[Cordova Wiki] Update of "Core API Audit" by brianleroux

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The "Core API Audit" page has been changed by brianleroux:
http://wiki.apache.org/cordova/Core%20API%20Audit?action=diff&rev1=2&rev2=3

  
   /!\ deprecated completely. alert/confirm in standard browser API, vibrate move to http://www.w3.org/TR/vibration/, kill beep
  
+ *Definitions*:
+ 
+ 
+    - *Local Notifications*
+       - System timers/alarms that can be set up to fire [periodically] in
+       order to poke your app with some intent
+       - No UI requirements, I think, just a "wake from sleep" feature
+    - *StatusBar Notifications*
+       - That awesome bar at the top: you can set up an icon, supply
+       ticker-text, and/or configure drop down notification window items
+       - Notifications may use sound/vibration/flashing lights to attract
+       the attention of user when phone isn't in use
+       - Users clicking notification window items will poke your app with
+       some intent
+       - Lots of features, vary between systems
+    - *Push Notifications*
+       - External cloud services send messages to your device in response to
+       some server action/stimulus
+       - Once a push arrives, action should likely be some combination of
+       Local/StatusBar Notifications, but there are system limitations
+ 
+ *Goals*:
+ 
+    - Identify whats possible on each platform (initially android/ios)
+    - Unify the api across platforms (as much as possible)
+    - Use w3c spec for when possible:
+       - http://www.w3.org/TR/notifications/
+       - http://www.w3.org/TR/eventsource/ (or maybe not this one..)
+    - Organize plugin documentation, and write up a single unified guide
+    describing the various pieces and provide simple example
+    - Potentially: prepare for move to core plugin, though that is not a
+    direct goal
+ 
+ *Current state of the world: *(s/the world/phonegap-plugins/)
+ 
+ *iOS*
+ 
+ 
+    - *LocalNotifications*
+    - Needs documentation fixup
+       - 6 months since proper update, but the code looks fine (at first
+       glance)
+    - *PushNotifications*
+    - Seems well maintained (Max Ogden +more)
+       - Inspired by UA implementation (below) but seems to have a more
+       robust api
+       - Note from Max: no need for explicit notification api when app is in
+       background but do when app is in foreground
+    - *UAPushNotifications*
+    - Urban Airship (http://urbanairship.com/)
+       - We have no local implementation, just a TODO in repro, but found
+       external: https://github.com/urbanairship/phonegap-ua-push
+       - May be sufficient to just update our readme to point to that repo?
+    - *StatusBarNotifier*
+       - Seems to just change the top text of the *webview* status bar, so
+       this plugin seems to not be a StatusBar notification as I defined above,
+       more like an app "title" bar, so plugin seems misnamed.
+       - Depends on 3rdparty plugin:
+       https://github.com/frankdilo/FDStatusBarNotifierView
+       - ios6 only, apparently?
+    - *NotificationEx*
+    - Not interesting, seems to just implement features that were removed
+       from old cordova version
+ 
+ *Android*
+ 
+ 
+    - *LocalNotification*
+    - Docs claim similar api to iOS version, but looks different (at first
+       glance)
+       - Can't see how to register a callback (at first glance) -- so how is
+       this useful?  Generic wakeup?
+       - 8 months since proper update, and the code looks like it needs work
+    - *Push Notification*
+    - There is no push notification plugin in the phonegap-plugin repo..
+       - However, Max Ogden pointed me to external: GCM-Cordova (Google
+       Cloud Messaging) https://github.com/marknutter/GCM-Cordova
+          - GCM replaces C2DM as supported android push messaging service
+       - Api is different than ios push plugin
+       - Also Note from Max: you have to explicitly add things to the status
+       bar as opposed to iOS where push notifications automatically get
+ displayed
+       in the UI [for background apps I assume]
+    - *StatusBarNotification*
+    - Braden recently worked to clean this up to use w3c spec etc
+       - I haven't scanned through it to see how much functionality it
+       supports
+ 
+ *Open Questions*:
+ 
+ 
+    - StatusBar Notifications: Intended for background services to notify a
+    user to start some action (instead of just doing the action without users'
+    explicit intent) -- so what does this mean for iOS without background
+    services?
+    - Are StatusBar notifications ever useful in foreground? Is that against
+    some design principle?  Leave that decision to the app developer?  (fwiw:
+    w3c spec seems to be a little vague, but no where does it say that
+    notifications are to be used only while in background)
+    - Push Notifications on ios: Can we intercept these when app is not in
+    foreground, or must we just rely on default system behavior?
+ 
+ *Prioritizing Steps Forward:*
+ 
+ 
+    1. StatusBar Notifications on iOS (w3c spec)
+    2. Push Notifications on android
+    3. Push Notifications on iOS (minor fixup/polyfill hopefully)
+    4. Local Notifications on android
+ 
+ 
  == Storage ==
  
   /!\ deprecate, the w3c doesnt want to support nor should we. file api and idb should care for all these use cases