Book Image

Progressive Web Application Development by Example

By : Chris Love
Book Image

Progressive Web Application Development by Example

By: Chris Love

Overview of this book

Are you a developer that wants to create truly cross-platform user experiences with a minimal footprint, free of store restrictions and features customers want? Then you need to get to grips with Progressive Web Applications (PWAs), a perfect amalgamation of web and mobile applications with a blazing-fast response time. Progressive Web Application Development by Example helps you explore concepts of the PWA development by enabling you to develop three projects, starting with a 2048 game. In this game, you will review parts of a web manifest file and understand how a browser uses properties to define the home screen experience. You will then move on to learning how to develop and use a podcast client and be introduced to service workers. The application will demonstrate how service workers are registered and updated. In addition to this, you will review a caching API so that you have a firm understanding of how to use the cache within a service worker, and you'll discover core caching strategies and how to code them within a service worker. Finally, you will study how to build a tickets application, wherein you’ll apply advanced service worker techniques, such as cache invalidation. Also, you'll learn about tools you can use to validate your applications and scaffold them for quality and consistency. By the end of the book, you will have walked through browser developer tools, node modules, and online tools for creating high-quality PWAs.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Summary

The line between native and progressive web applications is very blurred, thanks in part to the web manifest and add to home screen experience. No longer is the homescreen reserved to native applications; the web is welcomed by all platforms.

Today, most browsers provide a first-class app experience for progressive web applications, and while Apple has yet to adopt the progressive web application standards, they were the first to make the web into an app experience. It is up to developers and businesses to adopt and implement the rich add to homescreen capabilities.

Triggering the add to homescreen experience is the first step in levelling up your web presence.

Even if the user has not added your PWA to their homescreen, you can still take advantage of progressive web app features. However, before we dive into service workers, let's take a look at adding SSL to your...