You would have surely heard about progressive web apps. But, do you know why PWAs are different compared to mobile and web apps? The answer is its architecture.
According to a report by Pinterest, user engagement increased by 60% after building the PWA app. As the market of mobile and web apps is becoming competitive, it’s becoming difficult to attract users with a mobile app or a website only.
So, in this article, you will learn about PWA architecture, and the advantages, and disadvantages of Magento’s progressive web app development for your business. Let’s get started.
First, let’s understand the meaning of the Magento progressive web app.
What is Magento Progressive Web App?
PWAs that are built using Magento technology are called Magento PWA. A progressive web app is a combination of web and mobile apps to provide an excellent user experience whether used as a mobile app or website. It’s an app that provides a native-like user experience to users. Also, it supports push notifications that don’t support a website. So, basically, it is an app that works best whether opened on a website or a mobile app. Nowadays, most entrepreneurs create an eCommerce software solution using Magento PWA studio.
So, as you have understood the PWA, now you might want to learn about its architecture.
Progressive Web App Architecture
The architecture of PWA is not completely a new concept but rather is a combination of two accesses SSR and CSR. Let’s understand both these accesses one by one.
CSR means Client-side rendering. Client-side rendering means rendering or loading a web page instantly using JavaScript when users click on it. All the details like logic, data fetching, templating, and routing are held on the client rather than on the server.
SSR means Server-side rendering. Server-side rendering refers to converting an application’s HTML files into a fully rendered HTML page for the client to display to users on web browsers. It works like when a user submits a request for information on the server, then the server instantly sends a response with the fully rendered web page to the client.
PWA is the combination of CSR and SSR. It uses the benefits of both types of rendering to function properly. As a result, it functions quickly and provides a native-like experience on web browsers. There are the architectural styles of a PWA. Now, let’s know about the patterns of PWA.
There are four key components in a PWA. Here are the names.
- Service Workers
- Application Shell
- Web App Manifest
- Cache
Moving further, we are going to explain each of these components in detail so you get a complete understanding of PWA architecture.
1. Service Workers
It is a technical functionality that supports the working of the main features of a progressive web app. Features like offline work mode, background syncs, and push notifications, which are valuable in native apps. This service work file supports the Javascript language which runs for web and app separately. The work of service workers is to respond to user interactions for the app which also includes requests made from the web apps that its serves.
2. Application Shell
The application shell has core components of user interface design. The core elements that are very important to create an application that operates when run offline. The content of the application shell gets refreshed when you open the app with an internet connection. So, it gets updated data from the servers and functions smoothly even when you use it offline. And, you can interact with the dynamic content of the app.
3. Web App Manifest
A web app manifest is a JSON file that is created to cache the resources and offline mode. The manifest files include details like the name of the application, images, icons, and start page.
So, when you open the application, it first loads the manifest file and scans it to download the resources to save them on the local storage of the application. This way, you can use the application even when you are offline as the local cache renders the web app without an internet connection.
4. Cache
The cache is a storage technique that developers use to store data for accessing it quickly without having to interact with the source every time. It stores data temporarily on the user’s device. So, when the application needs the data, it can be cached from the local store without needing to connect with the source. Cache helps to improve the performance of the application even the offline performance of your application.
So this was all about the architecture of a PWA. Further, you will learn the benefits of a PWA.
5 Pros of Progressive Web Application
1. Save Your Development Cost and Time
With our progressive web app builder, it becomes easy and fast to create customized pwas according to your business. Progressive web apps use the tech stack for development. This reduces the development cost and takes less effort compared to creating a mobile application. By developing a progressive web app, you save time to market as you don’t need to create a mobile application for different platforms. This pwa works well on all the platforms and provides optimum performance to users with an excellent user experience.
2. Increase Your User Engagement
Researchers show that progressive web apps help businesses to increase their user engagement. And, users also like to stay more on the home screens. So adding more home screens make your pwa competitive against mobile apps. Compared to mobile apps, progressive web apps have better performance, a simple user interface, and fast loading speed. This itself becomes one of the best advantages of building a pwa for your business.
3. Updating Your App Becomes Easy
Yes, you read the right heading. Do you know when you need to update an iOS or Android app? You need to create its updated version and then you need to follow a complete process of uploading them to respective app stores. Of course, it consumes your time and money and even your users in the worst case if you don’t upload an updated version as fast as possible. But, this is not the problem with a progressive web application. To update your progressive web application, you just need to upload a fresh version of your application with our Magento eCommerce app builder.
4. Sending Push Notifications to Your Users
One of the most effective and powerful features of native applications is sending push notifications to your users from native applications. But, it is not possible with web applications. But, what if you have a web application and you want to send push notifications to your users, is it even possible? Yes, you can do this with progressive web applications. As PWAs have a native-like user experience, you can actually send push notifications to your users. So, you can attract or send alerts to your users regarding new sales, and discounts, and offer coupon codes to increase engagement within your web application.
5. No Need for Distribution Platforms to Aware Users About Your App
As you develop a native application whether it’s Android or iPhone, you need to install that app on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. So, users around the world get aware of your mobile app and they install it on their devices to use. And, distributing your native mobile apps on these app stores is quite challenging due to their specific requirements. But, this is not the case with PWAs, you literally don’t need app stores. Yes, that’s true. Hence, choosing PWA allows you to create apps that are from the distribution platform’s requirements. So, you don’t need to spend time and cost to meet any of these platforms’ requirements.
3 Cons of Progressive Web Apps
1. Limited Integration of Functionalities
PWAs are simply web applications at the end. Without accessing the core hardware of the device, PWAs will not be able to use advanced features like fingerprint scanning, sensors, Bluetooth, Geolocation, and advanced camera controls. This limits the pwa in comparison to mobile apps.
2. No Presence on the iOS Apple App Store
As pwa can’t be uploaded on the iOS version before 11.3, then it highly results in the loss of potential app users who uses this operating system. Moreover, Apple does not allow to access the core features like Apple ID, Touch ID, Bluetooth, altimeter, and even better information.
3. Consumes More Battery of Mobile Phones
A progressive web app can be an eCommerce software solutionor ERP software for your business. But, when you build progress they consume more battery of your mobile phones compared to native apps. The reason is progressive web apps are coded in high-level code and mobile phones have to interpret the code to show results that are perfect. And, when users use the progressive web apps, they notice a drain in their battery back in their mobile apps.
Conclusion
So developing progressive web apps is very helpful for businesses. No doubt, there are some limitations also. But, with PWAs, you get better user engagement, fast performance, and better management of your apps, offering a native-like experience to users.
Moreover, nowadays people are looking for apps that are accessible even without an internet connection. So, building a progressive web app for your business is beneficial as well as faster compared to dedicated mobile apps for the specific operating system.
If you have any queries or questions, get in touch with us. We are a leading Magento progressive web app development company. Let’s convert your ideas into real-life solutions.
