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I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

debuggerdotbreak.judahgabriel.com

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Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#21

Post by scardine »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #8
judah wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why build an app and not just live on the web? I answered that in the article, 2nd paragraph. The answer is two-fold: 1. That's where users are. We've trained a generation of users to find apps in app stores. 2. Some mobile platforms (read: iOS) are hostile to web apps. For example, Apple doesn't let you play audio in the background on iOS. (Or rather, they suspend JS execution if the web app is in the background, or…

> Some mobile platforms (read: iOS) are hostile to web apps. I'm OK with that. Web apps are clunkier and provide a worse experience. That Google makes this easier speaks to the sort of UX you get with Android.

> I'm OK with that. Web apps are clunkier and provide a worse experience. That Google makes this easier speaks to the sort of UX you get with Android.

Chicken and eggs argument here: web apps are clunkier and provide a worse experience because they are not well supported by the OS or the OS does not provide better support for web apps because they provide a worse experience?

Hybrid app frameworks exist because phone operational systems lack proper support for web applications.

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#22

Post by tangue »

osrec wrote: post #16
judah wrote: post #2

Author here. Thanks all for bringing this to the HN front page. The jist of the article is getting a PWA into the app stores is harder than it needs to be, especially on iOS. Between Google, Apple, and Microsoft, I found Google's Play Store to be the simplest and quickest store to get a PWA published in. Another interesting bit is that web technologies haven't caught up to native. My PWA isn't super complex -- it's a…

I'm interested to know how did you actually integrate with the lock screen? Did you use a wrapper of some kind to access native functionality?

Me too I didn't suspect that was even possible. If it's not a hack maybe PWA are not that far from mainstream.

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#23

Post by ryandrake »

judah wrote: post #17
gldev3 wrote: post #13

I feel you, every time i have to work with anything apple it's painful. Even their dev tools, i wasn't expecting much from XCode and i was still let down. In this regard Microsoft is way superior.

The dev experience was better with MS's tools, of course. They created PWABuilder, and it *actually generates a Windows Store package (.appx) that can be submitted to the store. No other steps required. Pretty amazing. Google wasn't bad; PWABuilder generated an Android Studio project. You open in Android Studio, build, and it generates the package to be submitted to the store. iOS was sadly the most painful. Not leas…

It’s a lot to do with what you’re used to. As an Apple user bought into their ecosystem and tools, I find developing for their platforms dramatically easier and more straightforward than for other targets. I can basically do Android development with some pain and confusion, but on Windows I’m totally stumped/useless.

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#25

Post by iandev »

judah wrote: post #2

Author here. Thanks all for bringing this to the HN front page. The jist of the article is getting a PWA into the app stores is harder than it needs to be, especially on iOS. Between Google, Apple, and Microsoft, I found Google's Play Store to be the simplest and quickest store to get a PWA published in. Another interesting bit is that web technologies haven't caught up to native. My PWA isn't super complex -- it's a…

In the article: "Aside: I guess Apple won’t let you submit an app unless you have a registered, legal company?"

Although it does seem to be this way, you can submit an app to the store without being a registered, legal company. The most common route is to just mark yourself as a sole proprietorship using your own name. No need for an LLC or anything. However, this may vary from country to country.

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#26

Post by judah »

osrec wrote: post #16
judah wrote: post #2

Author here. Thanks all for bringing this to the HN front page. The jist of the article is getting a PWA into the app stores is harder than it needs to be, especially on iOS. Between Google, Apple, and Microsoft, I found Google's Play Store to be the simplest and quickest store to get a PWA published in. Another interesting bit is that web technologies haven't caught up to native. My PWA isn't super complex -- it's a…

I'm interested to know how did you actually integrate with the lock screen? Did you use a wrapper of some kind to access native functionality?

I describe that in the article, but here's the short of it:

iOS: You have to use Cordova plugins. I used RemoteCommand[0] and NowPlaying[1] that lets me write JavaScript that calls into native iOS functionality. Once the Cordova plugins are installed, you write JS to talk to them. Source code for that here[2].

Android: Google has submitted a web standard[3] for this. Integrating with it is simple[4].

Windows: Microsoft automatically injects the Windows API into the JS global namespace. So you write JavaScript that looks like window.Windows.Media.SystemMediaTransportControls.doSomethingHere(). You can see the code for that here[5].

[0]: https://github.com/leon/cordova-plugin-remotecommand

[1]: https://github.com/leon/cordova-plugin-nowplaying

[2]: https://github.com/JudahGabriel/Chavah/blob/master/Chavah.Ne...

[3]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Media_Sessi...

[4]: https://github.com/JudahGabriel/Chavah/blob/master/Chavah.Ne...

[5]: https://github.com/JudahGabriel/Chavah/blob/master/Chavah.Ne...

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#28

Post by judah »

tangue wrote: post #22
osrec wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested to know how did you actually integrate with the lock screen? Did you use a wrapper of some kind to access native functionality?

Me too I didn't suspect that was even possible. If it's not a hack maybe PWA are not that far from mainstream.

It's possible. But you currently have to write code for each platform; iOS uses a Cordova plugin for this, so your JS has to talk to Cordova. Windows uses its own proprietary namespace which is injected into your app, so you write JS that talks to the proprietary Windows API.

Google is the unique bright light here. They've submitted a web standard, navigator.mediaSession [0], that lets you do this in a web standard way. Unfortunatly, the only browser that implements it is Chrome on Android.

[0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Media_Sessi...

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#29

Post by SeanLockItUp »

iandev wrote: post #25
judah wrote: post #2

Author here. Thanks all for bringing this to the HN front page. The jist of the article is getting a PWA into the app stores is harder than it needs to be, especially on iOS. Between Google, Apple, and Microsoft, I found Google's Play Store to be the simplest and quickest store to get a PWA published in. Another interesting bit is that web technologies haven't caught up to native. My PWA isn't super complex -- it's a…

In the article: "Aside: I guess Apple won’t let you submit an app unless you have a registered, legal company?" Although it does seem to be this way, you can submit an app to the store without being a registered, legal company. The most common route is to just mark yourself as a sole proprietorship using your own name. No need for an LLC or anything. However, this may vary from country to country.

I don't think that's true?

I had to get a DUNS number to apply to the app store. And it had to be an LLC (I think?) and not a sole proprietorship.

I initially just wanted to use a "DBA" (doing business as) but they don't allow those anymore, they used to in the early days but no longer.

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#30

Post by judah »

maccio92 wrote: post #24

> Don’t make me pay you to make my app available to your users. My app enriches your platform. It helps to prevent spammed low quality apps. If there is a monetary barrier to entry, it helps curb that.

I recognize that. I mentioned that Google's one-time $25 fee is quite reasonable to have an app in the app store.
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