The W3C Web API Working Group has been merged with the Web Application Formats Working Group to form the Web Applications Working Group. All of the deliverables of this group are now under development by the WebApps WG. This page is here solely for historical purposes.

The W3C Web API Working Group was chartered to develop standard APIs for client-side Web Application development. This work included both documenting existing APIs such as XMLHttpRequest and developing new APIs in order to enable richer web applications.

This group worked in public, with details on the WebApps Wiki.

Of technical and historical interest is the public-webapi@w3.org mailing list archive. The mailing list is no longer active and all feedback should be sent instead to the public-webapps@w3.org mailing list (archives), or via IRC on the W3C #webapps channel.

The group worked on the following documents (which are all available through our public CVS repository):

• DOM Level 3 Events
  current status is active WD
• Clipboard Operations for the Web 1.0: Copy, Paste, Drag and Drop
  current status is FPWD
  editor is inactive, looking for new editor
• ElementTraveral
  current status is active WD
• File Upload
  current status is FPWD
  editor is inactive, looking for new editor
• Language Bindings for DOM Specifications
  current status is active FPWD
• Network Communication API 1.0
  socket connections (e.g. implementing an IRC client in a web page and other cool stuff)
  current status is active Editor's Draft
• Progress Events 1.0
  covers both uploading and downloading
  current status is active WD
• Remote Events for XML (REX) 1.0
  current status is closed, REX 2.0 under development by Ubiquitous Web Applications Working Group
• Selectors API
  current status is active WD
• Window Object 1.0
  current status is FPWD
  editor is inactive, looking for new editor
• The XMLHttpRequest Object
  current status is active WD
  (current editor's draft in CVS)

The group is planning on publishing the following documents at some point (hopefully soon!):

• A specification for persistent storage.
• Taking DOM Level 3 XPath to Recommendation status.
• A second edition of DOM Level 3 Core.

The W3C Staff Contact for the Web API Working Group is Doug Schepers. The Chair of the Working Group is Charles McCathieNevile.

You can read about any Patent Policy disclosures.