Towards a Standard for "Web Objects"

A wobject (.wob, web object) is a single browser-native double-click runnable file that runs in any browser. It's a modern component type for constructing simple content or complex integrated systems!

Aug 28, 2025

Introduction

A wobject (web object) is a self-contained web module – essentially a mini web application or widget – that can be easily created, shared, and embedded. The goal of a wobject standard is to make these modules as powerful as full web apps while keeping them simple to edit and distribute. This concept builds on earlier ideas like W3C “widgets,” which were “full-fledged client-side applications… authored using Web standards such as HTML and packaged for distribution”w3.org. Like those, wobjects can range from simple UI components (e.g. a clock or form widget) to complex mash-ups pulling data from multiple sourcesw3.org. The key difference is that wobjects are designed with modern web capabilities, human readability, and AI-era collaboration in mind.

Key Principles of the Wobject Standard:

Full Web Functionality: Anything possible in a normal web application should be possible in a .wob module.
Composable & Portable: Wobjects are nestable and linkable – you can embed or reference one wobject inside another, or package multiple together.
Native Web Technologies: Use of standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as first-class citizens for content, styling, and behavior.
Human-Readable Format: Wobject code is plain text (no binary blobs), making it easy for people to read, edit, and version-control – and easy for AI assistants to understand.
Easy Sharing & Collaboration: .wob files are straightforward to share, host, and co-develop, lowering the barrier for reuse and teamwork (including collaboration with LLMs).

Below we expand each of these principles in detail.

Full Web Application Capabilities

Wobjects are intended to support the full range of web app features. In practice, this means a .wob can do anything a standard web page or single-page application can do. Developers should be able to incorporate:

Interactive UI and Scripting: Dynamic content updates, form handling, and DOM manipulation via JavaScript (or any web scripting language).
Rich Media: Audio, video, canvas graphics, and even WebGL or other advanced visualizations within the wobject’s content.
Web APIs & Device Access: Use of browser APIs for features like geolocation, camera/microphone access, local storage, notifications, offline caching, etc., as permitted by the user’s environment.
Networking: Making HTTP requests, WebSocket connections, or calling REST/GraphQL endpoints to interact with remote services.
Offline & State Management: Optionally, support offline functionality (e.g. via Service Workers) and maintain internal state or data as needed.

In short, there should be no artificial limitation – a wobject can harness the entire web platform. Modern web technology is extremely capable, to the point that experts predict “the capability of web and native will be a 100% overlap” in the near futurereddit.com. This means any feature we expect in a native app (from responsive design to file access, where allowed) could be implemented inside a .wob. The wobject standard embraces this by ensuring if a browser can do it, so can a wobject. Developers are free to build everything from simple static widgets to complex interactive applications within this framework. Importantly, heavyweight features are optional – you might have very light wobjects or very sophisticated ones – but the standard makes all these capabilities available when needed.

Composability and Nesting

Wobjects are nestably and linkably composable, meaning you can combine multiple wobjects together and they can reference each other in a standard way. This principle has two aspects:

Embedding & Referencing: A wobject can be embedded inside another web context or another wobject. For example, one .wob can include a reference to a hosted .wob (by URL or identifier) which will load and display the embedded module. This is analogous to how an <iframe> can embed an external page, or how a custom element can encapsulate a component. The wobject standard will define a clear method (or tag) for including one wobject within another, ensuring that it’s as easy as a hyperlink or script include. In other words, wobjects should behave like LEGO blocks that snap together. A developer could, for instance, create a dashboard page as a wobject that links in several other widget-like wobjects (charts, feeds, etc.) by reference rather than rewriting them.
Packaging Multiple Components: Alternately, the standard supports bundling wobjects together. A .wob file (or package) could contain other wobjects internally, so that a single file can deliver a whole collection of interrelated components. This is useful for portability – you might package a widget along with some helper wobjects it uses, or an entire mini-application composed of many pieces, into one distributable unit. The standard will likely allow both approaches (linking to external .wob files, or including them in one package) to maximize flexibility.

By enabling composition, we allow reusability and modular design. One wobject can serve as a building block for larger experiences. Notably, earlier web widget frameworks allowed something similar: W3C Widgets “could be downloaded and installed… where they run as stand-alone applications, but they can also be embedded into Web pages”w3.org w3.org. In our context, this means you could run a wobject on its own (for example, open it in a browser or a viewer as an app), or embed it inside a bigger page or another wobject seamlessly. The standard will define how the embedding works (ensuring things like namespace isolation or CSS scoping if needed, similar to shadow DOM in Web Components). The nesting can be deep – a wobject might embed one or more wobjects, which themselves might embed others, and so on – enabling complex app assemblies. And because linking by URL is supported, one can host a wobject on a server and have many other wobjects or pages reference that single source, avoiding duplication and easing updates. Conversely, packaging offers a self-contained route when external dependencies are not desirable.

Native HTML, CSS, and Web Services Integration

To make wobjects immediately familiar to web developers, the standard emphasizes native HTML and CSS as first-class citizens for structure and style. Rather than inventing a new UI description language, a wobject’s content is written in plain HTML (or a close variant) and styled with CSS. This means anything you can markup with HTML – headings, buttons, divs, canvas, etc. – can be directly used inside a .wob. Styles can be applied via standard CSS rules, enabling responsive design, theming, and use of existing CSS frameworks if desired. Embracing these open web standards is crucial, because they are widely known and supported. (HTML itself is a famous open standardibm.com, which ensures longevity and compatibility.)

JavaScript (and potentially other scripting languages that compile to web scripts) is used to provide behavior. This is in line with modern Web Components, which “let you create complex HTML elements that can have rich behaviors thanks to the included JavaScript”blog.bitsrc.io. In a wobject, you might include script sections or linked scripts just as you would in a normal web page – for example, to handle user input or fetch remote data. The key is that a developer can leverage the entire existing ecosystem of libraries and knowledge in HTML/CSS/JS. There’s no need to learn a proprietary templating system or use heavy transpilers (though one could be used in development if desired); the output is standard web code.

Additionally, linked web services and hosted content are native to the wobject developer experience. In practical terms, this means if your wobject needs to use an external API or include media from elsewhere on the web, you do so using normal web methods. Want to display images or videos hosted online? Just use an <img> tag or video embed pointing to that URL. Need data from a REST API? Use fetch() or WebSocket calls in your script. The standard will likely outline security and sandboxing considerations for such external links (much as browsers do), but it will not restrict developers to a closed environment. On the contrary, connectivity is a feature: wobjects can integrate with cloud services, databases (via APIs), authentication providers, or other web apps. This makes them powerful: for example, a .wob could be a widget that shows live stock prices by calling a public finance API, or a collaborative document editor that calls backend web services – all using conventional web protocols. By making external interactions feel native, we cater to the “developer class” by letting them use their usual tools and techniques inside wobjects, with minimal friction.

In summary, native web tech in wobjects ensures maximum compatibility and developer familiarity. It treats the browser as the runtime and HTML/CSS/JS as the lingua franca. This not only lowers the learning curve but also means wobjects can directly evolve with web standards. If a new CSS feature or Web API comes out, wobjects can use it immediately. The result is a future-proof foundation built on the open web.

Human-Readable and Editable Format

A fundamental requirement is that wobjects have natively human-readable code. This means the internals of a .wob are text-based and understandable, not a compiled binary or obscure bytecode. Any developer (or advanced user) should be able to open a wobject file in a text editor and see meaningful content – HTML markup, CSS styles, script code, maybe some metadata in JSON/YAML, etc. The syntax should be clear and well-documented. This design choice is crucial for a few reasons:

Transparency and Trust: Users can inspect a wobject’s code to verify what it does (important for security and openness). An open standard where “legible” code is the norm promotes trust, as opposed to opaque binaries. In the context of public collaboration, codebases that are “usable, open, [and] legible” invite more contributors and scrutinystandard.publiccode.net.
Ease of Editing and Version Control: Because the code is text, making changes doesn’t require special tools – any code editor will do. It also plays well with version control systems (git diff works on the code). Teams can collaborate on a wobject like they would on a website or a piece of software, merging changes and tracking history.
Learning and Onboarding: New developers can learn from existing wobjects by reading the code. The standard could encourage or require some documentation within the file (comments or a README section) to explain how the wobject works, further aiding understanding.
Extensibility: If the wobject format needs to be extended in the future, using a text-based format (e.g. a new JSON field or HTML tag) is easier while maintaining backward compatibility. Old readers might ignore new fields without breaking, whereas binary formats can be brittle.

Notably, collaboration with AI (LLMs) is a major point here. Since the code is human-readable, it’s also LLM-readable. Large Language Models have been trained on HTML, JavaScript, and other code, so they can understand wobject code and even help generate or modify it. This means developers can leverage AI assistants (like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, etc.) to create wobjects or troubleshoot them. For example, one could prompt an LLM with “Help me generate a .wob file that displays a photo gallery with slideshow controls,” and because the format is based on HTML/JS, the AI can output something that is likely a working starting point. Likewise, an LLM can review a wobject’s code to suggest improvements or find bugs. By making wobjects LLM-friendly by design, we tap into a powerful new way of collaborating. The standard might even include conventions (such as structured comments or metadata) that make it easier for AI to parse the intent of the code. But even without special features, sticking to plain web languages and clear structure is enough – today’s AI tools already can handle these languages effectively.

In essence, the wobject standard treats human-readability as first-class. This echoes the philosophy of open-source and open-standards communities that prioritize accessibility of the code. It future-proofs the ecosystem against the scenario of code becoming too convoluted: here, we deliberately want code that both humans and AI together can work on. By doing so, we encourage a culture of sharing and co-creation, where wobjects are easy to remix and improve.

Easy Sharing, Hosting, and Collaboration

Wobjects are designed to be very easy to share and deploy, much more so than traditional apps. The .wob format will enable a few convenient modes of distribution:

Single-File Distribution: In the simplest case, a wobject is a single file (e.g. myWidget.wob) that contains everything needed for that component to run. You can email it, post it on a forum, or put it in a Git repository – anyone who obtains the file can use the wobject. Because it’s text-based and likely quite portable, it could even be copy-pasted if needed. This is analogous to how a PDF or an image can be shared easily. In fact, earlier packaged widget specs noted that because they were packaged, “they [could] be shared by users without relying on HTTP” (no special server needed)w3.org. The same holds for wobjects: you don’t necessarily need an app store or a package manager – you can just share the file through any channel.
Web Hosting: If you prefer, you can host a .wob on a standard web server or a content delivery network. Since it’s essentially web content, serving it over HTTP is straightforward. The MIME type for wobjects would be standardized so that browsers or runtime environments know how to handle it (similar to how .html files are served as text/html). With a hosted wobject, users or other apps can fetch it by URL. This makes updating easy – if the wobject is improved, updating the hosted file means everyone embedding or linking it gets the new version (assuming version control or caching strategies as appropriate).
Integration with Web Pages or Apps: Another sharing scenario is embedding a wobject in a regular webpage. For example, perhaps a developer wants to embed a third-party .wob widget into an existing site (much like embedding a YouTube player or a Twitter card). The standard could define that including a small loader script plus the .wob URL will render the wobject in place. This way, wobjects can travel beyond just the wobject ecosystem and into any website. Think of it like an embed code (e.g. a <script src="some.wob"></script> or a custom <wobject src="..."> tag) that site owners can use. For this to work securely, the wobject runtime might sandbox it or use shadow DOM to avoid style/script conflicts, but these are implementation details. The key is that sharing a wobject is as easy as sharing a snippet or link.
Collaboration and Versioning: Because wobjects are open text, multiple people (or AI agents) can collaborate on them. They can be stored in a git repository for community development. Imagine an open-source library of wobjects where developers around the world contribute improvements – this is feasible when the format is open and standardized. Merging changes or branching/forking a wobject project would be no different than any open-source web project. The standard might also consider a way to identify versions or authors within the wobject metadata, to keep track of provenance when wobjects are shared widely.

From a hosting perspective, nothing exotic is required. A wobject should run on any modern web browser or a lightweight runtime loader. This means a user double-clicking a .wob file could open it in their browser (once the system knows .wob is associated with the browser or a viewer app). Alternatively, a command-line tool or package could turn a .wob into a local app. The experience should remain frictionless: no heavy installation or compilation step for the end-user. This ease of deployment mirrors the zero-install nature of web pages – you just load it and it works. By lowering the effort to share and run wobjects, the standard encourages widespread adoption.

Finally, easy sharing ties back to easy collaboration: when an engineer can send a .wob file to a colleague or an LLM and get quick feedback or contributions, the development cycle speeds up. It also means organizations can maintain libraries of internal wobjects (for example, UI components or data visualizations) that teams can grab and plug into projects without needing to rewrite code. The interoperability provided by an open standard ensures that a wobject created by Alice can be used by Bob on a completely different system, as long as they both adhere to the standard. This interoperability and freedom from proprietary lock-in (similar to how everyone can open an HTML file or a PDF) is a core advantage – “freely available for adoption” as one expects from an open standardibm.com.

Conclusion

In proposing a standard for wobjects, we envision a web-centric module format that is powerful, flexible, and collaborative. A .wob file will enable developers to package any web experience – from content to code – in a form that others can easily read, run, and reuse. By building on the proven pillars of the World Wide Web (HTML/CSS/JS, hyperlinks, open formats) and adding a layer of standardization for portability, wobjects can become a universal medium for sharing interactive functionality. Crucially, this standard is designed not just for machines, but for people (and AI agents) to work together. It embraces the open-web ethos where solutions are interoperable and transparent.

If adopted, the wobject standard would mean that creating a web app component is as straightforward as writing a webpage, and sharing it is as simple as sending a document. Developers could collaboratively construct rich libraries of wobjects that plug into each other, accelerating web development and innovation. Given the rapid advancement of AI assistance, having a human-readable, well-structured format means our AI collaborators can participate fully – helping us generate, debug, and evolve wobjects quickly. In summary, wobjects aim to democratize web development: anything you can do on the web, you can do in a .wob; and anyone who can read and write web code (human or AI) can contribute. This standard could unlock new levels of creativity and productivity by making web components truly universal, composable, and accessible to all.

Sources:

W3C, “Packaged Web Apps (Widgets) - Packaging and XML Configuration (Introduction)”w3.org w3.org – Definition of packaged web widgets using HTML, and their ability to run standalone or embedded.
Reddit discussion on PWA vs native appsreddit.com – Noting that web apps are reaching parity with native apps in capabilities.
Bits and Pieces – Fernando Doglio, “Sharing Data Between Web Components…”blog.bitsrc.io – On Web Components bundling HTML/CSS/JS to create custom elements with rich behavior.
IBM Cloud Blog – “What are open standards?”ibm.com – Explaining open standards with HTML as an example, emphasizing openness and interoperability.
Standard for Public Code (publiccode.net)standard.publiccode.net – Emphasizing codebases that are open, legible, and collaborative.
W3C Widgets Spec (obsolete)w3.org – On how packaged widgets could be shared without needing a web server (illustrating easy distribution).