A Progressive Web Application (PWA) is a web application that combines the advantages of native and web applications. It combines hardware functionality into cross-platform software that is easier to design and maintain than a native app.
PWAs offer features that aren’t available on traditional websites. For instance, PWA offers features like Offline work, push notifications, geolocation, camera and microphone. It can even run without a browser, thanks to a native app shell that can start up automatically.
PWA innovation makes use of an expansive ecosystem of Web-based tools and frameworks that Android and iOS developers can only imagine. Deployment and maintenance are also a lot easier with progressive web apps. They’re quick to manage and only functional with one version of the programme.
We now understand what PWA is. Let us concentrate on the benefits PWA offers.
Benefits and Foundations of PWA development:
So, what is it about progressive web application that make them so powerful? Let’s take a closer look at the technology that underpins them to address this issue. The following are some of them:
1. Service workers
The service worker is a piece of code that your browser processes in the background to guarantee that web apps run in offline mode. This component is in charge of caching and utilizing the cached files in order to provide a consistent user experience.
2. Web manifests
A web app manifest is a JSON file that defines the appearance and feel of your progressive online application. With its assistance, you may customize the app description, icon version, theme color, and launch style.
3. Mobile-like experience
It gives a native-like experience on mobile devices. Although it is a web app, it has the feel of an Android or iOS app.
4. Application shell
This essential feature of PWAs allows for quick performance. It’s also necessary for progressive web apps with fixed navigation and dynamic content.
5. Progressive enhancement
It works for all users, regardless of browser preference. Your app will work across a variety of browsers and will gently degrade when specific features are unavailable while still providing a good user experience.
6. Responsiveness
It can adapt to any screen size, whether it’s a tablet, smartphone, iPad, or desktop. It adapts automatically to compensate for a fresh space or a tight place.
7. Offline functionality
Your application can be used without an internet connection.
8. Push Notifications
PWAs are engaging with the use of push notifications, which pop up a notification to notify you about a friend request, current news, new message, or anything else. You will feel compelled to respond to the notification (to respond to the message, to read the news, to check out the new friend) and re-launch the app, re-engaging you with the web app.
Now, let’s explore what React is and what its unique features are.
React was created by Jordan Walke, a Facebook developer, as an open-source JavaScript library. React was created with the goal of making user interfaces that are quick, easy, and scalable. The Facebook team maintains the library, which is currently incorporated into Facebook and Instagram. React is clearly the frontrunner in terms of JavaScript package downloads, with an average of 8,227,335 every week.
React facilitates the creation of large, adaptive web applications with hot reloading features. It implies that your software will keep running as you make modifications to it at runtime. This feature is quite important for fine-tuning the UI’s functionality.
1. High-powered
React is ideal for creating flexible and fast web apps while avoiding performance issues. Performance concerns with DOM (Document Object Model) manipulation are common in JavaScript apps. The Document Object Model (DOM) is a structural representation of your web page that programming languages can interact with. Instead of utilizing code-heavy bootstrapping libraries like JQuery, you may use React to make updates to the page in virtual memory. In addition, the faster rendering speed of React minimizes the time it takes for a page to load.
2. Simple to learn
React is less hard to grasp than the Angular or Ember JS frameworks. If you’re wondering how to create a React progressive web application, don’t expect it to be easy.
React supports JavaScript syntactic extension that allows developers to write code that resembles HTML. However, you are not required to utilise JSX in React; it is simply a more convenient method.
3. Well-equipped
React’s developer tools, boilerplates, and libraries make debugging, testing, and design easier. It offers a variety of options from which you may choose the one that best meets your requirements. React Developer Tools, Facebook’s Create React App, Semantic UI React, and Ant Design are some of the more well-known examples.
4. SEO-friendly
Errors in the Web Rendering Service are a common SEO issue when working with large web applications. This implies that some of your website’s content will not surface in Google search results. Because of the usage of virtual DOM, your content on React-powered web pages will be correctly indexed.
5. Community-backed
At the time of writing, React was the seventh most frequently starred open-source repository on Github. And the React development community is robust and responsible.
Progressive web application success stories:
Some of the Progressive web app examples built with React are as follows:
Starbucks, Tinder, Pinterest, Twitter, Forbes, Trivago and Flipkart.
Let us look at the benefits of implementing PWA in depth.
1. Pinterest -
Pinterest chose to create a PWA after discovering that their website was too sluggish. Only 1% of their traffic converted to signups or app downloads for iOS and Android. A PWA enhanced key performance indicators. Visitors spend 40% more time on Pinterest’s PWA than on the mobile website.
2. Flipkart -
Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce site, had a 70 percent increase in conversions after launching a Progressive Web App. Due to the fact that more than half of Flipkart consumers had a slow Internet connection, the company integrated online and native app features to develop an offline solution. This new app resulted in a 40% boost in re-engagement. Customers spent three times as much time on Flipkart Lite as they did on the original app. The Flipkart PWA is 300 times smaller than the iOS app, requiring only 100KB of data storage.
Final thoughts:
Any frontend framework will work just fine for a PWA but React does have one key advantage over other frameworks as its component structure, which divides UIs into separate components. The component approach in React JS allows us to separate our interface into small parts of code, which solves the previous JavaScript downloading problem.
React has the advantage of being a beautiful and enjoyable way to create frontend applications. It’s also a sought-after expertise. You’ll be about as future-ready as one can be in the fast-paced web development world if you combine React expertise with PWA experience.
Hence, React is the one of the best framework for building progressive web application.
Like other businesses, if you too are looking to develop Progressive web application, Mindfire Solutions can be your partner of choice. We have a team of highly skilled and certified software professionals, who have developed many custom solutions for our global clients over the years.
Content Source: Medium