Trending Up Together: Vue.js and PWAs




While you may be drowning in the jargon and acronyms of the tech world’s rapid evolution, one term you should know is PWA, which stands for progressive web app. Why? PWA’s may represent over half of all web development, overtaking mobile and native apps in the next year. Info World, Smashing Magazine and tech bloggers predicted the trends as early as 2017, not long after Vue.js gained momentum in the development world. The two might have a synergy worth investigating for web app development.

What is a PWA?

A progressive web app generally has the following characteristics:

  • A web-based page design that operates and responds like an app on any device.
  • Development with API’s such as Service Workers, JSON, Web App Manifest, and Trusted Web Activities.

In other words, a PWA is a web page that behaves like an app for users. It presents a frontend as slick and interactive as any native app, but it can work offline, push notifications, and track users’ locations. Furthermore it may use device sensors, cameras, mobile pay options, and speech synthesis tools. Even better, it can be added to a home screen like an app, but it’s found on the web.

Why are PWA’s better than native/hybrid/mobile apps?

Infoworld notes that PWA’s have the edge over native and mobile apps in the following categories. PWAs are not found in web stores- App stores are now bloated with mobile and native offerings, which make it hard for users to locate you, unless you are in the top offerings of your category. Imagine your app is region specific or your company is new. It’s hard to contend in a congested market.

  • Device-agnostic”- meaning you don’t need to spend time and money developing two native apps or a hybrid app. PWA’s ae hosted by web servers, and can bypass Android and iOS rules, making updates a simple one-stop job. Users can move from phone to tablet to desktop with the same user experience.
  • smaller and faster- more on how Vue.js works into that part during development in a moment- but for now, because PWAs pre-cache with service workers, they load faster with your latest content.
  • an app-like webpage- they have no download wait times, save-able to a home screen, fewer steps to usage, push notification functionality, share-able through a URL, offline usage, and increased safety due to access through HTTPS.

better for SEO- share-able via social media and QR codes and can be indexed in search engines to appear in search results.

Possible graphics:

JAXenter developer survey about PWAs (Image source: JAXenter) (Large preview)

How Vue.js works for PWA development

Remember what you’ve learned about Vue.js. It’s the lightest Javascript framework for development, weighing in at 18 Kb, which is considerably smaller than anything developed with Angular, and smaller than React. Vue.js came about in 2014 with huge support from an open-source community. Even without the force of a Google or Facebook-sized company to support it, Vue.js continues to gain on its peers with more watchers, stars and forks on Github than its peers and a growing number of users.

Vue.js programmers use the framework for all manner of apps that focus on frontend and user experience. Initially, such frameworks powered single page apps, always aiming at shaving off size to speed up performance and retain customers through a better experience. Vue.js offers a faster development process as well. Its basis in HTML and Javascript as well as its fast growing libraries and ease of coding made it work well for native app development.

What made Vue.js great for app development was the virtual DOM. Changes in the app would be sent to a copy of the DOM and appear for the users once tested. Vue.js also allowed for user input that reduced reloading or refreshing a whole page.

Now, with the Vue.js PWA plugin, Vue.js developers can create a PWA using the framework. A number of tutorials on-line boast steps for using Vue.js tools to migrate a single page app into a PWA, as well as how to create one from scratch. Developers begin with the Vue CLI (command line interface) and Vue templates. With the Service Worker capacity, a Vue.js app can work offline, supporting the user without access to the DOM or interacting with the webpage because a progressive web app pre-caches to allow for such use-ability.

Because versatility is a core value in Vue.js, the entire ecosystem includes plenty of plugins, minor need for new code, and browser development tools. Hire Vue Js Developer to help you determine if your project needs to be a PWA or a single page app. Vue.js development companies provide quality advice, support, and first turn around for the project that best fits your company.

Source Url: https://softwareprogrammingcompany.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/trending-up-together-vue-js-and-pwas/

 

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