03/18/2018
Making progressive (web apps) rock for DevOps
Progressive Apps have one common source code base to develop for all platforms: web, Android and iOS – making them easy to maintain and fix. With Google behind the development; it’s perhaps no surprise that PWAs are relatively easy to adopt. So, developers don’t need to gain new skills, but rather learn new APIs and see how they can be leveraged by their websites.
PWA apps exhibit two main architectural features for developers to use; Service Workers (which give developers the ability to manually manage the caching of assets and control the experience when there is no network connectivity) and Web App Manifest (the file within the PWA that describe the app, provides metadata specific to the app like icons, splash screens and more) – and these present significant new opportunities for developers.
For testers, PWAs are still JavaScript-based apps, so tools like Selenium and Appium will continue to work effectively. However, cross browser testing on desktop and mobile platforms is getting harder and PWA introduces a greater level of complexity than RWD. As with any development of this ilk, new tests (manual and automated) need to be developed, executed, and fit into the overall pipeline.
With RWD, the primary challenge was the visual changes driven by form factor.
PWA introduces additional complexities due to more unique mobile-specific capabilities, such as no network operation, sensors-based functionality (location, camera for AR/VR, and more) and cross-device functionality as well as dependency on different test frameworks like Selenium, Appium.
There may also be a need to instrument the mobile side of the PWA to better interact with the UI components of the app on the devices. Testers must be aware of what PWAs can access and how to keep quality assurance high at the top of their priority list.
