Application Cache Deprecation in M69

1

I am seeing this error in my app and wanted to understand the implications/ Will functionality stop in M69 unless I go to https:// or is there another option?

Thanks for any advice

[Deprecation] Application Cache is deprecated in non-secure contexts, and will be restricted to secure contexts in M69, around September 2018. Please consider migrating your application to HTTPS, and eventually shifting over to Service Workers. See Deprecating Powerful Features on Insecure Origins - The Chromium Projects for more details.

2

If you are not using https: (instead of http:) you need to fix that.

Service Workers provide a better mechanism for caching apps so that can run offline than the current cache manifest method. They’re solid on Android already.

Unfortunately, iOS is lagging on this feature. They have most of it implemented, but there is still a critical part they need to finish. Hopefully this will happen soon. iOS Safari is issuing similar deprecation messages.

3

Thanks!

So to understand this.

  1. Is there a way to disable caching or at this point do I just need to switch to https:// ? We run this on IOS and Andriod

  2. Can I implement service workers or is this part of a new NSB release in the future?

  3. When M69 rolls out, what happens if the app is using Http:// Is it safe to say it will stop running?

Thanks again for great support

4

  1. Caching and https: are two separate issues.

  2. We will be rolling out support for service worker caching as soon as Apple supports it.

  3. I expect the current caching will continue to work in Chrome 69, so no reason to panic. http: is already a problem. Fix that now for sure.

5

Thanks.

So this is an application hosted internally at a company (not on the internet) so setting up internal certificates may be an issue.

The symptom we see is very weird… Always works great on Chrome running on a desktop, but when I go to mobile devices, some of them load and instead of starting at the default starting form, they will land on a different page.

Really a head scratcher

6

one last thing, I tried adding this line to the initial form loading

window.applicationCache.update()

7

That won’t make a difference. It’s part of the cache management that is being deprecated. We use this statement already as part of the app startup.

8

Thanks for all the advice, this really helps. The one thing I’m still not clear on is the https requirement. Out app is hosted internally at a large corporation in the corporate intranet. Currently they do not have a way to issue internal certificates. What is the impact of not using https and /or is there a release that will break current functionality? We are running now on http with the exception of the deprication warning in Chrome. Thank you for your support. Your team has always provided me excellent advice!

9

Here is what Google has to say about this: