[whatwg] HTML extension for system idle detection.

[Jens Alfke]

On Sep 13, 2009, at 9:51 AM, Aryeh Gregor wrote:

> As far as I know, web
> apps have no way to get the user's attention if they aren't using the
> web app, do they?

GMail 'blinks' by alternating the window title between two states,  
which can be effective even if the animation in the window content  
isn't visible; but it's not that great a solution.

Audio notifications are also possible. In HTML5 they won't even  
require a plugin :p

> I'd imagine popping up a window isn't reliable --
> it might be stopped by a popup blocker, or the user might have all new
> windows going to tabs, or something like that.  (Is there a new API
> for that, perhaps?)

Yes, there is a notification API under review that tells the browser  
to pop up some kind of platform-specific notifier UI, like a task-tray  
bubble on Windows or a Growl-like floater on Mac OS. I haven't been  
paying close attention but I think a WebKit implementation is in  
progress.

—Jens