tdlr:
- Add to head <link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.json">
- Serve a manifest.json (either static file/generated via PHP)
Not to be confused with cache manifests
We should strive to make the Wikipedia mobile site a good example of a mobile web app.
The app manifest standard is currently in Chrome and soon Firefox:
http://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/
There's a good post here courtesy of Paul Kinlan:
https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/device-access/stickyness/web-app-manifest?hl=en
Benefits
- We currently have a bunch of things in meta tags in the header for this purpose.
- Chrome prompts users to install to home screen when the icon is present. This could be a good opportunity for Wikipedia mobile users to add a bookmark to their home screen and increase engagement.
- We should explore if people do this and whether this leads to them using the site more often.
{ "short_name": "Wikipedia", "name": "Wikipedia Mobile", "orientation": "portrait", "icons": [ ], "start_url": "/wiki/Main_Page", "display": "browser", "theme_color": "#252525" }
In future we may want to explore changing the start url (the design team have been prototyping a feeds experiment [1] for example)
[1] http://feeds-a.meteor.com/
