App Directory Discussion group - Monday 21st March 2022

[kriswest]

Group overview

Discussion group to develop proposals for the improvement of the App Directory as part of the FDC3 standard. The group will examine the role/value/necessity of the AppD as part of the FDC3 specification and a compliance requirement for use of the FDC3 API, in addition to working on proposals to improve the description and functionality of the App Directory.

Relevant tags

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

A github discussion is also available for this group (may be used to arrange meetings, agenda ask questions etc.)

Meeting Date

Thursday 21 Mar 2022 - 9am EDT / 1pm GMT

WebEx info

• Meeting link: https://finos.webex.com/finos/j.php?MTID=m2316d45da678d0203fd86f9342ff63ab
  Meeting number: 2551 735 2618
  Password: VscvKptp756
• Join by video system
  Dial 25517352618@finos.webex.com
  You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number.
• Join by phone
  +1-415-655-0003 US Toll
  +44-20319-88141 UK Toll
  Access code: 2551 735 2618
  Global call-in numbers

Meeting notices

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• 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. As such, participation in a Discussion group is not required for contributing to any particular issue or FDC 2.0 as a whole.

Agenda

• Convene & roll call, review meeting notices (5mins)
• Review action items from previous meeting (5mins)
  • None: App Directory Discussion group - Feb 08, 2022 #573
  • Vote on issue Remove the Application Directory from The FDC3 Specification #551
    • Results
• Discuss open issues (see list in discussion)
  • Defining the AppD
    • Improve the description of AppD, its role and value. #555 and Correct "trusted identity" statements in AppD overview, consider whether app authentication properties are needed #558
      • 555 556 558 re-write of the AppD overview page #570
    • Better describe relationship between AppD definitions and other manifests #556
      • Note the changes made in Update the Application schema #437
    • Better align Application definition to Web Application Manifest and supplementary application information #561
    • Define a term in the FDC3 glossary that can be used to refer to the application definition format used by the App Directory #560
    • Provide better documentation and examples for AppD auth support #559
  • Other issues from the list if there is time
• AOB & Adjourn (5mins)

Minutes

• @kriswest reminded attendees that they can use discussion App Directory Discussion Group #618 to discuss any desired topics for future meetings, in addition to raising new github issues.
  • Meeting agendas will otherwise be drawn from the list of open issues (see grouped list in discussion or filtered github issues)
• Improve the description of AppD, its role and value. #555 and Correct "trusted identity" statements in AppD overview, consider whether app authentication properties are needed #558
  • Reviewed issues and changes proposed in PR 555 556 558 re-write of the AppD overview page #570
    • No objections to the updated description were raised, all attendees were encouraged to review the PR and add any comments with further feedback.
    • @lspiro-Tick42 commented that they use 'App Store' to refer to locations were apps are listed that you could use in a desktop but may not be (yet) entitled to, and 'App Directory' for locations where applications you can definitely use are listed.
      • @kriswest commented that:
        • such a differentiation does make sense, particularly as the AppD spec supports auth and can return a different filtered set of apps for specific users
        • However, doing so isn't necessarily required and adopting that description (as part of the standard) would change what is expected of the appD (vendors can currently host an appD or publish appD records, without having to pre-authenticate users).
• Better describe relationship between AppD definitions and other manifests #556
  • The relationship between appD and other manifests was discussed, along with the changes to how application records can include or reference (via URL) manifests (including W3C web application manifests) for running the described apps in various containers, introduced in Update the Application schema #437
  • It was proposed to extend 555 556 558 re-write of the AppD overview page #570 with additional content to resolve this issue, no objections were raised.
• Define a term in the FDC3 glossary that can be used to refer to the application definition format used by the App Directory #560
  • Briefly discussed standardizing the term and adding to glossary (which editors will use to ensure we use consistent terms for concepts within our documentation)
    • We shouldn't use 'manifest' in that term as the AppD may link to or embed other manifests.
  • Proposal: App Directory Record (or AppD Record for short), No objections were raised
• Better align Application definition to Web Application Manifest and supplementary application information #561
  • Briefly discussed including the limited use-case of being able to more easily populate appD records from imported web application manifests if the fields are aligned.
  • Bear this in mind when discussing updates to the AppD's Application record
• Provide better documentation and examples for AppD auth support #559
  • was not discussed, move to a future meeting agenda
• AOB
  • @ggeorgievx we should discuss Add backwards compatibility support for the App Directory #553 (will make the transition to appD 2.0 formats easier for firms already using AppD)

Action Items

• ALL review PR 555 556 558 re-write of the AppD overview page #570 and proposed updated description of AppD
• @kriswest extend 555 556 558 re-write of the AppD overview page #570 to better describe the relationship between AppD definitions and other manifests
• @kriswest Raise a PR to add a standard term to the FDC3 repository Application Directory Record
  • 560 Defining a term for a single appD record #658
• @kriswest prepare future meeting agendas
  • to include:
    • Provide better documentation and examples for AppD auth support #559
      • moved to the 'Improving the AppD API' group
    • Add backwards compatibility support for the App Directory #553
      • Added to next meeting agenda
    • next block of issues from (list in discussion)

Untracked attendees

Full name	Affiliation	GitHub username

[ggeorgievx]

Present ✅

[Julia-Ritter]

Julia / FINOS

[tpina]

Tiago / Cosaic

[kriswest]

Kris / Cosaic

[mistryvinay]

Vinay / Symphony

[WatsonCIQ]

Chris Watson / Cosaic

[Soul-Master]

Sumit / LSEG

[hughtroeger]

Hugh / FactSet

[openfin-johans]

Johan / OpenFin 🎁

[bertrand-s]

Bertrand / Symphony

[dgeorgiev06]

Dimiter / Symphony

[lspiro-Tick42]

Leslie / Glue42

[robmoffat]

Rob Moffat / FINOS

[mazydar]

Mazy @ OpenFin

[jgavronsky]

Jane @ FINOS here

[Julia-Ritter]

Untracked attendees:

• David George Carlson / Wellington
• Ben Gold/ Wellington