A progressive web app or PWA is built to look and feel the same as native apps, operates online, is optimized for various viewports ranging from mobile applications, tablets to desktops monitors, and much more. PWAs are developed using front-end technologies such as HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, and native app-like use and feel to the web applications.
PWAs can be installed in the devices where the native apps are installed. You can go for a progressive web app development company.
What is PWA?
A progressive web application is a web application that captures the advantages of native applications. It also offers hardware features protected in the body of a cross-platform application that is faster, smoother, cheaper, and maintains the native app.
PWA gives support to the functionality that is not available for regular websites. The support consists of offline work, push notification, access to geolocation, camera, microphone, and much more. A PWA can also work outside the website offline with the help of a native application.
The progressive web app development requires a vast ecosystem that consists of tools and frameworks for the web that Android and iOS developers can’t develop but can dream about. However, the development and maintenance of progressive web apps are accessible. The apps based on PWA can be built quickly and offer only one version of the application that needs to be supported.
Benefits of using PWA
- High-powered
- Easy to learn
- Well-equipped
- SEO-friendly
- Community-baked
High-powered
React will work better for developing robust and scalable web applications. It will also help to neglect the performance issue. The library will use a virtual document object model to alter the UI before redesigning the whole page. Thus, translation of problems can be eliminated. With the help of React, developers can also make changes to the page in virtual memory. They won’t need to use a code-heavy bootstrapping library like JQuery.
Easy to learn
React is a much easier language to learn than the JS framework as Angular and Ember. The library supports JSX. These syntax extensions allow code to write HTML-like syntax within their JavaScript code. However, it is not compulsory that developers can also use plain JavaScript and HTML & CSS instead.
Well-equipped
React comes with various tools and libraries. These instruments are mainly designed for simplifying debugging, testing, and design processes. Developers are not restricted to one option. Instead, they can select the solution that works for their specific task in a better way. The most popular instruments are Semantic UI React, Ant Design, and React developer tools.
SEO-friendly
When it comes to SEO, the first problem that comes to our mind is a failure in web rendering services while working with bulky web apps. Simply put, some parts of your website can’t be displayed in Google search results. However, it is no longer an issue when using virtual DOM.
Community-based
Recently, react has been the fifth most generally used open-source repository library. It is famous for its solid and responsible community.
Steps to develop a react progressive web application
Build a simple React app
We will use a Create React App tool to develop a simple react app. It is a convenient tool, especially for developers who haven’t developed PWA apps with React before.
Install a service worker
CRA offers you all the tools for developing a progressive web application with the help of React. However, one of our vital tasks is to run your PWA application offline. Therefore, you need to configure the auto-generated services worker file or register it for such a specific purpose.
Configure the web app manifest
After developing the application, let us configure the web app manifest for your progressive web application. First, find its location, and then you can configure it. Now you need to edit the metadata responsible for the look of your app.
Test your app
We have discussed before the process of developing a React PWA. Now is the time to talk about progressive web app testing. After your app is developed, you can directly test it.
Conclusion
I have covered almost all the steps used in developing a progressive web app in this blog. I have also mentioned the benefits of developing web applications based on React. You can go through this blog and learn about developing the application.
It will be wise to select a progressive web app development company as it will develop the application according to your requirements and needs.