FDC3 for Web Browsers Discussion group - 29th June 2023

[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

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_1Oit0B7xK0OOJ0nAvC73dwad53AA?e=x2zlge

Relevant issue tags

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

Meeting Date

Thursday 29 June 2023 - 11am EST / 4pm BST

WebEx info

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• Meeting number: 2552 173 3304

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Meeting notices

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Agenda

• Convene & roll call, review meeting notices (5 mins)
• Review action items from previous meeting (5 mins)
  • FDC3 for Web Browsers Discussion group - 1st June 2023 #1009
  • Shared doc link
• What should we call an 'installer', 'bootstrapper' etc.? (5 mins)
• Continue discussion of how a solution might be used in an app via code examples (15-30 mins)
• Discuss implementation options (if time)
• What 'Identity' issues might we need to solve? (15 mins)
• AOB & Adjourn

Minutes

• What should we call an 'installer', 'bootstrapper' etc.?
  • The name and role of the library were discussed - including a recap of the fact that we'd expect to introduce the library as a new default/recommended way to get at the FDC3 implementation in both containers and browsers (in support of WORA for FDC3 apps).
  • The name chosen is important as, if well chosen, it can help with comprehension of its role
  • A table was added to the google doc with suggestions, which participants were asked to consider and comment on offline.
    • A number of participants thought that 'installer' is not appropriate as it might simply be retrieving a reference to an existing script or providing a proxy to an agent running elsewhere
    • @kriswest identified that a participant was using terminology in a way that differed from their understanding of current FDC3 terminology, which might indicate that further work on the FDC3 glossary is needed to standardize terms (in particular Agent/Provider/API endpoints etc. - although 'Desktop Agent' and 'Platform Provider' already have definitions in FDC3)
• Continue discussion of how a solution might be used in an app via code examples
  • Much of the rest of the meeting centered around how to pass options to the proposed library function and what those should be:
    • Passing options:
      • One or more participants noted that:
        • It is sometimes useful to be able to change options at deploy time, rather than development time.
        • But then at other times (or for other options) it may be necessary to tie to the code.
        • Options as code leads to more flexibility?
      • There was consensus that flexibility would actually be achieved by not forcing the options to be in either code or config, but either.
        • For example, code passes in options, or a flag saying 'check my web manifest' or 'retrieve from this URL'
        • We might allow code to set some options as well as indicate remote config that can fill in missing options.
    • Options to support:
      • Identity / appId ?
        • Need something to link to appD record to give us the interop config (amongst other things)
          • For independent web apps this is not known in advance by the Desktop Agent as it did not spawn the window
          • This will also be needed in solutions for the Microfrontend container use case
        • (optional) Authentication details in support of Identity?
      • (optional) What Desktop Agents an app will accept?
        • Once an fdc3 instance is received you could check what it is and whether you want to use it - but then others might have been available and you might need to go back for one - where discovery might negate that need
        • Discovery strategies to use (for running desktop agents, or those available on a domain etc.) and/or use cases to support
          • Discovery:
            • App origin
            • Container origin? Most containers could/would continue to set the window global.
        • Use cases:
          • Only load an agent if started by one (use case 1 or 2)
          • Load specific agent if not started by one - or go to discovery!
          • Allow/disallow micro-frontends (requesting sub-agents)
• Proprietary vs. Open Source implementation
  • During other discussions the question of whether this could/should/would be an opensource library or a standard for proprietary implementations
    • A participant pointed that they might need to have their own implementation as they have trouble accessing/on boarding some projects/github
      • They were encouraged to discuss this with their OpenSource Project Office (OSPO)
      • Also to contact FINOS for any support they can provide in resolving
    • @kriswest pointed out that, if it is used internally, there is little that anyone could do to prevent the use of a proprietary implementation and if it conformed to what was being defined by the Standard then it would not matter - the existence of the open standard and an open source implementation would make this very easy to achieve.
  • There was general consensus that providing an opensource implementation was by far the best way to proceed and should be the easiest to gain uptake for

Action Items

• All to consider naming for the library and feedback in the google doc
• All to consider what options would be needed in the library function and make some notes for next time
• @kriswest to migrate the document (his firm hosts the doc and are moving off Google docs) - links to be updated where possible.
• @kriswest include continuation of options discussion in next agenda - in particular discuss discovery and delivery

Untracked attendees

Full name	Affiliation	GitHub username

[Julia-Ritter]

Julia / FINOS

[robmoffat]

Rob / FINOS 🦘

[novavi]

Derek Novavi / S&P Global

[pbaize]

Pierre / OpenFin

[hampshan]

Andrew Hampshire @ UBS

[Julia-Ritter]

Julia / FINOS

[kriswest]

Kris West / Interop.io 🪨

[lspiro-Tick42]

Leslie Spiro / interop.io

[mistryvinay]

Vinay Mistry / Symphony 🎵

[hughtroeger]

Hugh Troeger / FactSet

[kriswest]

Meeting document migrated to Sharepoint from Google Drive and can be found here.