Progressive web apps: a new vision, a step forward for the web.

PWA Progressive Web Apps are sites and web pages that, thanks to software, behave like native applications on a mobile device. They install from the site, are fast and integrate with communication and sales cms. They have push notifications for engagement and to offer informational services.

PWAs in brief

1. They are installed on smartphones directly from the website, without going through app stores. The app is shown on the device as an icon, along with all other apps.
2. They can transmit any kind of content to the smartphone. Pages, articles, photos, videos, maps and audio. They are invoked by CMSs such as WordPress and ecommerce such as Magento and others.
3. Service workers allow the application to run offline, when there is no connection or with low quality connections.
4. They are fast due to content caching and are engaging. They create engagement with push notifications, sent directly to subscribers’ devices. They are easy to install and uninstall.
5. Indexability and tracking of user behavior.

The innovative technology is the Service Worker , which is a script that sits between the browser and the web server where the content is published. The service worker, acts as a proxy and takes care of serving the browser the elements from its cache or retrieving them from the web server, thus making the app not only fast, but also perfectly usable offline. The PWA will be able to notify users of the most interesting content or news, via push that will appear on the device.

Weather In Campania an example of PWA

An example of progressive web app development is Meteoincampania.it. The idea of a specific weather site for the Campania region, was born from the collaboration between our team and Antonio Iannella, Technical Meteorologist W MO ( World Meteorology Organization ) Certified by scientific committee of the NRC.
In the first decade of the 2000s, Iannella was an editor for 3BMeteo.com.

Since 2007 and for more than 10 years, editor, press and medium-long term sections manager for iLMeteo.it.

Weather in Campania is an example of how Progressive web app technology can meet the needs of a small publisher who, thanks to the app that can be installed on the smartphone, offers readers a timely and immediate information service.
On Meteo in campania, content is published on the web and managed by the WordPress cms platform and thanks to the service worker also available in the app. Users when visiting the site, with a simple gesture can install the app on the device. Regarding the app, the icon appears on the home screen of the device, and if the user wishes, they can subscribe to the weather report, receiving updates and alerts on weather conditions.

Weather in campania is a regionalweather service for Campania with timely and recurring updates throughout the day through targeted analyses that compute the orographic peculiarities of Campania. Thus, an ad hoc forecast with detail over the first 24 hours on each province. In addition, a valid and reliable forecast up to 4 days, as well as a 5-7/10/15-day weather trend and even a monthly maximum trend, based on special survey techniques called “teleconnective”.

Progressive Web Apps can be used by any type of company that wants to offer its audience information, show news and products, even offline.
This type of solution creates engagement across fixed and mobile devices, leveraging the communicative effectiveness of push notifications.