Progressive web apps with React : create lightning fast web apps with native power using React and Firebase

Key Features * Bring the best of mobile sites and native apps to your users with progressive web applications * Create fast, reliable, and engaging PWAs with React and Firebase * Create high-performance applications even with low connection speeds by leveraging modern web technologies Book Description For 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 learn * Set up Webpack configuration, as well as get the development server running * Learn basic Firebase configuration and deployment * Create routes, manage multiple components, and learn how to use React Router v4 to manage the flow of data * Use React life cycle methods to load data * Add a service worker to the app and learn how it works * Use a service worker to send Push Notifications * Configure Webpack to split up the JavaScript bundle and lazy load component files * Learn how to use the web Cache API to use your app offline * Audit PWAs with Google's Lighthouse tool About the Author **Scott 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 Contents 1. Creating Our App Structure 2. Getting Started with Webpack 3. Our App’s Login Page 4. Easy Back-End Setup With Firebase 5. Routing with React 6. Completing Our App 7. Making Our App Installable with a Manifest 8. Adding a Service Worker 9. Using a Service Worker to Send Push Notifications 10. The App Shell 11. Chunking JavaScript to Optimize Performance with Webpack 12. Ready to Cache 13. Auditing Our App 14. Conclusion & Next Steps \*\* ""Cover"" ""Title Page"" ""Copyright"" ""Credits"" ""About the Author"" ""About the Reviewer"" ""www.PacktPub.com"" ""Customer Feedback"" ""Table of Contents"" ""Preface"" ""Chapter 1: Creating Our App Structure"" ""Setting the scene"" ""The problem"" ""The other problem"" ""Beginning work"" ""Why Progressive Web Apps?"" ""Why React?"" ""A rose by any other name"" ""User stories"" ""Application challenges"" ""Instant loading"" ""Push notifications"" ""Offline access"" ""Mobile-first design"" ""Progressive enhancement"" ""Let's get going"" ""Our app skeleton"" ""CSS and assets""""Meta tags and favicons"" ""What is npm?"" ""Node setup"" ""The dark side of npm"" ""Project initiation"" ""Installing React"" ""Using React"" ""Welcome to ReactDOM"" ""Summary"" ""Chapter 2: Getting Started with Webpack"" ""Our project structure"" ""Welcome to Webpack"" ""Bundling files"" ""Moving our React"" ""Shortcuts"" ""Our Dev server"" ""Webpack loaders"" ""Our first ES6"" ""Splitting up our app"" ""Hot reloading"" ""Building for production"" ""Creating a custom script"" ""Making an asset manifest"" ""Summary"" ""Chapter 3: Our App's Login Page""""What is a React component?"" ""Controversies and Separation of Concerns"" ""Class components versus functional components"" ""Our second component"" ""State in React"" ""Reusing components"" ""Summary"" ""Chapter 4: Easy Backend Setup With Firebase"" ""What is Firebase?"" ""Firebase gotchas"" ""Setting up"" ""Hiding our API key"" ""Deploying Firebase"" ""Authentication with Firebase"" ""What is a promise?"" ""Back to authentication"" ""Code cleanup"" ""Signing up"" ""Saving our user"" ""Event listeners"" ""Lifecycle methods"" ""Summary""""Chapter 5: Routing with React"" ""The plan"" ""Pages on pages"" ""The React Router difference"" ""Our ChatContainer"" ""Installing React Router"" ""Our BrowserRouter"" ""Our first two Routes"" ""Redirecting on login"" ""Logging out"" ""Detour -- higher order components"" ""Our third Route"" ""Summary"" ""Chapter 6: Completing Our App"" ""User stories progress"" ""ChatContainer skeleton"" ""Managing data flow"" ""Creating a message"" ""Sending a message to Firebase"" ""Our message data"" ""Loading data from Firebase"" ""Displaying our messages"" ""Message display improvements""""Multiple users"" ""Batching user messages"" ""Scrolling down"" ""React refs"" ""Loading indicator"" ""The Profile page"" ""Summary"" ""Chapter 7: Adding a Service Worker"" ""What is a service worker?"" ""The service worker life cycle"" ""Registering our first service worker"" ""Checking for browser support"" ""Listening for the page load"" ""Registering the service worker"" ""Logging out the result"" ""Experiencing the service worker life cycle"" ""Adding Firebase to our service worker"" ""Naming our service worker"" ""Summary"" Enhance the performance of your applications by using React and adding the Progressive web app capability to it About This Book Bring the best of mobile sites and native apps to your users with progressive web applications Create fast, reliable, and engaging PWAs with React and Firebase Create high-performance applications even with low connection speeds by leveraging modern web technologies Who This Book Is For This book is for Javascript Developers who want to develop high performance Web User Interfaces. This book requires basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. What You Will Learn Set up Webpack configuration, as well as get the development server running Learn basic Firebase configuration and deployment Create routes, manage multiple components, and learn how to use React Router v4 to manage the flow of data Use React life cycle methods to load data Add a service worker to the app and learn how it works Use a service worker to send Push Notifications Configure Webpack to split up the JavaScript bundle and lazy load component files Learn how to use the web Cache API to use your app offline Audit PWAs with Google's Lighthouse tool In Detail For 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. Style and approach This is a step-by-step book, wherein, you will use the React framework to create a complete progressive web app.