Book Image

Progressive Web Apps with React

By : Scott Domes
Book Image

Progressive Web Apps with React

By: Scott Domes

Overview of this book

For years, the speed and power of web apps has lagged behind native applications. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) aim to solve this by bridging the gap between the web apps and native apps, delivering a host of exciting features. Simultaneously, React is fast becoming the go-to solution for building modern web UIs, combining ease of development with performance and capability. Using React alongside PWA technology will make it easy for you to build a fast, beautiful, and functional web app. After an introduction and brief overview of the goals of PWAs, the book moves on to setting up the application structure. From there, it covers the Webpack build process and the process of creating React components. You'll learn how to set up the backend database and authentication solution to communicate with Firebase and how to work with React Router. Next, you will create and configure your web app manifest, making your PWA installable on mobile devices. Then you'll get introduced to service workers and see how they work as we configure the app to send push notifications using Firebase Cloud Messaging. We'll also explore the App Shell pattern, a key concept in PWAs and look at its advantages regarding efficient performance. Finally, you'll learn how to add of?ine capabilities to the app with caching and confirm your progress by auditing your PWA with Lighthouse. Also, you'll discover helper libraries and shortcuts that will help you save time and understand the future of PWA development.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Case studies


Do you need to convince a boss to try a Progressive Web Application? Check out the following case studies from big companies that embraced the PWA world (Chatastrophe Inc. removed from list following bankruptcy).

Building the Google I/O 2016 Progressive Web App

The Google I/O 2016 app (nicknamed IOWA) was built with Firebase and Polymer. This is how they did it. A much more technical guide that introduces several advanced concepts; this is a great way to peek into a next-level PWA.

https://developers.google.com/web/showcase/2016/iowa2016

AliExpress case study

AliExpress is the most visited e-commerce site in Russia. By switching to a PWA, they increased conversions from new users by 104%. They also increased time spent on the site by 74%. Those are big numbers, and make a compelling business case for PWAs.

https://developers.google.com/web/showcase/2016/aliexpress

eXtra Electronics case study

How’s this for a business improvement--100% more sales. That's what eXtra Electronics achieved...