Progressive Web @ WCUS Contributor’s Day

From whatwebcando.today you can get a sense of the large number of rich web APIs that are standard today. This is often referred to as the Progressive Web Platform. With these capabilities, alongside the use of modern development workflows and coding and performance best practices, web developers can create great user-first experiences on the web.  Similarly, the WordPress platform has also been evolving steadily since its inception, and most recently, sweeping changes are being introduced with the development of GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/.

An important part of the continued evolution of WordPress is the integration of modern Web Platform capabilities into coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. when possible, and into plugins and themes as well. We have been working on a project aimed at integrating the Service Workers API (#36995) and Web App Manifests (#43328) into WordPress core, as well as expanding core support for HTTPSHTTPS HTTPS is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. This is especially helpful for protecting sensitive data like banking information. (#28521). Right now this effort is been advanced under the umbrella of a PWA feature plugin.

Up until now this feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. has primarily been collaboration between XWP and the Chrome team at Google. The pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party is a technology preview for a core foundation that themes and plugins can use to create new user experiences, like being able to access a site while offline. Service workers will also make it possible to do offline editing in Gutenberg. To be successful, the project needs the participation of the WordPress core community and wider ecosystem. We have been delaying the feature-as-plugin proposal until after Gutenberg launches, but now that WordPress 5.0 is around the corner, we want to start the formal feature-as-plugin process.

We will be at the WCUS Contributor Day in Nashville next week, and we want to discuss the current status of the PWA feature plugin and a roadmap for the work ahead. If you are interested in learning more about this proposal and possibly contribute to the project, we would love to chat.

#progressive, #pwa, #service-workers, #wcus