The progressive web apps help enterprises to bridge the gap between web applications and native mobile apps. Like responsive websites, progressive web applications also look good on both large and small devices. But progressive web apps (PWA) keep users engaged by delivering user experience just like native mobile apps. They further leverage built-in progressive enhancements to deliver optimal user experience across devices and platforms. At the same time, service workers make the PWA run smoothly on slow networks and in offline mode.
Google makes it easier for developers to build custom progressive web apps according to varied business requirements by providing a set of tools. The PWA developers can use the tools to access a dedicated console panel. The application panel enables developers to inspect, modify, and debug application manifest. It even makes it easier for developers to view network requests, simulate offline behavior, and work with service workers. However, the developers can also accelerate progressive web application development by choosing from a wide range of development tools.
7 Tools to Simplify and Accelerate Development of Progressive Web Apps
1) PWABuilder
The tools provided by PWABuilder enable enterprises to create cross-platform progressive web apps based on their existing website data. The website owners can even use PWABuilder to build PWAs through three simple steps – generate manifest, build service worker, and publish the applications. They can further convert their existing websites to progressive web apps through either a web-based interface or a command line interface. The web-based interface allows website owners to generate a PWA simply by entering the URL of their existing websites. The owners even have option to customize the PWA by providing additional information and changing screen orientation, background color, and language. On the other hand, the command line interface (CLI) requires webmasters to generate progressive web apps by executing commands sequentially.
2) PWA.rocks
The developers can easily make an existing website deliver optimal user experience by upgrading it to a PWA. But the developers still need to put both time and effort to make the PWA standout in the crowd. PWA.rocks enables developers to build outstanding progressive web apps by experimenting with and conceptualizing various ideas. The website allows developers to browse through an elaborate list of curated progressive web apps. Hence, it becomes easier for programmers to conceptualize and visualize the PWA without writing any code. The developers even have option to borrow inspiration from progressive web apps belonging to varied categories – business, news, event, game, social, and shopping. PWA.rocks even allows developers to contribute and suggest new progressive web apps.
3) Widely
Widely enables enterprises to increase conversion rate by upgrading their existing websites to progressive web apps. The plug-and-play functionality provided by Widely even simplifies and accelerates the process of upgrading an existing website to a PWA. The PWA development tool even upgrades websites to PWA without requiring developers to write additional code. The entrepreneurs can further use the custom plug-ins provided by Widely to create PWA based on widely used content management systems like WordPress, Magento and Shopify. They can even leverage the APIs provided by Widely to make the application load faster, work offline, and integrate with push notification services.
4) KnockoutJS
Unlike other PWA development tools, Knockout is a JavaScript library. The features provided by Knockout help developers to build rich, responsive, and interactive websites based on Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) architectural pattern. At the same time, the JavaScript library also simplifies development of complex and dynamic data models and keeps UI elements connected to the data model. Also, Knockout updates the UI automatically each time the data model changes. The PWA developers can leverage KnockoutJS to accelerate development of complex PWA by minimizing DOM element duplication. Also, Knockout allows PWA developers to write web application components by extending HTML.
5) Webpack
The widely used static module bundler for JavaScript simplifies PWA development by building a comprehensive dependency graph. The dependency graph generated by Webpack includes all modules in the PWA. It even packages the module into a single or multiple bundles. Webpack even builds the dependency module dynamically while processing the application. The PWA developers must use Webpack to simplify dependency management. They can even package modules to speed up the web application by reducing the number of calls made to the server. At the same time, PWA allows developers to make the PWA load faster by calling images, fonts, CSS, and similar non-code resources through JavaScript.
6) Lighthouse
Most users nowadays abandon websites and mobile apps that do not load in three seconds. Hence, the developers need to explore ways to boost the performance and accessibility of PWA throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Google has developed Lighthouse as an open source and automated tool to assessing and improving quality of web pages. Lighthouse makes it easier for developers to assess the performance of individual web pages by running a series of audits and generating a comprehensive report. The developers can refer to the report generated by Lighthouse to improve the performance of web pages by working on the failing audits.
7) An Array of JavaScript Frameworks
The developers can further simplify and accelerate PWA development by using a number of widely used JavaScript frameworks. For instance, they can use a robust front-end JavaScript framework like AngularJS to build PWAs in an environment that facilitates development of both web applications and mobile apps. Likewise, they can use React to make the PWA accessible access browsers, platforms, and devices by incorporating UI components written in JavaScript. They even have option to use Polymer as a template engine to make the PWA delivered to device more quickly and accelerate on-demand resource delivery.
On the whole, the developers can accelerate PWA development by using a number of web development tools. But they must remember that the PWA development tools differ from each other in the category of features, performance, usability, and support. Hence, it is always important for developers to compare various tools for PWA development according to precise project needs. Also, they must explore ways to deliver outstanding progressive web apps by integrating multiple development tools.
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