[whatwg] Web Storage: apparent contradiction in spec

[Jens Alfke]

On Aug 26, 2009, at 4:55 PM, Michael Nordman wrote:

> What seems inevitable are vista-like prompts to allow something (or  
> prods to delete something) seemingly unrelated to a user's  
> interaction with a site... please, oh please, lets avoid making that  
> part of the web platform.

Doesn't Gears already do this? If I do something like enabling local  
draft storage in WordPress, I get a prompt asking me if I want to  
allow myblog.com to store some local data on my disk, and I click OK  
because after all that's what I asked the site to do.

> I'm assuming that UA will have out-of-band mechanisms to 'bless'  
> certain sites which should not be subject to automated eviction.

If this is out-of-spec and browser-dependent, there won't be a good  
way for an app to request that blessing; it'll be something the user  
has to know to do, otherwise their data can get lost. That seems  
dangerous. In most systems user data loss is just about the worst-case  
scenario of what could go wrong, and you try to prevent it at all costs.

My suggestion to have separate 'important' and 'cache' local storage  
areas would provide such a mechanism in a standard way. The first time  
an app tried to put stuff in the 'important' area, you'd be asked for  
approval. And 'important' stores wouldn't be deleted without your  
consent.

—Jens