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And in others, the user is required to perform an additional step such as copying a compiled application to the device via a USB flash drive. In others, the application is delivered in a packaged application through a framework such as Electron. In some cases, websites communicate with the device through an agent application that users installed manually. Some custom software to control these devices is built with web technology: These devices are oft fen controlled by microcontrollers via a serial connection used by custom software. In the educational, hobbyist, and industrial sectors, users connect peripheral devices to their computers. This API is also a great companion to WebUSB as operating systems require applications to communicate with some serial ports using their higher-level serial API rather than the low-level USB API. In other words, the Web Serial API bridges the web and the physical world by allowing websites to communicate with serial devices, such as microcontrollers and 3D printers. Serial devices are connected either through a serial port on the user's system or through removable USB and Bluetooth devices that emulate a serial port. The Web Serial API provides a way for websites to read from and write to a serial device with JavaScript. # What is the Web Serial API?Ī serial port is a bidirectional communication interface that allows sending and receiving data byte by byte. The Web Serial API, part of the capabilities project, launched in Chrome 89.
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