Why Build a Progressive Web App?
When building a an enterprise application, think about building a Progressive Web App. It will allow your web experience to be built to feel as if it is a native app experience. Not only will it make it progressive, but it will make your users feel as if they are a part of an experience that is all encompassing.
The Technical Benefits of a PWA
Progressive - Work for every user, regardless of browser choice because they're built with progressive enhancement as a core tenet.
Responsive - Fit any form factor, desktop, mobile, tablet, or whatever is next.
Connectivity independent - Enhanced with service workers to work offline or on low quality networks.
App-like - Use the app-shell model to provide app-style navigation and interactions.
Fresh - Always up-to-date thanks to the service worker update process.
Safe - Served via TLS to prevent snooping and ensure content hasn't been tampered with.
Discoverable - Are identifiable as "applications" thanks to W3C manifests and service worker registration scope allowing search engines to find them.
Re-engageable - Make re-engagement easy through features like push notifications.
Installable - Allow users to "keep" apps they find most useful on their home screen without the hassle of an app store.
Linkable - Easily share via URL and not require complex installation.
Kudos to Addy Somani for this List ^1
We will go into detail in the following chapters, into detail
Developing a PWA - The Toolset - An Overview
When Developing Mobile First, there are three tools, which will be particularly advantageous:
Physical Mobile Devices [^2]
Sauce Labs [^3]
Chrome Dev Tools [^4]
Developing a PWA - Software - An Overview
When developing a PWA, it is important for us to keep in mind, that there will be specific pieces of software to develop. Of course, there is an official PWA checklist ^5, but specific technologies, would be as follows:
Service Worker
Manifest
Lighthouse
[^2]: A moment on which one's it is, that you should work on
[^3]: Section on why we chose Sauce Labs, over Browser Stack
[^4]: Section on why we chose Chrome Dev Tools, over Firefox