Thursday, November 11, 2021

Push real-time data to Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are web applications that use the features of modern browsers to offer a native-app-like experience on every platform. They rest on three pillars: responsiveness, reliability, and installability.

PWAs are responsive because they render well on a variety of devices and window sizes to ensure usability and user satisfaction.

PWAs are reliable because they are usable regardless of network connection.

PWAs are installable because they can be added to the user's home screen, dock, or taskbar. It is possible to search for them on a device and jump between them with the app switcher like native apps.

In more and more scenarios, PWAs are replacing native mobile apps and hybrid apps, to save on development and maintenance costs, while enlarging the compatibility with the broad base of client-side platforms.

There are many uses cases where applications need to receive real-time data, pushed by a server over a streaming channel: online trading platform in the financial brokerage space, monitoring dashboards, second-screen applications, group chats, betting solutions, and many more.

Is it easy to push live data to a PWA? The short answer is yes if you use a modern streaming engine like Lightstreamer.