Progressive Web Applications and Code Complexity : An analysis of the added complexity of making a web application progressive

• Main Author: Johannsen, Fabian
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linköpings universitet, Interaktiva och kognitiva system 2018
• Subjects: Progressive Web Applications; PWA; Code Complexity; Engineering and Technology; Teknik och teknologier
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-149496

Web applications have a common code base across multiple platforms, but have previously lacked some core features compared to native applications. However, recent web technology advancements have, in terms of functionality and user experience, reduced the gap between the two development approaches. Applications that leverages these technology advancements are dubbed progressive web applications, or PWA. This thesis explores the concepts of PWA and how it, in terms of code complexity, affects an Angular web application. The results show that implementing considered PWA features does not excessively increase the size of the application and that the overall added complexity is low. The complexity of PWA lies in all the new technology concepts, which are probably unfamiliar to most developers. To reduce this complexity, automated PWA tooling shows great promise, and using Angular PWA tooling when building Angular applications seems to minimize this complexity.