Tags: serviceworkers

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Introducing PWAs

The slides from Calum’s presentation about progressive web apps. There are links throughout to some handy resources.

How to turn your website into a PWA | Max Böck - Frontend Web Developer

This primer on progressive web apps starts by dispelling some myths:

  1. Your thing does not have to be an “Application” to be a PWA.
  2. Your thing does not have to be a Javascript-powered single page app.
  3. PWAs are not specifically made for Google or Android.
  4. PWAs are ready and safe to use today.

Then it describes the three-step programme for turning your thing into a progressive web app:

  1. The Manifest.
  2. Go HTTPS.
  3. The Service Worker.

Your Site—Any Site—Should be a PWA | Aaron Gustafson

Tell it, brother!

PWAs don’t require you use a particular JavaScript framework or any JavaScript framework at all. You don’t need to be building a Single Page App either.

Service Worker gotchas

A great collection of learned lessons from implementing service workers.

I really, really like it when people share their own personal experiences and “gotchas!” like this.

traintimes.org.uk performance notes

I love, love, *love, traintimes.org.uk—partly because it’s so useful, but also because it’s so fast. I know public transport is the clichéd use-case when it comes to talking about web performance, but in this case it’s genuine: I use the site on trains and in airports.

Matthew gives a blow-by-blow account of the performance optimisations he’s made for the site, including a service worker. The whole thing is a masterclass in performance and progressive enhancement. I’m so glad he took the time to share this!

Service Worker Security FAQ - The Chromium Projects

Got questions about the security of service workers? This document probably has the answer.

Offline Web Applications | Udacity

This is a free online video course recorded by Jake a couple of years back. It’s got a really good step-by-step introduction to service workers, delivered in Jake’s typically witty way. Some of the details are a bit out of date, and I must admit that I bailed when it got to IndexedDB, but I highly recommend giving this a go.

There’s also a free course on web accessibility I’m planning to check out.

A Case for Progressive Web Applications in 2017

If your company is or is planning on doing business in emerging markets, architecting your web applications for performance through progressive enhancements is one easy way to drastically improve accessibility, retention, and user experience.

This article uses “progressive enhancement” and “progressive web app” interchangeably, which would be true in an ideal world. This is the first of a three part series, and it sounds like it will indeed document how to take an existing site and enhance it into a progressive web app—a strategy I much prefer to creating a separate silo that only works for a subset of devices (the app-shell model being pushed by Google).

Offline-first for Your Templated Site (Part Two)

I’m really interested in this idea of service-worker side templating (I know that Glenn is working on something really, really cool in this area too). Can’t wait for part three of this series! (hint, hint, Jeff)

Progressive Web Apps - ILT  |  Web  |  Google Developers

A step-by-step guide to building progressive web apps. It covers promises, service workers, fetch, and cache, but seeing as it’s from Google, it also pushes the app-shell model.

This is a handy resource but I strongly disagree with some of the advice in the section on architectures (the same bit that gets all swoonsome for app shells):

Start by forgetting everything you know about conventional web design, and instead imagine designing a native app.

Avoid overly “web-like” design.

What a horribly limiting vision for the web! After all that talk about being progressive and responsive, we’re told to pretend we’re imitating native apps on one device type.

What’s really disgusting is the way that the Chrome team are withholding the “add to home screen” prompt from anyone who dares to make progressive web apps that are actually, y’know …webby.

Retrofit Your Website as a Progressive Web App — SitePoint

Turning your existing website into a progressive web “app”—a far more appealing prospect than trying to create an entirely new app-shell architecture:

…they are an enhancement of your existing website which should take no longer than a few hours and have no negative effect on unsupported browsers.

The Not Quiz – Test your celebrity, music and film knowledge

This is really good fun! And thanks to service workers, it works offline too.

The rounds are:

  • Dead or Not Dead,
  • Number 1 or Not Number 1, and
  • Oscar or Not Oscar.

Flatris

Tetris in your browser. Visit it once and it works offline (if your browser supports service workers) so go ahead and add it to your home screen.

Send messages when you’re back online with Service Workers and Background Sync – Twilio Cloud Communications Blog

This example of using background sync looks like it’s specific to Twilio, but the breakdown of steps is broad enough to apply to many situations:

On the page we need to:

  1. Register a Service Worker
  2. Intercept the “submit” event for our message form
  3. Place the message details into IndexedDB, an in browser database
  4. Register the Service Worker to receive a “sync” event

Then, in the Service Worker we need to:

  1. Listen for sync events
  2. When a sync event is received, retrieve the messages from IndexedDB
  3. For each message, send a request to our server to send the message
  4. If the message is sent successfully, then remove the message from IndexedDB

And that’s it.

We built a PWA from scratch - This is what we learned

A nice straightforward account of building and testing a progressive web a… I mean, website.

I think every website from now on should use some of the Progressive Web App features. It’s even confusing to call it “Apps” as it applies to all websites and apps.

A practical guide to Progressive Web Apps for organisations who don’t know anything about Progressive Web Apps : Records Sound the Same

Sally gives a really good introduction to using service workers as a progressive enhancement.

✨Implementing “Save For Offline” with Service Workers | Una Kravets Online✨

A great little script from Una that’s perfect for blogs and news sites—allowing users to explicitly save a page for offline reading.

The Futures of Typography

A wonderfully thoughtful piece from Robin, ranging from the printing technologies of the 15th century right up to the latest web technologies. It’s got all my favourite things in there: typography, digital preservation, and service workers. Marvellous!

10 things I learned making the fastest site in the world

Behind the amusing banter there’s some really solid performance advice in here. Good stuff.

Client Side Rendering (CSR), or as I call it “setting money on fire and throwing it in a river” has its uses, but for this site would have been madness.

Hey, Hey, Cloud Four is a PWA! - Cloud Four

Jason talks through the service worker strategy for his company website.