I would agree with Bryan and Julio that we should use the opportunity of this breaking release to move the defaults to current Android best practices and remove deprecated settings.
I just started a PR [1] that introduces a preference to allow the use file URLs with this release. This means the deprecated settings [2][3] are only set with this settings as well. Darryl is right that probably many still need to run their app on the file protocol and they should have an easy option to do this with the new release. We can now push new users to avoid this and current users need to check the change log and enable this if they really need to. I agree we shouldn't take the responsibilty of a data migration. If we don't find consensus to make the WebViewAssetLoader opt-out we could make it opt-in for now. This would make the upgrade more safe but potentially many apps less secure because developers don't need to think about this change. [1] https://github.com/apache/cordova-android/pull/1222 [2] https://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebSettings#setAllowUniversalAccessFromFileURLs(boolean) [3]https://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebSettings#setAllowFileAccess(boolean) On April 28, 2021, julio cesar sanchez <jcesarmob...@gmail.com> wrote: > My understanding is that file urls can technically continue working, > but the defaults changed and some settings need to be enabled, and > some of them are now deprecated and will stop working at some point in > the future. > > I think defaulting to the old behavior is ok when doing minor releases > (not just on, but enforced because otherwise it’s a breaking change), > but whenever we make a major release, we should always use the new > behavior and make the cordova user responsibility to enable the old > behavior if they need it, because to not “break” existing apps we will > make all new apps to face the same problem in the future. > > About the data loss, the data is not really lost, the data is still > there, but since the scheme and hostname change it’s not accesible > anymore, so if the cordova users can enable the old behavior they’ll > get the data back and should be their responsibility to do so if > needed and do it before releasing a new version. We should of course > warn about it so they will be aware if they read the release blog post > or change log. > > If cordova does the data migration is when we can screw up and do it > wrong and cause the massive data loss for all users, I prefer to not > put that responsibility into the project. You have not tried to do it > in your own apps because it’s risky, would you be confident to do it > for all users? > > 2021-04-27 21:15 GMT+02:00, Darryl Pogue <dar...@dpogue.ca>: > > To counter a bit, all of my apps are using the standard Cordova > > Android WebView, and store all their data in the browser's > indexedDB. > > I've had no issues with file URLs (although I expect that will > change > > with API 30 enforcement). > > > > Losing data in an app update is unacceptable, and for many apps it > > would be catastrophic (see comments from when Google did a bad > > indexedDB migration and people lost data[1]). On iOS with WKWebView, > > I'm stuck in the position of continuing to use file URLs to keep > > existing data working because there's no supported path for data > > migration to the new scheme. > > > > We made the decision with Cordova iOS to use file URLs by default to > > ensure that we didn't unexpectedly break existing apps. > > > > We either need to default to using file URLs on Android (which is > > risky considering the API 30 enforcement is restricting what works > > there), or provide an officially supported update path that > preserves > > and migrates all the relevant data. (If we opt for the migration > path, > > it would be nice to have it support iOS as well.) > > > > If we release a Cordova update that causes a bunch of existing > Android > > apps to lose all their data, it will very likely be a public image > > disaster from which we will never recover. > > > > [1] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1033655 > > > > On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 8:48 AM Bryan Ellis <er...@apache.org> > wrote: > >> > >> I also agree. > >> > >> I think we should move forward with these changes and use the > >> WebViewAssetLoader by default. > >> > >> If must, we could write a blog post explaining how to use Norman's > plugin > >> for data migration. But I do not know if the plugin is complete to > cover > >> all data sources and fits this case. > >> > >> I believe the change though is necessary. > >> > >> Starting from API 30, Google has disabled file access to the > WebView > >> because it introduces possible security risks. > >> > >> > Apps should not open file:// URLs from any external source in > WebView, > >> don't enable this if your app accepts arbitrary URLs from external > >> sources. > >> > >> In our recent release of Cordova-Android, we explicitly set the > >> `setAllowFileAccess` to `true` to get around the change that came > in the > >> API 30 release. This allowed apps to continue working temporarily, > while > >> we would introduce a proper solution in this coming major release, > >> preferably following a secure implementation. I believe we should > not > >> default to something that has been publicly announced and known to > lead to > >> potential security risks. > >> > >> If we want to support the file scheme to allow users to avoid data > loss, I > >> think a config.xml flag can be introduced that users can manually > set if > >> they are willing to accept the potential security risks that exist > with > >> it. And it could allow them to move over whenever they decide. > >> > >> > >> > >> > On Apr 27, 2021, at 9:07 PM, julio cesar sanchez > >> > <jcesarmob...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > > >> > I would vote for defaulting to WebViewAssetLoader but still allow > using > >> > file:// from a config.xml preference for the people that are not > ready > >> > to > >> > move on. > >> > But on cordova-ios 6 I think we ended up defaulting to file:// > and use > >> > the > >> > schemes only as opt-in. > >> > > >> > About migrating data, I don't think that's our job, but we can > point > >> > users > >> > to plugins if you know some. > >> > > >> > El mar, 27 abr 2021 a las 8:03, Niklas Apache > (<niklasm...@apache.org>) > >> > escribió: > >> > > >> >> Hey folks, > >> >> > >> >> we recently merged a PR [1] which significantly changes how > cordova- > >> >> android loads web content in the webview and now need to decide > how to > >> >> move proceed. > >> >> > >> >> Google introduced the WebViewAssetLoader to make it possible to > use > >> >> web > >> >> content from a standard http(s) scheme instead of file:. This > was done > >> >> to remove security risks [2] and some apps with routing > frameworks > >> >> like > >> >> React and Angular need this for proper routing. > >> >> > >> >> Because cordova-android 10 now uses AndroidX we could implement > the > >> >> WebViewAssetLoader and remove some deprecated or security > related > >> >> WebSettings and move the platform forward to current Android > >> >> standards. > >> >> > >> >> This change may break some apps now because the origin changes > if the > >> >> app now runs on https://localhost for example instead of > file://. > >> >> Changing the origin means losing access to web storage like > >> >> localstorage, indexedb etc. First and foremost we need to > announce > >> >> that > >> >> change with the release for developers to act but additionally > we > >> >> could > >> >> do: > >> >> > >> >> 1.) Default back to file:// and make the WebViewAssetLoader opt- > in via > >> >> config.xml. This exposes apps to the security risk: > >> >> > >> >>> Note: Apps should not open file:// URLs from any external > source in > >> >> WebView, don't enable this if your app accepts arbitrary URLs > from > >> >> external sources. It's recommended to always use > >> >> androidx.webkit.WebViewAssetLoader > >> >> < > >> >> > https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/webkit/WebViewAssetLoader > >> >>> > >> >> to access files including assets and resources over http(s):// > >> >> schemes, > >> >> instead of file:// URLs. To prevent possible security issues > targeting > >> >> Build.VERSION_CODES.Q > >> >> > <https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Build.VERSION_CODES#Q> > >> >> and earlier, you should explicitly set this value to false. > >> >> > >> >> 2.) Add a migration for localstorage etc. to the platform to > provide a > >> >> smoother transition > >> >> > >> >> 3.) Use the WebViewAssetLoader only and don't migrate in the > platform > >> >> but point users to a plugin that helps them to manage their > migration > >> >> > >> >> Personally I would favor to move to WebViewAssetLoader by > default in > >> >> this breaking release to get apps up to date and adapt to > Androids > >> >> changes. I don't know how many apps would be affected because I > >> >> suspect > >> >> many apps are using native storage solutions (SQLite etc.) or > are > >> >> running Ionics WebView with the https scheme already. I am doing > both > >> >> for my apps because of the many localstorage and non https > scheme > >> >> issues > >> >> we had in the past and I suspect many did as well. > >> >> > >> >> Cordova Android 10 needs to be released rather sooner than later > so > >> >> please leave your feedback. > >> >> > >> >> Thank you very much and kind regards > >> >> Niklas > >> >> > >> >> [1] https://github.com/apache/cordova-android/pull/1137 > >> >> [2] > >> >> > >> >> > https://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebSettings#setAllowFileAccess(boolean) > >> >> > >> > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@cordova.apache.org > > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@cordova.apache.org > > > > > > > -- > ___________________________________ > Julio César Sánchez > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@cordova.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@cordova.apache.org
