The FOKUS Media Web Runtime 2012 project (MWR2012) supports software developers in realizing cross platform Rich Internet Applications targeting the mobile, consumer electronics, and desktop domains by extending the functional range of traditional Web browsers.
MWR Features
Device APIs
MWR2012 brings new application programming interfaces (APIs) to the local Web and JavaScript runtime environment. Some of these APIs are:
In addition to standardized APIs MWR2012 provides additional APIs for features that are not covered by the standards, such as:
Device and User Context
MWR2012 comes with a context framework that provides mechanisms to trigger applications or services on demand based on contextual descriptions. MWR2012 provides information about the user’s environmental and social context to support applications to adapt accordingly. Therefore, technologies for describing and make use of contextual information are provided. Context sources covering but are not limited to:
Personal Device Cloud
WR2012 encourages the development of cross-platform applications running on multiple devices either by providing the same service on each platform or by smartly integrating the features of each platform into one compelling application. Applications that are aware of the “device environment” of a specific user are able to offer additional functionalities and supplement features missing on one device with features found on another device. (Example: “Do you want to use the virtual keyboard on the TV screen to insert this text or do you prefer to type this on your mobile phone instead?” “Should I continue to play this song from the car radio on your connected MP3 player?”)
Components
MWR2012 consists of a service container extending a Web runtime and providing Web browser and Widget runtime functions. The container manages all service and API access to system resources, while a policy subsystem secures exposure of services to the JavaScript runtime environment, ensuring that only trusted applications have access to provided services and APIs. MWR2012 integrates FOKUS’s Web mashup framework, MashWeb, allows rapid creation and distributed execution of mashups across multiple devices. For example, MWR2012 allows very easily to build a Web application that can request the current position from the device, take a picture with the device’s camera, and publish the data to specific cloud services – all in HTML/JavaScript without native coding. These functions just need a few lines of JavaScript code with MWR2012 – in contrast to realizations in native development environments.
Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems