Microsoft has announced PWABuilder 2.0 is now generally available to all users. The tool allows developers to easily turn a web browser application into a progressive web app (PWA). Included in the second generation of the service is a new user interface based on ease and efficiency.
To accompany the release, the PWABuilder 2.0 GitHub page allows dev’s to see information about the service, its security feature, and snippets.
Microsoft has been investing heavily in PWAs in recent years and PWABuilder is an important tool for drawing in developers. The tool allows the easy transition of a normal web site into a progressive web app.
The company says PWABuilder 2.0 now makes it easier for developers. This is largely achieved by a new efficient design that is focused on being user-friendly. Elsewhere, new snippets allow tasks to be performed more quickly, such as a new Web Share API and the Clipboard API. Both these APIs are available in the new Feature Store:
“The Feature Store gives you a bunch of “snippits” that you can easily copy and paste into your app to immediately start using new advanced web APIs such as the async clipboard API or supercharge your app by tieing in to the Microsoft Graph using our Graph snippits. We are hard at work on including even more snippits in the Feature Store.”
Future
Microsoft says version 2.1 of PWABuilder is already in development and will introduce a new design for the service worker picker and manifest editor pages. Additionally, the upcoming update will make it easier to package a PWA as a Trusted Web Activity.
Furthermore, Microsoft will use future updates to make the tool more compatible with mobile. The company says users have suggested PWABuilder is difficult on mobile devices. That’s because it is a desktop-focused solution, but will soon be more mobile-friendly.