You know, the web promised, well, it promised a lot of things. The first thing is connectivity and access, because no matter where you live, you can access just about anything on the web. There are, of course, some exceptions to that, firewall rules, government entities, you know, things like that. But for the most part, you know, if you put something on the web, you can access it from the US, you can access it from Europe, from Australia, doesn't matter where you live. It's awesome. And it has delivered in that case. The second thing is the idea of writing once and running everywhere.

And it has delivered in that case. The second thing is the idea of writing once and running everywhere. And it used not to be the case, especially whenever we had such, such disparate browsers that we had to support. But now that everything is based upon Google Chrome, well, we have Chromium-based browsers, and then we have Firefox. So it really doesn't matter what we write, it's going to run practically anywhere. And it doesn't matter where we are, doesn't matter what device we are on, as long as we are using those modern browsers, everything is going to run exactly the same, which is also awesome.

are using those modern browsers, everything is going to run exactly the same, which is also awesome. But you know, we as web developers are at a disadvantage because nothing beats a native application. It doesn't matter if it's Windows or Mac OS, or an iPad, an iPhone, an Android device. If you are accessing an app that is native to that device, you can't beat that. Because the one thing that those applications have is the ability to go offline. That is, of course, if the developers actually took the time to implement that kind of functionality. But if you're using an app on your phone and you lose connectivity, you know, chances are you haven't lost any work.

But if you're using an app on your phone and you lose connectivity, you know, chances are you haven't lost any work. And whenever your device has connectivity again, it's going to sync up those changes and everything's going to be fine. That's awesome because native applications, you know, have access to the operating system itself, and the themes and the features that it provides. Web apps, not so much. Well, unless if we go the route of writing a progressive web application, which, you know, admittedly is nothing new. Progressive web apps have been around for a very long time.

know, admittedly is nothing new. Progressive web apps have been around for a very long time. There's not a lot of information about them, or at least that's what I assume because unfortunately we as web developers don't take the time to incorporate the technologies into our web apps. For example, if you take a look at GitHub, and I'm using Brave here, and it doesn't matter what Chromium-based browser that you're using, you are going to see a little icon that says install GitHub. Now, I say a Chromium-based browser because unfortunately Firefox removed support for progressive web apps, at least on the desktop.

Now, I say a Chromium-based browser because unfortunately Firefox removed support for progressive web apps, at least on the desktop. Their mobile browsers still support it. And really, I guess that's what matters because where progressive web apps are going to shine is on some kind of mobile device. But here we can see install GitHub, and the first thing that comes to mind is we can actually install GitHub? And no, not really. All this is going to do is make GitHub easily available from my device. It opens up inside of a browser window with a minimum UI, and it's not like that I can

All this is going to do is make GitHub easily available from my device. It opens up inside of a browser window with a minimum UI, and it's not like that I can navigate to someplace else. This is a window specifically for GitHub, and it's not so much that I now have a dedicated window for GitHub. I now have the ability to use GitHub offline because progressive web apps give us the ability to store information on our device so that whenever we lose connectivity, our applications still work. So that whenever we get connectivity back, our applications sync those changes up and everything works like it did before.

So that whenever we get connectivity back, our applications sync those changes up and everything works like it did before. So it gives us the ability to build a web application that feels kind of like a native application. And the best part is we don't have to learn how to write native applications for all of these other operating systems. We don't have to go through any of the stores like the App Store or Google Play or the Microsoft Store. They still run within the browser. So all we have to do is set up our web app as a progressive web application, then users

They still run within the browser. So all we have to do is set up our web app as a progressive web application, then users can install them on their device and they can run it just like any other app. At its core, a progressive web app is just a normal web app, but it's enhanced with modern web capabilities that make it feel like a native app. So in this series, we are going to take a simple Laravel application and turn it into a progressive web app. Because this is an application that someone would use out in the field. They need to be able to view these meters so that not only they can see the history of the meters, but also provide new readings for them.

They need to be able to view these meters so that not only they can see the history of the meters, but also provide new readings for them. And as long as the user has connectivity, this app is going to work fine. But you know, some of these meters are in remote locations where connectivity is spotty at best. Therefore, by turning this into a progressive web app will give us the ability to cache that information and sync it to the server when a connection is re-established. Now there are many things that a progressive web application needs, the first of which is a manifest. And we will create one in the next episode.

is a manifest. And we will create one in the next episode.