Channels, Feeds & Transactions Discussion group 30th Nov 2021

[kriswest]

Group overview

There are currently 10 open issues in the FDC3 repository , under consideration for the 2.0 release, that relate to the existing concept of channels (both the 'system channels' used via the desktop agent API, and 'app channels' interacted with through the Channels API) and new concepts we've discussed introducing: transactions (a standardized way to make a request and receive a response back) and feeds (a standardized way to request a stream of data, such as a pricing stream).

Relevant issue tags

Current open issues that relate to the above concepts with the label:

Meeting Date

Tuesday 30th Nov 2021 - 9am EST / 2pm GMT

WebEx info

• Meeting Link
  Meeting number: 2555 313 2702
  Password: k8fRjAqQM62

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Meeting notices

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Agenda

• Convene & roll call, review meeting notices (5mins)
• Review previous meeting minutes, action items and other recent activity (10mins):
  • Channels, Feeds & Transactions Discussion group 16th Nov 2021 #504
  • Recent activity:
    • Deprecate use of the string name field in favour of AppMetadata #506
    • Standardise auto-receipt of current context on join/addContextListener in DesktopAgent and Channel #511
    • Make optional: fdc3.joinChannel and fdc3.leaveChannel #431
      • 431 Making joinChannel, leaveCurrentChannel and getCurrentChannel functions optional #512
    • All DesktopAgent and Channel APIs should be async #362
      • 362 All DesktopAgent and Channel APIs are async #516
    • Add the concept of a feed or stream to FDC3 to handle use-cases not covered by channels or intents #433
      • 433 Feeds: PrivateChannels and returning channels from intents #508
    • Allow intents to be targeted at specific instances of apps #450
      • 450 allow intents to target app instances #509
  • See all 8 PRs open for review, relevant to this group
• Using Typescript Generics to improve the FDC3 API (15mins) Will be rolled over to a future meeting.
  • Issue to be raised (@rikoe)
  • see this comment thread for some discussion
• Add the concept of a feed or stream to FDC3 to handle use-cases not covered by channels or intents #433 (20mins)
  • Review revisions to second proposal
  • 433 Feeds: PrivateChannels and returning channels from intents #508
• Allow intents to be targeted at specific instances of apps #450 (20 mins)
  • Review updated or new proposals
  • 450 allow intents to target app instances #509
• AOB & Adjourn (5mins)

Minutes

• @kriswest provided an introduction to two new issues raised and encouraged participants to comment on the issue threads:
  • Deprecate use of the string name field in favour of AppMetadata #506
  • Standardise auto-receipt of current context on join/addContextListener in DesktopAgent and Channel #511
• Clarification of process for PRs -> SWG was requested by a participant:
  • @kriswest to create a summary of all open PRs from this group (with diagrams for the less technical) for next SWG meeting in 2 weeks
  • The maintainers will then wait a month for input (and for the maintainers to review the PRs) before merging the changes if there are no objections or further discussion
• @kriswest to highlight any controversial elements in PRs raised/examined in this meeting within the meeting minutes for non-attendees to review (see below)
• Add the concept of a feed or stream to FDC3 to handle use-cases not covered by channels or intents #433
  • PR: 433 Feeds: PrivateChannels and returning channels from intents #508
  • Take note of when reviewing:
    • PR is built on top of other PRs currently open, so not all the changes shown are specific to this PR
    • There was some discussion of whether you should createPrivateChannel() and return it or whether the desktop agent should just always create one for a raised intent automatically
      • Meeting participants observed that:
        • The Desktop Agent would not know whether a channel is needed and that they would proliferate on all raised intents.
        • IntentResolution.getResult() would have to be split into getData() and getChannel()
        • You'd be able to return both data and a channel from one intent, which is unintended.
    • findIntent supports resolution with a specified return type.
      • This can be channel or channel<context type> (e.g. channel<fdc3.instrument>) if you want a channel back.
      • Is this needed?
• Allow intents to be targeted at specific instances of apps #450
  • PR: 450 allow intents to target app instances #509
  • Take note of when reviewing:
    • optional fdc3.findInstances() API call
      • use-case: to establish if a copy of an app has been launched already - without having to findIntent and have an intent/context handy
    • AppMetadata.instanceMetadata: Record<string,any> field added to support additional data to help identify instance to user in a UI
      • This is in addition to AppMetadata.instanceId
      • No standard fields proposed (implementation-specific),
      • Desktop agents don't really need it (as they could get at any such data themselves).
      • Such data is mainly useful if you want to create your own resolver within an app.
      • A meeting participant suggested manipulating AppMetadata.title instead (e.g. "My App (top left on monitor 3)") and suggest that we remove the suggested field from the PR
      • Another meeting participant suggested that an optional recommendation of where to put any extra details would help some common themes to emerge.
• A meeting participant proposed to raise a new issue: ResolveError needs a standard message to be used on raiseIntent functions to indicate that the user closed the resolver.
  • participant or @kriswest to raise the issue.
• A meeting participant proposed to raise a new issue: IntentHandler should know who raised an intent (for audit logging purposes) - perhaps an AppMetadata object passed to the handler function.
  • participant to raise the issue with a use-case.

Action Items

• (no owner recorded) Raise new issue: ResolveError needs a standard message to be used on raiseIntent functions to indicate that the user closed the resolver.
• (no owner recorded) Raise new issue: IntentHandler should know who raised an intent (for audit logging purposes)
• @kriswest prepare summary of proposals for SWG meeting 16th Dec.
• All participants to review the PRs!
• @kriswest to email fdc3 list about whether to hold a further meeting and on what date.
• Rolled over from previous meetings:
  • @rikoe Raise an issue for adding TS generics to FDC3 APIs
    • see this comment thread for some discussion

Untracked attendees

Full name	Affiliation	GitHub username

[openfin-gavin]

Gavin Lauchlan // OpenFin

[hampshan]

Andrew Hampshire @ UBS

[thorsent]

Present

[symphony-adnane]

Adnane T @symphony

[donbasuno]

Johan - FactSet 🎁

[pgn-vole]

Yacine Zalouani - UBS

[kriswest]

Kris West / Cosaic

[ggeorgievx]

Present ✅

[Julia-Ritter]

Julia / FINOS

[pbaize]

Pierre / OpenFin