Feature Request: Support version field in Web App Manifest to align with app store requirements

[CodingDive]

Thank you for all your work on this specification. For the first time, I feel that web apps are ever closer to native app experiences. ❤️

Currently, when installing PWAs on Windows, they always display as version "1.0" under Apps > Installed apps, with no way to override this through the manifest. In the above example, the version in my package.json is 0.2.8, not 1.0.

Could we add a version field to the manifest specification? This would not only give developers control over their app versioning but also align with app store requirements. Tools like PWABuilder already require version information when packaging apps for various app stores, so having this in the manifest would provide a single source of truth for versioning across platforms.

When not using manifest.json directly, but a build tool to generate the manifest like vite, it'd also be very easy to use the version of our package.json.

// vite.config.ts
import clientVersion from './package.json';

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    VitePWA({
      manifest: {
       version: clientVersion,
     }
    })
  ]
})

[christianliebel]

@CodingDive Thank you for your feature request.

My initial feedback is that the concept of versioning in app stores differs from that of web applications. In app stores, each update requires uploading a static bundle that is assigned a specific version number. This version remains fixed once submitted. In contrast, developers of web applications can update even single files at any time without altering the version number in the manifest. Therefore, the version number displayed in the list of installed apps may even be misleading.

I'm looping in the vendors here (@marcoscaceres @diekus @dmurph @saschanaz) for their feedback.

[aarongustafson]

We talked about this for the App Info spec: w3c/manifest-app-info#1

[diekus]

Hola @CodingDive. I recall there was an explainer for a version log, and I see that Aaron has pointed it out as well.

I personally think this should exist. If a developer wants to have and manage a proper versioning system they should be able to. This might be a feature that is useful for some developers and that other will overlook, but having a version number to reference builds/updates can be incredibly useful for devs/apps/repos. It also fits nicely with an app lifecycle management story.

As per it is the case with the web platform, this can be another feature that doesn't hurt existing web apps, can only enhance them if present. I am open to looking into this.

[aarongustafson]

Explainer is here: https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers/blob/main/VersionHistory/explainer.md