A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a type of web application that uses modern web capabilities to give users a native app-like experience. PWAs work on any platform with a standards-compliant browser, including desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.

When a user visits a PWA in their browser, they can choose to install it on their device. They can then launch it from the device's home screen like a native app. It runs in its own window, separate from the browser.

PWAs can work offline, with features the user can use even when the device is not connected to the internet. Background scripts called service workers enable this capability, caching resources for later use.

PWAs offer many benefits over traditional native apps. They work on any device with a standards-compliant browser, are faster to deploy and install, and are less expensive to develop and maintain. They are more discoverable, since they can be found through search engines. They are more intuitive for users who always use the app's latest features automatically without having to find, download, or update the app from an app store.

Users can install PWAs on a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers, and access them through compatible web browsers.

All four modern web browsers that APEX supports - Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Apple Safari - offer a rich set of PWA features, but the exact set of PWA capabilities that each one offers depends on the browser.

For each APEX PWA feature, this reference app carefully documents which combination of device and browser supports it. Explore the different pages of this application using the navigation menu to learn more.

No, but they behave like a native application in virtually all the ways end users care about. They are web-based apps that any user can install on their device and access like a native app, but they are not built using the native programming languages of the device's operating system (such as Swift for iOS or Java for Android). PWAs can leverage native device resources like front-facing and selfie camera, native keyboards for entering decimals and numbers, sensors like GPS, accelerometer, and altimeter, and the native share sheet to exchange information or files to other apps or contacts. Using the PWA service worker hooks APEX offers to developers familiar with JavaScript, apps can further take advantage of push notifications, offline data handling, payment methods, and more.

Since it is always automatically up to date with the latest version of your application onthe server, end users never need to manually update their installed app and you never have to bother users with pleas to install the latest version.

Yes, it is possible to generate an Android Package Kit (APK) file for a PWA. An APK is a package file format used to distribute and install mobile apps on the Android operating system.

There are several tools and services that you can use to generate an APK file for your PWA:

1. PWA to APK: This is a online service that allows you to generate an APK file that can be installed on Android devices.
2. PWA Wrapper: This is a command-line tool that allows you to generate an APK file for your PWA by providing the URL of your PWA and specifying some configuration options.
3. PWA Builder: This is a web tool that allows you to generate an APK file for your PWA by providing the URL of your PWA and specifying some configuration options.

Once you have generated an APK file for your PWA, you can distribute it to users through the Google Play Store or other app stores, or by sharing the APK file directly with users. Users can install the APK file on their Android devices by opening the file on their device.

Uninstalling a PWA varies slightly depending on the device and platform you are using. Here's how to uninstall a PWA on Android, iOS, and desktop platforms:

1. Android: a. Locate the PWA icon you want to uninstall. b. Press and hold the app icon until a menu appears. c. Select 'Uninstall' d. Confirm the action when prompted.

2. iOS: a. Find the PWA on your home screen. b. Press and hold the app icon until it starts to wiggle, and an 'X' appears on the top-left corner of the icon. c. Tap the 'X' to uninstall the PWA. d. Confirm the action when prompted, and then press the home button or swipe up from the bottom of the screen to exit the edit mode.

3. Desktop (Windows, macOS) using Chrome and Edge: a. Launch the PWA from its desktop icon or the applications folder. b. Click the 'Settings' (three-dot) menu in the top-right corner of the app window. c. Select 'Uninstall [App Name]' from the dropdown menu. d. Confirm the action when prompted.

4. Windows: a. Click the 'Start' button and open the list of all installed apps. b. Locate the PWA you want to uninstall. c. Right-click on the app and select 'Uninstall' from the context menu. d. Follow any additional prompts to complete the uninstallation process.

After completing these steps, the PWA will be uninstalled from your device. Keep in mind that these instructions may vary slightly depending on your device model and operating system version.

An APEX PWA is a Progressive Web Application developed using Oracle APEX.

Users access APEX PWA apps through a web browser on a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. They can install the app on their device and access it like a native app. Oracle APEX makes developing PWAs apps easy.

APEX PWA applications offer many benefits unique to the Oracle APEX platform, such as the ability to easily connect to Oracle databases and integrate with all other APEX features.

The time it takes to develop an APEX PWA will depend on a number of factors, but it should require minimal additional effort by Oracle APEX developers. Two declarative, app-level settings control whether your application will be installable by users as a PWA. When creating a new application, the wizard reduces the effort to a single click.

Your project's specific requirements influence the time required to develop an APEX PWA. A simple app with few pages and basic functionality could potentially be developed in a few days or weeks. In contrast, a more complex APEX PWA with advanced features and integrations could take longer to develop.

For advanced scenarios, developers can fully customize the APEX PWA's Web App Manifest and Service Worker. When a project's requirements require this level of customization, it's hard to estimate the time and effort required.

Yes, easily. First, make sure the Friendly URLs app setting is enabled. Then ensure your application is served using HTTPS. Finally, switch on the two additional app-level settings Enable Progressive Web App and Installable.

By default, users need to sign in every time they access an APEX application, and they stay authenticated for the duration of their app session. However, APEX provides several options for maintaining user sessions and allowing users to stay signed in, including the use of cookies, session state, and authentication schemes.

After an instance administrator enables APEX's persistent authentication feature, you can offer users the same native application launch experience they are familiar with from native desktop and mobile applications. Your APEX PWA users can tick a Remember me checkbox on their first login and stay logged in for a fixed period of time. By default a user's authentication is remembered for 30 days, but you can configure that at the instance level.

Yes, in most of the ways that matter most to end users, but not all operating system resources are available. Since Oracle APEX PWAs are web-based applications, they are not built using the native programming languages of the device's operating system. As a result, they do not have the same level of access to the device's hardware and software as native apps.

An APEX PWA can access the device's camera, location, share sheet and storage using both declarative and programmatic APIs, as well as cache network requests. The specific resources and features available to an APEX PWA will depend on the capabilities of the device and the web browser being used to access the application.

In an APEX PWA, certain resources are cached by default to improve the performance of the app.

By default, APEX PWAs use a service worker to cache static resources, such as JavaScript and CSS files, as well as image and font files. These resources are stored in the browser's cache and are available offline, which can help to improve the app's performance and make it more resilient to network disruptions.

However, not all resources are cached in an APEX PWA. Dynamic content, such as data retrieved from the database, is not cached by default. This means that if an app needs to access this type of content while offline, its developer needs to be familiar with JavaScript and implement their own mechanism using supported Service Worker hooks for storing and retrieving the data.

Making the APEX Builder a seamless PWA desktop experience is on our roadmap. It implies creating a group of applications that will function as a single PWA.

APEX Builder consists of numerous apps and it makes sense to have them as a single PWA. Customers will also be able to define a multi app PWA ecosystem.

Yes, it is possible for an APEX PWA to access and use geolocation information. Geolocation refers to the location of a device or user, typically determined using GPS or other location-based technologies.

In an APEX PWA, you can declaratively acquire location, speed, direction, and altitude using the Get Current Position dynamic action (subject to the user's granting permission). Your app can also declaratively geolocate any other address on the planet using built-in features. Your APEX PWA can take full advantage of APEX's data-savvy map region to visualize location-based data on mobile devices, too.

You can choose one of the built-in icon and color combinations, or upload your own custom icon in PNG or JPG formats.

You can also develop the icon using your favorite graphics program and should target 512x512 size for best results. Once uploaded, APEX lets you optionally scale and crop the icon before it proceeds to save your app icon as shared application files. APEX will downsize and resize the icon to all appriopriate icon sizes it requires.

APEX will generate the appropriate icon files and reference them automatically from all revelant places in your APEX app where the app icon needs to be displayed, such as the favicon, the PWA install icon, the login screen icon, etc.

As of APEX 23.1, APEX will generate 5 files out of the original icon: 512x512, 256x256, 192x192, 144x144 and 32x32. Each of them are designed to fit a specific use case such that it looks great on all platforms.

You can customize the appearance of your APEX PWA by configuring the display mode, orientation, theme color, background color, status bar style (for iOS), as well as use application shortcuts, and custom manifest properties.

It's a good idea to validate the responsive design behaviour of your APEX PWA application through adequate testing on different devices or simulators.

APEX provides various JavaScript APIs to identify the current mode in which the PWA is accessed. For example this function is used to determine if the application is currently accessed through the PWA application (eg. in fullscreen) or through the browser normally. Possible values are: fullscreen, standalone, minimal-ui, and browser.

const displayMode = apex.pwa.getDisplayMode();

Otherwise, it can be done using JavaScript and the navigator.userAgent property, which returns a string containing information about the device's user agent, however this is not recommended as user agents can change without prior notice.

Like most PWA features, each browser can behave differently. As for iOS on APEX 23.1, there is currently no declarative way of defining a splash screen while the app loads. However, it can be done by adding a new link tag on the page manually

<link rel="apple-touch-startup-image" href="r/apex_pm/49131/files/static/v413/ios-startup.png">

We should look into making this declarative in future APEX releases.

As of APEX 23.1 this is not possible, but it is on our Roadmap. We are always careful when it comes to telemetry of direct user interaction, therefore APEX should provide a solution that is non-intrusive to users.

As an alternative today, workspace admins can track how many apps were developed as a PWA along with the different PWA attributes.

PWAs are well-suited for a wide range of applications, letting users quickly launch and use nearly any kind of data-centric application on smartphones, tablets, and desktop or laptop computers. This includes the vast majority of typical Oracle APEX applications, including:

• Tracking, planning, productivity, and process automation apps with compelling data-driven visualizations, reporting, and data entry,
• E-commerce apps with a seamless shopping experience for quickly finding and buying goods and services,
• Social networking apps to interact with peers to ask questions, get answers, or exchange thoughts using text and media,
• News and media apps to abreast of a fast-changing world

While additional PWA features like offline support and push notifications require JavaScript skills to achieve with Oracle APEX today, they are possible to accomplish using supported APEX Service Worker hooks. This means that any of the APEX PWA applications above can be made to support these features to keep users working when connectivity is not reliable and keep them engaged through targeted app-specific alerts on their device.

However, not all apps are well-suited for PWA development. For example, apps that require complex graphics rendering or real-time data processing may not be suitable.

PWAs can be published to the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, but the process for doing so is different from the process for publishing a traditional native app.

To publish a PWA to the Google Play Store, you will need to follow the steps outlined in the Google Play Console documentation. This process involves creating a new listing for your PWA in the Google Play Store, uploading your PWA's web manifest and other required assets, and setting up a distribution channel for your PWA. Once the steps are completed, it will be made available in the Google Play Store for users to download and install on their devices.

To publish a PWA to the Apple App Store, you will need to follow the steps outlined in the App Store Connect documentation. This process involves creating a new listing for your PWA in the App Store, wrapping your PWA in Swift as a Webview. Once your PWA has been reviewed and approved by Apple, it will be made available in the App Store for users to download and install on their devices.

There are publishing costs to both stores.

We plan to make this integration process easier in the future, hopefully with some steps automated within the APEX Builder.

It is possible for APEX PWAs to support payment, but it requires some manual coding. A JavaScript developer on your team would use the APEX custom service worker to call the Web Payment API, a browser-based standard for handling payments on the web. It allows users to make payments using a variety of payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets. The Web Payment API can be used to implement payment support in a PWA.

The canmakepayment event of the service worker interface is fired when the client requests the authorization status of the Payment Handler API. It can be used to check if the browser supports at least one payment method. More info:

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Payment_Request_API/Using_the_Payment_Request_API
• https://web.dev/web-payments-updates/
• https://www.w3.org/TR/payment-handler/#handling-a-canmakepaymentevent

The paymentrequest event of the service worker interface is fired when client chooses to pay with a web-based payment app. It can be used to initiate a payment on a web app, using payment methods such as Google Pay. More info:

• https://web.dev/how-payment-request-api-works/
• https://web.dev/orchestrating-payment-transactions/

Implementing payment support in a PWA requires careful consideration of security and compliance issues. You should follow best practices to ensure that sensitive payment information is handled securely, and comply with relevant regulations and standards.

The short answer is: not easily. APEX does provide a user friendly offline fallback page when there is no connection to the internet, however. You can easily customize this fallback page in a declarative way.

For advanced users, it is technically possible to enable offline support for an APEX PWA. This entails using the custom Service Worker feature, which allows APEX applications to intercept network requests and serve cached responses when the device is offline.

Within the service worker hooks, the fetch event is reponsible for intercepting network requests. It can be extended to cache complete pages, specific resources and requests. When offline, the service worker would be responsible for fetching the cached resources instead of going to the network.

It is not trivial to make an APEX PWA app work offline in a generic way that would allow arbitrary searching, creation, and modification of the rich application data model that exists behind the typical APEX application. We hope APEX can provide easier mechanisms to enable basic offline features in future releases of APEX.

Until then, developers can venture into the custom service worker hooks to enable specific application use cases. In doing so, these more advanced APEX developers can help the Oracle APEX community and development team better understand the most common offline data access patterns that surface in your applications. This information will help us narrow the focus on delivering incremental offline data capabilities into future Oracle APEX versions. You can do this by logging new ideas for targeted offline capabilities based on your experiences at apex.oracle.com/ideas.