The W3C MiniApps Working Group and Community Group held the first CJK (Chinese/Japanese/Korean) online meeting dedicated to the future of standardization efforts on MiniApps in April 2021.

The main goal of the meeting was to gather the global community together, especially the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean participants to know the MiniApp ecosystem in each area, and to discuss the future of standardization efforts on MiniApps in W3C.

57 participants from more than 30 organizations attended the meeting.

The meeting consisted of pre-recorded talks and online sessions. Recorded talks and slides are available from the meeting material page. The online discussion covered five sessions: ecosystem, technical architecture, frameworks, new scenarios, and the current work in the MiniApps Working Group.

MiniApps Ecosystem

Yongqing Dong (Xiaomi) talked about the current status of the smartphone and developer ecosystem in China, and what problems Quick Apps, a form of MiniApps, have solved.

Tengyuan Zhang (Baidu) introduced the shortcomings of traditional HTML5 applications and native applications, and how MiniApps seek a balance between them.

Related videos:

• Evolution of Quickapp
• Mini App Runtime Architecture and Alliance Development Experience

MiniApps Technical Architecture

Yongqing Dong (Xiaomi) presented how Quick Apps are developed, debugged, and distributed.

Tengyuan Zhang (Baidu) shared how MiniApps are developed and how the MiniApp platforms fetch, load, and run MiniApps. He also talked about the technical architecture and performance optimization of Baidu Smart Programs.

Xiongwei Hu (JD.com) presented the architecture and development/release process of JD MiniApps. He also talked about how to use Shadow DOM to implement components, how to do layout, how to ensure the security of user information, and introduced the design of the JD Mini Apps runtime.

Related videos:

• Evolution of Quickapp
• Mini App Runtime Architecture and Alliance Development Experience
• Design of the MiniApp Cross-Platform Technical Standards

MiniApps Frameworks

Jiajian Chen (JD.com) introduced the current background and trends of various MiniApp platforms, common problems encountered when developing cross-platform MiniApps, and how Taro solved these problems.

Hongbao Cui (DCloud) talked about the current status of MiniApp platforms and the importance of standardization and internationalization of MiniApps.

Because the current mainstream MiniApp platforms do not support DOM manipulation, we also discussed the necessity of supporting DOM manipulation.

Related video and slides:

• Looking at the MiniApps Specifications from the Perspective of the Taro Cross-Platform Framework
• How to Build a MiniApp Technology Ecosystem

MiniApps in New Scenarios

Qing An (Alibaba) introduced MiniApps in different scenarios such as mobile phones, Internet of Things, and vehicles, as well as the advantages, usage scenarios, and potential standardization opportunities of MiniApps on vehicles.

Related video:

• MiniApps for Vehicle
• Design of the MiniApp Cross-Platform Technical Standards

MiniApps WG Work Overview

Yongjing Zhang (Huawei) introduced the standards development status in the MiniApps WG, as well as the ongoing incubation direction in the MiniApps CG. He invited the meeting participants to participate in the MiniApps WG and CG.

Conclusion

We ended the meeting by summarizing the main points of the meeting and the MiniApps WG will continue to refine the specifications and request wide review in accordance with the group charter. The MiniApps CG will collaborate with related groups in W3C to explore new standardization directions. The MiniApps WG Chairs called for setting up a CJK Task Force mailing list so that the CJK community can follow up and continue to exchange ideas at any time.

For more info, see also the meeting page and the detailed minutes.