On Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at 8:39:21 AM UTC+9 Robbie McElrath wrote:

Contact emails

rmcelr...@chromium.org, ze...@chromium.org

Explainer

https://github.com/WICG/controlled-frame/blob/main/README.md

Specification

https://wicg.github.io/controlled-frame


This is a large specification effort, so thank you for working on it!

Unfortunately, it seems pretty incomplete right now. E.g. stuff 
like 
https://wicg.github.io/controlled-frame/#dom-htmlcontrolledframeelement-executescript
 
step 7 
or 
https://wicg.github.io/controlled-frame/#dom-htmlcontrolledframeelement-insertcss
 
steps 6-8 are not really specification text, just explainer text in numeric 
list format. 
Similarly 
https://wicg.github.io/controlled-frame/#traverse-an-embedded-navigables-history
 
has a pretty bad TODO. And stuff 
like https://wicg.github.io/controlled-frame/#validate-embedded-content 
also makes it seem like the specification is not ready.

To me it doesn't seem like this specification is at the level we require 
<https://www.chromium.org/blink/guidelines/web-platform-changes-guidelines/#specifications>,
 
i.e. enough to allow interoperable implementation between multiple engines.

Could you keep working on writing a complete specification, and come back 
to us for shipping approval when such a spec is ready?

I'm also concerned about the section 
at https://wicg.github.io/controlled-frame/#api-web-request , which 
basically seems to be saying that the proposal authors aren't working to 
create a web platform standard here, but instead ship a Chrome Apps API to 
the web. I don't know if that's an appropriate thing for us to approve 
through the Blink process. Even beyond the issue of creating a rigorous 
specification, that decision might need more discussion.
 


Summary

Adds a Controlled Frame API available only to Isolated Web Apps (IWAs).

This work will add a new Controlled Frame API which is only available to 
Isolated Web Apps (IWAs). Like WebView APIs on other platforms, Controlled 
Frame allows embedding all content, even third party content that can't be 
embedded in <iframe>. Controlled Frame also allows controlling embedded 
content with a collection of API methods and events.

For more info on Isolated Web Apps, see the IWA explainer: 
https://github.com/WICG/isolated-web-apps/blob/main/README.md


Blink component

Blink>ControlledFrame 
<https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Blink%3EControlledFrame%22>

TAG review

https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1067 

TAG review status

Pending

Risks
Interoperability and Compatibility

This is a new API available only within IWAs. As a new API, it is subject 
to the risk that other browsers may not implement it. However, other 
browsers must also implement IWAs, and for now we are advancing this to 
assist our dev partners that are migrating from Chrome Apps.

The API allows embedding third-party (non-IWA) content. The content will be 
loaded within dedicated storage partitions managed by the embedding 
application and won't have access to the same site's content as if it was 
loaded in a tab.


Gecko: No signal

WebKit: No signal

Web developers: The WebView API that Controlled Frame is based on has been 
used by developers for 15+ years for the use cases outlined in the 
explainer. Feedback for Controlled Frame specifically has been requested.

Other signals: Controlled Frame is very similar to WebView APIs. Work in 
W3C around WebViews is on-going, documenting their existing and potential 
uses. We have been participating in discussions and hope to offer insights 
with our design, implementation, and community feedback. Internal partners 
have requested embedding APIs that can be used in web apps.

Ergonomics

The Controlled Frame API is based on the Chrome Apps WebView API, which has 
had the benefit of years of developer partner experience and feedback. We 
included some adjustments to the API to ensure it fits into web 
technologies like permissions and permissions policy, incorporated 
developer partner feedback, and changed or removed some API elements based 
on need.

Activation

Developers must build an IWA to use the Controlled Frame API. The IWA they 
build must then be deployed, currently using managed distribution via 
enterprise policy. These hurdles present significant activation risk since 
each of these are new technologies and require interaction with multiple 
systems.

Once the IWA is built, using the Controlled Frame element may require some 
direct engagement since the methods used to interact with embedded content 
are complicated. We recommend additional developer documentation and 
outreach directly with development partners.


Security

Controlled Frame is only available to IWAs, which restricts the API so that 
it's not accessible to normal web pages and normal web applications.

Controlled Frame integrates with Permissions Policy and requires the IWA to 
include the "controlled-frame" policy-controlled feature in the IWA 
manifest in order for the feature to be enabled.

Controlled Frame containers inherit a permissions policy from the embedding 
frame and policy-controlled features are only available if those features 
are enabled in the embedding frame. Features that use permissions require 
the embedder to allow those permissions, and the embedder itself must 
already have that permission in order to allow the embedded content to use 
it.

WebView application risks

This API is not available on Android, and has no impact on Android WebView.


Debuggability

Console messages within a nested browsing context fire an event that the 
embedder can choose to display (e.g. to the user, via console.log() to show 
it in DevTools, etc).

Events are generated in the API for certain kinds of actions that occur 
within an embedded frame's lifetime.

DevTools is available within the embedded content.


Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, 
Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?

No. The Controlled Frame API is not currently supported on Android. (This 
work is conceptually similar to Android WebView but is unrelated as this 
proposal targets building a WebView-related API for IWAs.)  Initially the 
API environment is exposed only on ChromeOS 


Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests 
<https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>
?

No. WPT does not support PWA/IWA test environments. Once that support is 
available, we can investigate adding IWA-focused WPT tests.

Until then, we have built a pseudo-WPT test environment so we can write 
WPT-like tests that work in an IWA context. These are available for review 
in the Chromium code repository:

//chrome/test/data/controlled_frame:

https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/main:
chrome/test/data/controlled_frame/

//chrome/browser/controlled_frame/controlled_frame_wpt_browsertest.cc:

https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/main:
chrome/browser/controlled_frame/controlled_frame_wpt_
browsertest.cc?q=add_content_scripts&ss=chromium%2Fchromium%2Fsrc


DevTrial instructions

https://github.com/WICG/controlled-frame/tree/main/test_app

Flag name on about://flags

ControlledFrame

Finch feature name

None

Non-finch justification

None

Requires code in //chrome?

True

Tracking bug

https://crbug.com/40191772

Launch bug

https://launch.corp.google.com/launch/4283394

Measurement

https://chromestatus.com/metrics/feature/timeline/popularity/5205

Sample links

https://github.com/WICG/controlled-frame/tree/main/test_app

Estimated milestones

Shipping on desktop

136

DevTrial on desktop

114


Anticipated spec changes

We’re currently working on expanding many sections of the spec.


Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/5199572022853632?gate=5134483605422080

Links to previous Intent discussions

Intent to Prototype: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-
dev/CAKcCwFPo79ELzrS5qDcbXNM9K71c1a964uqWpMxK0AZNzOXa1w%40mail.gmail.com


This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status 
<https://chromestatus.com/>.

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