Learning Progressive Web Apps

Use Service Workers to Turbocharge Your Web Apps “You have made an excellent decision in picking up this book. If I was just starting on my learning path to mastery of Progressive Web Apps, there are not many folks I would trust more to get me there than John.” —Simon MacDonald, Developer Advocate, Adobe Software developers have two options for the apps they build: native apps targeting a specific device or web apps that run on any device. Building native apps is challenging, especially when your app targets multiple system types—i.e., desktop computers, smartphones, televisions—because user experience varies dramatically across devices. Service Workers—a relatively new technology—make it easier for web apps to bridge the gap between native and web capabilities. In Learning Progressive Web Apps, author John M. Wargo demonstrates how to use Service Workers to enhance the capabilities of a web app to create Progressive Web Apps (PWA). He focuses on the technologies that enable PWAs and how to use those technologies to enhance your web apps to deliver a more native-like experience. Build web apps a user can easily install on their local system and that work offline or on low-quality networks Utilize caching strategies that give you control over which app resources are cached and when Deliver background processing in a web application Implement push notifications that enable an app to easily engage with users or trigger action from a remote server Throughout the book, Wargo introduces each core concept and illustrates the implementation of each capability through several complete, operational examples. You’ll start with simple web apps, then incrementally expand and extend them with state-of-the-art features. All example source code is available on GitHub, and additional resources are available on the author’s companion site, learningpwa.com. Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Move over native apps. New progressive web apps have capabilities that will soon make you obsolete. With this hands-on guide, web developers and business execs will learn how—and why—to develop web apps that take advantage of features that have so far been exclusive to native apps. Features that include fast load times, push notifications, offline access, homescreen shortcuts, and an entirely app-like experience. By leveraging the latest browser APIs, progressive web apps combine all of the benefits of native apps, while avoiding their issues. Throughout the book, author Tal Ater shows you how to improve a simple website for the fictional Gotham Imperial Hotel into a modern progressive web app. Plus: Understand how service workers work, and use them to create sites that launch in an instant, regardless of the user’s internet connection Create full-screen web apps that launch from the phone's homescreen just like native apps Re-engage users with push notifications, even days after they have left your site Embrace offline-first and build web apps that gracefully handle loss of connectivity Explore new UX opportunities and challenges presented by progressive web apps

Build fast, reliable web applications using the latest web development technologies. This book provides step-by-step learning through the process of transforming a “traditional” web app into a high-performing progressive web app, leveraging principles and lessons taught throughout the book. You will learn to improve the performance, reliability, reach, and user engagement of mobile web applications through the use of specific, practical examples. Because most non-trivial web applications developed today use JavaScript frameworks, you will learn about the most popular frameworks offering a PWA right out of the box, including React, Preact, Vue.js, Angular, and Ionic. You also will learn which tools to enlist to measure your application’s performance, such as Google’s Lighthouse. Beginning Progressive Web App Development includes best practices to make your app work even when an end user has a poor or no Internet connection, and to send notifications and reminders with the Notification and Push APIs to keep your users engaged. You will come away with an understanding of the technologies—application shells, server push technology, and caching—that will allow you to rapidly deliver content to your users. As important as it is to provide mobile users with a great experience, the principles of PWAs are not limited to smartphones. Most of what you will learn in this book is directly applicable to web applications on all screen sizes. What You'll Learn Achieve nearly instant loading times Implement service workers to make your app load faster and work while users are offline Keep users engaged with web notifications Measure the performance and reach of your web applications Transform your existing web app into a progressive web app Create a progressive web app from scratch Understand what building a truly fast web app entails with Google’s PRPL pattern Who This Book Is For Web developers with prior JavaScript experience

Summary Progressive Web Apps teaches you PWA design and the skills you need to build fast, reliable websites by taking you step-by-step through real world examples in this practical tutorial. Foreword by Addy Osmani, Google. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology Offline websites that work. Near-instant load times. Smooth transitions between high/low/no bandwidth. Fantasy, right? Not with progressive web applications. PWAs use modern browser features like push notifications, smart caching, and Service Workers to manage data, minimize server usage, and allow for unstable connections, giving you better control and happier customers. Better still, all you need to build PWAs are JavaScript, HTML, and the easy-to-master techniques you'll find in this book. About the Book Progressive Web Apps teaches you PWA design and the skills you need to build fast, reliable websites. There are lots of ways you can use PWA techniques, and this practical tutorial presents interesting, standalone examples so you can jump to the parts that interest you most. You'll discover how Web Service Workers vastly improve site loading, how to effectively use push notifications, and how to create sites with a no-compromise offline mode. What's Inside Improved caching with Service Workers Using manifest files and HTML markup Push notifications Offline-first web designs Techniques for data synchronization About the Reader Written for readers with experience developing websites using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. About the Author Dean Alan Hume is a coder, author, and Google Developer Expert. He's passionate about web performance and user experience. Table of Contents PART 1 - DEFINING PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS Understanding Progressive Web Apps First steps to building a Progressive Web App PART 2 - FASTER WEB APPS Caching Intercepting network requests PART 3 - ENGAGING WEB APPS Look and feel Push notifications PART 4 - RESILIENT WEB APPLICATIONS Offline browsing Building more resilient applications Keeping your data synchronized PART 5 - THE FUTURE OF PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS Streaming data Progressive Web App troubleshooting The future is looking good

Harness the power of Angular to build fast, high performance progressive web apps that work offline. Learn exactly how to create an Angular Progressive Web App (PWA) from scratch, how you can use different tools to audit and improve it, and leverage Angular CLI or Workbox to turn your app into a PWA. Using browser APIs – including the Credential Management, Payment Request, Geolocation, Web Bluetooth, WebUSB and Generic Sensors APIs – you can unleash the potential of PWAs and build applications that enhance user experience. Angular’s game-changing built-in features, including the Angular service worker module, can be leveraged to construct responsive and reliable PWAs that can look and feel just like native mobile apps. You'll learn how to boost your app speed, how to increase user engagement using push notifications, and how to implement offline storage and different caching APIs in Angular. You'll even see how to convert an existing Angular app into a PWA. Whether you’re new to building PWAs, or want to learn how to use Angular to improve your app development, Progressive Web Apps with Angular provides the know-how to build and deploy an Angular PWA. What Readers Will LearnBuild an Angular app that looks and feels just like a native mobile app Audit and improve an Angular PWA with different tools Increase user engagement by using push notifications Offline storage and different caching APIs in Angular Implement modern technologies into an Angular PWA Who This Book Is For Developers with basic knowledge of HTML, JavaScript and Angular

Enhance the performance of your applications by using React and adding the Progressive web app capability to it About This Book Bring the best of mobile sites and native apps to your users with progressive web applications Create fast, reliable, and engaging PWAs with React and Firebase Create high-performance applications even with low connection speeds by leveraging modern web technologies Who This Book Is For This book is for Javascript Developers who want to develop high performance Web User Interfaces. This book requires basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. What You Will Learn Set up Webpack configuration, as well as get the development server running Learn basic Firebase configuration and deployment Create routes, manage multiple components, and learn how to use React Router v4 to manage the flow of data Use React life cycle methods to load data Add a service worker to the app and learn how it works Use a service worker to send Push Notifications Configure Webpack to split up the JavaScript bundle and lazy load component files Learn how to use the web Cache API to use your app offline Audit PWAs with Google's Lighthouse tool In Detail 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 offline 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. Style and approach This is a step-by-step book, wherein, you will use the React framework to create a complete progressive web app.

Leverage the full potential of the web to make your web sites better than native applications for every platform. Key Features Explore different models and patterns required to develop progressive web applications Create applications requiring shorter runtime for attracting more users Study different projects to understand the fundamentals of progressive web applications Book Description 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. What you will learn Explore the core principles of PWAs Study the three main technical requirements of PWAs Discover enhancing requirements to make PWAs transcend native apps and traditional websites Create and install PWAs on common websites with a given HTTPS as the core requirement Get acquainted with the service worker life cycle Define service worker caching patterns Apply caching strategies to three different website scenarios Implement best practices for web performance Who this book is for Progressive Web Application Development by Example is for you if you’re a web developer or front-end designer who wants to ensure improved user experiences. If you are an application developer with knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, this book will help you enhance your skills in order to develop progressive web applications, the future of app development.

Optimize the performance of your mobile websites and webapps to the extreme. With this hands-on book, veteran mobile and web developer Maximiliano Firtman demonstrates which aspects of your site or app slow down the user’s experience, and what you can do to achieve lightning-fast performance. There’s much at stake: if you want to boost your app’s conversion rate, then tackling performance issues is the best way to start. Learn tools and techniques for working with responsive web design, images, the network layer, and many other ingredients—plus the metrics to check your progress. Ideal for web developers and web designers with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and HTTP experience, this is your guide to superior mobile web performance. You’ll dive into: Emulators, simulators, and other tools for measuring performance Basic web performance concepts, including metrics, charts, and goals How to get real data from mobile browsers on your real networks APIs and specs for measuring, tracking and improving web performance Insights and tricks for optimizing the first view experience Ways to optimize post-loading experiences and future visits Responsive web design and its performance challenges Tips for extreme performance to achieve best conversion rates How to work with web views inside native apps