How Does Beezer.com Build Mobile Apps?
Beezer.com leverages an exciting piece of technology called Progressive Web Apps. In 2015 Francis Berriman and Alex Russell coined the term “Progressive Web Apps” to describe web applications that make use of modern browser features like service worker and App manifests.
What Makes Up A Progressive Web App?
There are several characteristics that make a web App a Progressive Web App:
- Progressive — Meaning they work for every user, regardless of browser choice because they’re built with progressive enhancement as a core tenet
- Responsive — They fit any form including; desktop, mobile, tablet or, forms yet to emerge
- Connectivity independent — Service workers allow PWAs to work offline, or on low quality networks
- App-like — They feel like an App to the user with App-style interactions and navigation
- Fresh — They are always up-to-date thanks to the service worker update process
- Safe — They are served via HTTPS to prevent snooping and ensure content hasn’t been tampered with
- Discoverable — They are identifiable as applications thanks to W3C manifests and service worker registration scope allowing search engines to find them
- Re-engageable — PWAs make re-engagement easy through features like Push Notifications
- Installable — They allow users to “keep” Apps they find most useful on their home screen without the hassle of an app store
- Linkable — They are easily shared via a URL and do not require complex installation
You can read more about PWAs here
What Do The Above Characteristics Mean To Beezer.com?
Here at Beezer.com we take these principles seriously, because we have set out to use the Progressive Web App standard. Any App built with our platform will adhere to the above and deliver a rich mobile experience.
Lets take a look at a few of the above principles and see how Beezer adheres to them …
Beezer’s Apps are Safe because they serve all content strictly over HTTPS and makes use of JSX to prevent code injection attacks.
Beezer.com Apps are Re-engageable because App owners can easily access the platform and use it to distribute Push Notifications, SMS and emails to users.
Beezer’s Apps are Linkable because you can deep link to any page in the App. I’d actually go a step further and say that Beezer Apps are Shareable, by using our in-App share model you can easily share your App across a number of channels, increasing the chances of your App going viral by reducing the friction of sharing.
Beezer’s Apps are also Installable, meaning your users can install the App directly to their home screen.
What Happens When You Build An App With Beezer.com?
When you build an App on the Beezer.com Build Platform we store your content, design choices and components chosen in our database, this becomes the structure of your application and is used to create your application’s initial data (this data is fundamental for your App to startup and be useful as quickly as possible).
When you publish your application we start the build process on our servers and generate your App. We do this by collecting your content data, App structure and the components of your App (you entered this information into our database when at the self-build stage). You can think of these things like the ingredients used to build your App … we use these ingredients to create the initial data and assets necessary for the Application to launch. Any content that isn’t necessary for launch is left in our database, we then lazy load that content when you need it.
Your Mobile App is then stored on our backend, when you make a request to your App url (appname.beezer.com) we fetch your App from our backend and render it in your browser.
