Progressive Web Apps with React: Create lightning fast web apps with native power using React and Firebase

by Scott Domes

Key FeaturesBring the best of mobile sites and native apps to your users with progressive web applicationsCreate fast, reliable, and engaging PWAs with React and FirebaseCreate high-performance applications even with low connection speeds by leveraging modern web technologiesBook DescriptionFor years, the speed and power of web apps has lagged behind native applications. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) aim to solve this by bridging the gap between the web apps and native apps, delivering a host of exciting features. Simultaneously, React is fast becoming the go-to solution for building modern web UIs, combining ease of development with performance and capability. Using React alongside PWA technology will make it easy for you to build a fast, beautiful, and functional web app.

After an introduction and brief overview of the goals of PWAs, the book moves on to setting up the application structure. From there, it covers the Webpack build process and the process of creating React components. You'll learn how to set up the backend database and authentication solution to communicate with Firebase and how to work with React Router. Next, you will create and configure your web app manifest, making your PWA installable on mobile devices. Then you'll get introduced to service workers and see how they work as we configure the app to send push notifications using Firebase Cloud Messaging. We'll also explore the App Shell pattern, a key concept in PWAs and look at its advantages regarding efficient performance. Finally, you'll learn how to add offline capabilities to the app with caching and confirm your progress by auditing your PWA with Lighthouse. Also, you'll discover helper libraries and shortcuts that will help you save time and understand the future of PWA development.

What you will learnSet up Webpack configuration, as well as get the development server runningLearn basic Firebase configuration and deploymentCreate routes, manage multiple components, and learn how to use React Router v4 to manage the flow of dataUse React life cycle methods to load dataAdd a service worker to the app and learn how it worksUse a service worker to send Push NotificationsConfigure Webpack to split up the JavaScript bundle and lazy load component filesLearn how to use the web Cache API to use your app offlineAudit PWAs with Google's Lighthouse toolAbout the AuthorScott Domes is a full stack developer who specializes in React, with a passion for building powerful and performant web applications, and for playing with shiny new technologies. Based out of Vancouver, when not coding he's probably out hiking some mountain, or getting lost in a good book. Scott loves to teach and talk about web development, and is always looking to learn new things.

Table of ContentsCreating Our App StructureGetting Started with WebpackOur App's Login PageEasy Back-End Setup With FirebaseRouting with ReactCompleting Our AppMaking Our App Installable with a ManifestAdding a Service WorkerUsing a Service Worker to Send Push NotificationsThe App ShellChunking JavaScript to Optimize Performance with WebpackReady to CacheAuditing Our AppConclusion & Next Steps

515 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2017

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be warned that even though it's only about year old (as of the middle of 2018), breaking changes have already been made in Firebase and Webpack, so it becomes impossible to get the code to work exactly as written in the book by chapter 8. Keeping the dependencies at the versions used by the authors doesn't seem to work either. So if you want an easy-to-follow, hand-holding tutorial, you might be disappointed, and trying to figure out how to make it work, especially if you're a beginner, could be frustrating and/or overwhelming. That's probably the main reason for the poor ratings.

I still think it deserves a good rating though... The lightning-fast rate of change in the JS ecosystem isn't really the author's fault (although an update would be nice), the changes you need to make aren't really that big, once you finally figure out what they are (I think the only thing you really need to change in your Webpack config is changing "loaders" to "rules", but there might be others), and if you're serious about learning React, this is stuff you should learn to deal with anyway. And even if some details might be a little different, it remains a useful checklist and explanation of the steps you need to go through.

I got the book because I wanted a tutorial for using Firebase with React. I got not only that, but also learned how to manually set up Webpack from scratch, learned how to use service workers, free hosting with Firebase, and was introduced to the exciting world of PWAs...including techniques for optimizing and improving user experience in React applications, how to use Chrome dev tools and Lighthouse to evaluate performance... Despite the frustration and time that could have been saved by a more up-to-date book, I still found it very useful.

[Anton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book about creating React app step by step. But since book published, it was a lot of changes in the world. So, you can’t follow step by step and book become irrelevant.