Web App Migration

[mkruisselbrink]

Specification

https://wicg.github.io/manifest-incubations/#web-application-origin-migration

Description

Web Application Origin Migration allows a web application to indicate to the user agent that it moved from one origin to another (within the same site). This then enables the user agent to migrate an installed web application while preserving the user's installation and potentially their settings.

Documentation

https://github.com/WICG/manifest-incubations/blob/gh-pages/pwa-migration-explainer.md
https://googlechrome.github.io/samples/pwa-migration

Browser support

• https://chromestatus.com/feature/5123349239955456

[ddbeck]

Thanks for filing this, @mkruisselbrink.

In line with other PWA features, looks like it'll have an identifier like: app-migration and a description along the lines of:

The migrate_from web app manifest member moves an installed app from one origin within the same site to another. This preserves the installation and user settings.

The browser-compat-data key for this feature ought to be manifests.webapp.migrate_from. This is not in BCD yet and will probably have to be added manually, when it ships for the first time.

[Dp-Goog]

Hello 👋 !

I'm Dibya, and I'm helping out Marijn with the migration. Can you tell me what tasks are needed in order to get this landed in the web-dx repo? Is there something that we can help with?

[ddbeck]

Hi @Dp-Goog, thanks for getting involved here. The next step here would be to add data upstream to https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data for manifests.webapp.migrate_from (i.e., you'd add migrate_from.json to this directory, probably copying the structure from one if its siblings). When there's a PR open there, it'd be a pretty straightforward process to create the feature entry here.

Are you willing to take that on? If so, please file a PR on BCD and @ me for review. Otherwise, I'll return to this when it's closer to shipping (other things are ahead of it on my to do list, at least).

[Dp-Goog]

Thanks for the quick reply here @ddbeck! I just created a PR adding the BCD entries for the 2 fields that will be required for manifest migration: mdn/browser-compat-data#29356.

Tests are currently failing because of the following error, should I add the web-features ID first? It seems like from your comment that it's straightforward to do that now that the BCD PR is out, will you be doing that?

✖ manifests.webapp.migrate_from - Error → Non-registered web-features ID found: app-migration.
     - New web-feature IDs need to be present in https://github.com/web-platform-dx/web-features first.
     - Check for typos or remove tag. Tagging will be taken care of by web-features maintainers.

I'm unable to add you as a reviewer there sadly, so would appreciate your help in reviewing that PR.

[ddbeck]

Thank you, @Dp-Goog! I've just sent a review on BCD—I expect I'll be able to merge that soon.

If you want to get ahead on the next step, you can also create a PR on this repo, to create the .yml file, using the details I mentioned in #3859 (comment). The file would have a compat_features array that will contain the new compat keys you're creating in the BCD PR.

However, the web-features PR will fail the tests (and be blocked from merging) with unindexable keys, until BCD releases and we upgrade here. But that would streamline the process for me to get the feature into the next web-features release. Cheers!

(Otherwise, I can pick this up when the next BCD release happens.)

[Dp-Goog]

Thanks for the review comments, just worked through them and re-sent for review. npm test works locally, fingers crossed it works on the bots too.

I'm jumping on a few other things at the moment, but I might have some time at the end of the day. I'll take a look at creating the .yml file if I get some free time. Will keep you posted.

Thank you once again for helping us through the process!

[Dp-Goog]

@ddbeck Hi there 👋 !

I have created #3911 adding the yml file, but npm run dist doesn't work at the moment, with the following errors:

> @web-platform-dx/web-features@0.1.0 dist
> tsx scripts/dist.ts

file:///workspaces/web-features/packages/compute-baseline/dist/browser-compat-data/query.js:10
            throw new Error(`${path} is unindexable at '${next}'`);
                  ^

Error: manifests.webapp.migrate_from is unindexable at 'migrate_from'
    at query (file:///workspaces/web-features/packages/compute-baseline/dist/browser-compat-data/query.js:10:19)
    at Compat.query (file:///workspaces/web-features/packages/compute-baseline/dist/browser-compat-data/compat.js:24:16)
    at withAncestors (file:///workspaces/web-features/packages/compute-baseline/dist/baseline/index.js:93:29)
    at file:///workspaces/web-features/packages/compute-baseline/dist/baseline/index.js:52:39
    at Array.flatMap (<anonymous>)
    at computeBaseline (file:///workspaces/web-features/packages/compute-baseline/dist/baseline/index.js:52:22)
    at toDist (/workspaces/web-features/scripts/dist.ts:270:24)
    at updateDistFile (/workspaces/web-features/scripts/dist.ts:95:22)
    at main (/workspaces/web-features/scripts/dist.ts:483:7)
    at <anonymous> (/workspaces/web-features/scripts/dist.ts:490:3)

Node.js v24.11.1

I'm guessing this will start working once mdn/browser-compat-data#29363 lands, as per #3859 (comment). Hopefully the PR makes it a little bit easier!