I think it is obvious why the API is useful, productivity apps(as well as anything else that needs open and save files) on the web suffer from the friction of uploading and then downloading a file which makes for bad UX.
You can't account for every possibility but the permission management seems clear and doesn't persist. The notifications seem fairly overt as well. The fact that it is user driven too makes it hard to imagine that many/any users would not only accidentally allow permissions but then also accidentally select a sensitive file/directory. Only time will tell though.
Just a thought here. The overall the file system related use-cases on the web applications can be tackled like google drive or one drive sync pattern. Something like how our files from the local machine (in google/one drive) sync with cloud in timely fashion.
Instead of user upload directly on the web app via browser, they can upload into the sync path in local machine and that will sync the files to cloud.
The 'upload' issue is actually a non-issue even without the FS API. You can (on a vast majority of modern browsers) pull off a 'fake' upload in any number of ways that works just fine without hitting the remote server.
Downloads are the big issue, because the current behavior of web browsers does not allow for apps to hint the browser that links should use 'Save As' behavior (but, FWIW, downloads don’t actually need to hit the server either, you can use either a Data URI (if the file is small enough) or the Blob API to generate a 'donwload' client side).
I think it is obvious why the API is useful, productivity apps(as well as anything else that needs open and save files) on the web suffer from the friction of uploading and then downloading a file which makes for bad UX.
You can't account for every possibility but the permission management seems clear and doesn't persist. The notifications seem fairly overt as well. The fact that it is user driven too makes it hard to imagine that many/any users would not only accidentally allow permissions but then also accidentally select a sensitive file/directory. Only time will tell though.
Definitely true, the file upload bottle neck is the main reason I keep going back to desktop app
Just a thought here. The overall the file system related use-cases on the web applications can be tackled like google drive or one drive sync pattern. Something like how our files from the local machine (in google/one drive) sync with cloud in timely fashion.
Instead of user upload directly on the web app via browser, they can upload into the sync path in local machine and that will sync the files to cloud.
The 'upload' issue is actually a non-issue even without the FS API. You can (on a vast majority of modern browsers) pull off a 'fake' upload in any number of ways that works just fine without hitting the remote server.
Downloads are the big issue, because the current behavior of web browsers does not allow for apps to hint the browser that links should use 'Save As' behavior (but, FWIW, downloads don’t actually need to hit the server either, you can use either a Data URI (if the file is small enough) or the Blob API to generate a 'donwload' client side).
There's at least github.com/jimmywarting/StreamSave... (or for older browsers github.com/eligrey/FileSaver.js), it actually took me longer to figure out "uploading" files locally than saving files.