create-pwa

create-pwa

Easily create a progressive web app

About

create-pwa is a module for quick scaffolding and producing of progressive web applications.

create-pwa adds the minimum required boilerplate which your app requires in order to become a PWA.

create-pwa can be used with existing applications or can be the first thing one does when starting a new app.

Dependencies

In order to use this module, you must have NodeJS installed and NPM or Yarn available.

Install

You can either install create-pwa globally:

# Using NPM:
npm i -g create-pwa

# Using Yarn
yarn global add create-pwa

Arguments

icon: Specifies relative path to the application icon. This path is relative to the folder you are located in currently (your/app/folder). It is recommended that the icon file should be at least 512 pixels wide and 512 pixels high. The icon argument is required.

Usage

First, navigate to your application's folder: Then run the install command (see above)

cd your/app/folder

create-pwa --icon="./icon.png"

The above command will generate a manifest.json, service-worker.js file and several (8) png icons in the /icons/ folder in your app's root folder.

You can edit the contents of the manifest.json and service-worker.js files.

Their default content is based on industry's best practices and is highly opinionated.

In order to create a customized experience for your users, feel advised to revise and edit the contents of the above files.

When the files(manifest.json and service-worker.js) are ready for production, you need to let the world know about them:

1. Add the following to the head of your HTML file(s):

<link rel="manifest" href="manifest.json" />

You can read more about the Web App Manifest here.

1. Add the following snippet to your application's JavaScript bundle or place it in a script tag just before the closing </body> tag in your HTML file(s):

if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {
  window.addEventListener('load', function() {
    navigator.serviceWorker.register('./service-worker.js').then(
      function(registration) {
        // Registration was successful
        console.log(
          'ServiceWorker registration successful with scope: ',
          registration.scope
        );
      },
      function(err) {
        // registration failed :(
        console.log('ServiceWorker registration failed: ', err);
      }
    );
  });
}

You can read more about Service Workers here.

More info

There is a lot information about Progressive Web Applications on the Internet. In order to comply with browser's requirements and pass the audits you need to check out and fulfill the PWA Checklist.

The entries listed in Baseline Progressive Web App Checklist are mandatory and without them your web app will not qualify as a PWA.

If you wish to test your web app's compliance, you can use the Chrome's built-in Lighthouse tool (found under the Audits tab in the Developer tools).

LICENSE

MIT