It is every developer’s deepest desire to get their story featured on how they came up with their first progressive web app. Fast forward a few years, and you can almost picture yourself there in a black suit, looking smart, airing your story on a prime business channel, memento in one hand, microphone in another and a long chain of recognition trailing behind you!
What a dream come true! But why are progressive web apps becoming such a rage amongst modern marketers, anyway? Top players in this department (Alibaba, Flipkart, Forbes, Ola, Washington Post and Virgin America) have reported some interesting observations: from 88 percent performance improvement to 76 percent hike in conversions to five times lesser data usage, the major global digital players have accredited several benefits to their Progressive Web Applications (PWA).
Clearly, the future of digital greatly hinges on the rapid adaption of PWAs but what does that mean for you as a developer? Is there anything you can do to tap into the potential growth of PWAs and use it to your advantage? Of course, there is!
What (exactly) is a Progressive Web Application?
(Everything you need to know in a nutshell)
Progressive Web Apps are not very different from mobile apps except that are meant for the web (and not just mobile) and are incredibly progressive, so much so that they do not need to be installed and works fine for just any user regardless of browser choice.
PWAs are designed to fit any form factor (tabs, desktops, mobiles or anything next-gen) and are enhanced with service workers which enables PWAs to run offline or on poor network areas. Also, courtesy of the service worker update process, you can expect a PWA to be up-to-the-minute every minute.
PWAs can be easily installed without having to use an app store as the intermediator. They are safe to use and have an app-like quality that feels familiar and easy to use. Moreover, they make re-engagement seem like a cake walk as they are empowered to send push notifications that’s bound to grab attention even in the busiest hours of the day. Now that you are convinced about the future of PWAs, let us go one step further and figure out how to build one!
7 Developing Tools That Will Help You Code Your First Progressive Web App:
The visualization app: –
This is one app that will help you cultivate a deeper understanding of how PWAs actually function by letting you visualize what your future progressive web app will resemble, thanks to the several examples under different categories that are available here. If you are looking for inspiration for conceptualization, this app, PWA.rocks can help you there as well. So, there you go!
The modelling app: –
Courtesy of the MVVM bindings of this free, open source tool you can except the process of coding JavaScript UIs to get simplified. Yes, Knockout is a platform which runs purely on JS, something that works well for any web framework and all major browsers. Also, it is easy to integrate Knockout libraries with existing websites without too many rewrites.
The fastest app: –
This app could be your fastest tool to create a PWA. It enables you to build offline functionality with service workers, which, in the case of an internet connectivity disruption, continues to function by pulling and serving the “offline.html” from your web server. Any guesses? Well, we are talking about the PWABuilder app. It’s fairly easy to use and it gets your PWA up and running in time at all!
The technical app: –
AngularJS could be the best platform for you to use to build your first progressive web application in case you are a pro Java or .NET developer. Now, since JavaScript is usually the introductory language taught to a web dev, it should not be difficult for you to navigate your way through this app. Even then AngularJS provides several resources, guides and tutorials to make it easier to navigate your way around the platform.
The do-it-yourself app: –
Well, not exactly, to be honest! But say you are familiar with content management systems but you are slightly clueless when it comes to web app development but are keen to try, Google Developers is one place where you can expect to gather all the basics that you need to know. Due to the comprehensive list of tutorials available here on all important aspects of PWA, people like self-made bloggers and affiliate marketers (with limited coding knowhow) will have much to be thankful for.
The difficult to learn app: –
Though an extremely resourceful tool, Webpack is a platform that’s difficult to learn. This could mean hours of browsing the internet, pouring over several tutorial videos and guides, and even then the documentation and the resources aren’t exactly beginner friendly. Sad news for the newbie developers but there are other options that you can adhere to in the initial days.
Well, this one is a surprise: –
And, like always, we have been saving the best for the last. We are super excited, aren’t you? OK, so we will drop you a little hint! It is a community driven website that hosts a repository of projects. In fact, you may also find the PWA.rocks and Webpack repositories in this site. Yes, of course! We are talking about the GitHub. This platform is one that covers broad ranging topics from programming to PWA service workers and will definitely help you deepen your approach to PWAs. Also, GitHub comes with a project management feature that helps you connect with other developers across the globe.
Having said this much, we would like to leave you on this note: Progressive Web Applications have a massive scope for growth. For an endeavour that began just two years back (PWAs were proposed by Google only in the year 2015), PWAs have already turned quite a few stones. But since the endeavour is just about to gain momentum, many brands and business are yet to catch fire and warm up to PWAs, and this is an opportunity no web developer would want to let go. That’s enough from us, now, over to you!