W3C

The CSS Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of CSS Layout API Level 1. This specification describes an API which allows developers to layout a box in response to computed style and box tree changes.

The Web of Things provides layered interoperability between Things by using the WoT Interfaces and enables applications to interact with and orchestrate connected Things at Web scale. The Web of Things (WoT) Working Group has published today:

• A First Public Working Group Note of the Web of Things (WoT) Protocol Binding Templates. This document describes the initial set of design pattern and vocabulary extensions to the WoT Thing Description. Protocol Binding Templates consist of reusable vocabulary and design pattern extensions to the WoT Thing Description format that enable an application client to interact, using a consistent interaction model, with Things that expose diverse protocols and protocol usage. See the specification to discover how to contribute to this draft.
• An updated Working Draft of the Web of Things (WoT) Thing Description. This specification describes a formal model and common representation for a Web of Things Thing Description, which describes the metadata and interfaces of Things, where a Thing is an abstraction of a physical entity that provides interactions to and participates in the Web of Things. In addition to physical entities, Things can also represent virtual entities. A Thing Description instance can be hosted by the Thing itself or hosted externally due to Thing’s resource restrictions (e.g. limited memory space) or when a Web of Things-compatible legacy device is retrofitted with a Thing Description.
• An updated Working Draft of the Web of Things (WoT) Scripting API. This specification describes a programming interface representing the WoT Interface that allows scripts run on a Thing to discover and consume (retrieve) other Things and to expose Things characterized by Properties, Actions and Events. Scripting is an optional “convenience” building block in WoT and it is typically used in gateways that are able to run a WoT Runtime and script management, providing a convenient way to extend WoT support to new types of endpoints and implement WoT applications like Thing Directory.

The W3C Advisory Committee has elected Kenneth Rohde Christiansen (Intel Corporation) to fill the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) additional seat created by the adoption of Process 2018. He joins co-Chairs Tim Berners-Lee, Daniel Appelquist (Samsung Electronics), Peter Linss (W3C Invited Expert), continuing participants David Baron (Mozilla Foundation), Hadley Beeman (W3C Invited Expert), Travis Leithead (Microsoft), Sangwhan Moon (Odd Concepts), Lukasz Olejnik (W3C Invited Expert), Alex Russell (Google), and staff contact Yves Lafon. The mission of the TAG is to build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary, to resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG, and to help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C. Learn more about the TAG.

The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group invites implementations of two documents:

• WAI-ARIA Graphics Module (Graphics-ARIA): Assistive technologies need semantic information about the structures and expected behaviors of a document in order to convey appropriate information to persons with disabilities. This specification defines a WAI-ARIA 1.1 [WAI-ARIA-1.1] module of core roles specific to web graphics. These semantics allow an author to express the logical structure of the graphic to assistive technologies in order improve accessibility of graphics. Assistive technologies could then enable semantic navigation and adapt styling and interactive features, to provide an optimal experience for the audience. These features complement the graphics and document structure elements defined by HTML [HTML52] and SVG [SVG2].
• Graphics Accessibility API Mappings (Graphics-AAM): The Graphics Accessibility API Mappings defines how user agents map the WAI-ARIA Graphics Module [GRAPHICS-ARIA-1.0] markup to platform accessibility APIs. It is intended for user agent developers responsible for accessibility in their user agent so that they can support the accessibility of graphics such as that created for [SVG] or [HTML52]. The implementation of this specification in user agents enables authors to produce more accessible graphics by conveying common graphics semantics to assistive technologies. It provides Accessibility API Mapping guidance for the roles defined in the WAI-ARIA Graphics Module [GRAPHICS-ARIA-1.0].

These documents are part of the WAI-ARIA suite described in the WAI-ARIA Overview.

The Internationalization Working Group invites implementations of an updated Candidate Recommendation of Encoding. The utf-8 encoding is the most appropriate encoding for interchange of Unicode, the universal coded character set. Therefore for new protocols and formats, as well as existing formats deployed in new contexts, this specification requires (and defines) the utf-8 encoding.

The other (legacy) encodings have been defined to some extent in the past. However, user agents have not always implemented them in the same way, have not always used the same labels, and often differ in dealing with undefined and former proprietary areas of encodings. This specification addresses those gaps so that new user agents do not have to reverse engineer encoding implementations and existing user agents can converge.

The Web Authentication Working Group invites implementations of the Web Authentication: An API for accessing Public Key Credentials Level 1 Candidate Recommendation. This specification defines an API enabling the creation and use of strong, attested, scoped, public key-based credentials by web applications, for the purpose of strongly authenticating users. Conceptually, one or more public key credentials, each scoped to a given Relying Party, are created and stored on an authenticator by the user agent in conjunction with the web application. The user agent mediates access to public key credentials in order to preserve user privacy. Authenticators are responsible for ensuring that no operation is performed without user consent. Authenticators provide cryptographic proof of their properties to relying parties via attestation. This specification also describes the functional model for WebAuthn conformant authenticators, including their signature and attestation functionality.

The Device and Sensors Working Group invites implementations of the Candidate Recommendation for six documents, namely:

• Generic Sensor API: Generic Sensor API defines a framework for exposing sensor data to the Open Web Platform in a consistent way. It does so by defining a blueprint for writing specifications of concrete sensors along with an abstract Sensor interface that can be extended to accommodate different sensor types.
• Ambient Light Sensor: Ambient Light Sensor defines a concrete sensor interface to monitor the ambient light level or illuminance of the device’s environment.
• Accelerometer: Accelerometer defines Accelerometer, LinearAccelerationSensor and GravitySensor interfaces for obtaining information about acceleration applied to the X, Y and Z axis of a device that hosts the sensor.
• Gyroscope: Gyroscope defines a concrete sensor interface to monitor the rate of rotation around the device’s local three primary axes.
• Magnetometer: Magnetometer defines a concrete sensor interface to measure magnetic field in the X, Y and Z axis.
• Orientation Sensor: Orientation Sensor defines a base orientation sensor interface and concrete sensor subclasses to monitor the device’s physical orientation in relation to a stationary three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.