandersson / Here 🎁

[pvoznyuk]

Pavlo Vozniuk / RBC CM

[hughtroeger]

Hugh Troeger / FactSet

[kriswest]

Hi all, formatting, typos and diagram issues we noted during todays meeting were all fixed in d4e45c4 and should be visible in the preview shortly. Many thanks for your input!