Standards processing
Tags: standards, proposals, html, markup
Published: 2020-10-21 17:15:59

---
title: Standards processing
published: true
date: 2020-10-20 15:48:47 UTC
tags: standards,proposals,html,markup
canonical_url: https://adactio.com/journal/17542
---

I’ve been like a dog with a bone the way I’ve been pushing for [a declarative option for the Web Share API](https://adactio.com/journal/17398) in the shape of [`button type=“share”`](https://adactio.com/journal/17493). It’s been an interesting window into the world of web standards.

The story so far…

- I blogged some [half-formed thoughts](https://adactio.com/journal/17398).
- Then [I opened an issue on the spec for the Web Share API](https://github.com/w3c/web-share/issues/176).
- Meanwhile [I wrote a polyfill](https://adactio.com/journal/17405), releasing [the code](https://gist.github.com/adactio/092b11a74eded2701335ba27f94d2484) and [a test](https://codepen.io/adactio/pen/rNerbPE).
- I [responded to pushback](https://adactio.com/journal/17493) I was getting on the issue I filed.
- I also wrote up [an explainer document](https://github.com/adactio/share-button-type/blob/gh-pages/explainer.md) so everything is gathered in one place.
- Finally [I started soliciting feedback from people using the Web Share API](https://github.com/adactio/share-button-type/issues/1) in order to gather data.

That’s the situation currently. The general consensus seems to be that it’s probably too soon to be talking about implementation at this stage—the Web Share API itself is still pretty new—but gathering data to inform future work is good.

In planning for the next TPAC meeting (the big web standards gathering), [Marcos summarised the situation like this](https://github.com/w3c/web-share/issues/162#issuecomment-711626840):

> Not blocking: but a proposal was made by @adactio to come up with a declarative solution, but at least two implementers have said that now is not the appropriate time to add such a thing to the spec (we need more implementation experience + and also to see how devs use the API) - but it would be great to see a proposal incubated at the WICG.

Now this where things can get a little confusing because it used to be that if you wanted to incubate a proposal, you’d have to do on [Discourse](https://discourse.wicg.io/), which is a steaming pile of crap that requires JavaScript in order to put text on a screen. But [Šime pointed out](https://github.com/w3c/web-share/issues/176#issuecomment-711113036) that [proposals can now be submitted on Github](https://github.com/WICG/proposals/issues).

So that’s where [I’ve submitted my proposal](https://github.com/WICG/proposals/issues/11), linking through to [the explainer document](https://github.com/adactio/share-button-type/blob/gh-pages/explainer.md).

Like I said, I’m not expecting anything to happen anytime soon, but it would be really good to gather as much data as possible around existing usage of the Web Share API. If you’re using it, or you know anyone who’s using it, please, please, please take a moment to [provide a quick description](https://github.com/adactio/share-button-type/issues/1). And if you could help spread the word to get that issue in front of as many devs as possible, I’d be very grateful.

(Many thanks to everyone who’s already [contributed to that issue](https://github.com/adactio/share-button-type/issues/1)—much appreciated!)