[IndexedDB] WebAppsWG TPAC F2F agenda (Fukuoka, Sep 19-20 2019)

[dmurph]

This is a working draft of the IndexedDB Agenda at TPAC, for the WebApps WG:

Status Updates

• IndexedDBTransaction.commit shipped.

IndexedDBTransaction waitUntil or manualCommit option

Problem

IndexedDBTransaction's auto-commit mechanism is

1. confusing to users,
2. incompatible with Promises, and
3. incompatible with other async work.

While one could argue 3) is partially intentional, the other 2 are important problems that prevent more usage of IndexedDB.

Proposal

Spec: TODO
Tracking: https://crbug.com/843769
IndexedDBTransaction.waitUntil (TODO: explainer / doc link)
Either implement waitUntil like the WebLocks API, or have an option on the transaction that disables auto-commit so the user has to call IndexedDBTransaction.commit

IndexedDBTransaction Flush Option

Problem

All IndexedDB transactions guarantee flushing & syncing their data to disk. This is costly, and most websites don't need this functionality but pay the performance cost for it anyways.
Firefox was able to stop flushing by default, and currently requires developer opt-in for flushing.

Proposal

Spec: #50
Tracking: https://crbug.com/965883
Introduce a flag for IndexedDB Transaction creation to specify to turn on flushing. (TODO: doc link).

Triage Issues on the IndexedDB Spec

Problem

The IndexedDB specification has accumulated quite a few open issues, some of which are really old. Link: https://github.com/w3c/IndexedDB/issues/

Proposal

We would like to have the community help us decide which issues are worth considering, and which issues can be closed.

[dmurph]

Attaching to the schedule here: w3c/webappswg#10

[inexorabletash]

Photos of flip chart of Indexed DB breakout at TPAC 2019 - transcription/notes to follow:

[inexorabletash]

TPAC 2019 Web Apps IndexedDB Breakout:

Topics discussed:

• [SecureContext] on commit() ? - notes in Mark IDBTransaction's commit() method as [SecureContext] ? #254
• Make autocommit optional - notes in Allow more explicit control over transaction lifetimes #34
• KV Storage
  • noted that there are performance concerns since IDB is "slow", but API is great
• Relaxed durability - notes in Define flush-to-disk guarantees and control #50
• Storing Response/Request objects - notes in Allow indexing on Request/Response properties #305
• Issue backlog triage
  • desire to close out issues we think are not going to happen
  • planned for a day 2 breakout
• version change transactions w/o modifying version number - notes in Allow version change transactions w/o modifying version number #304
• getAll with key and primary key - notes in getAll() with both key and value (or index key and primary key) #206
• putAll - notes in Feature Request: Allow batch adding records (from an Array) #69
• getMany - notes in Support queries retrieving disjoint sets of keys #19

[inexorabletash]

Added tracking issues #304 #305