Deploying app as PWA

Learn how to deploy your app as PWA on a free Firebase hosting

The Ionic 4 version is also designed as a PWA, hence you can always deploy it as a PWA as well.

Prepare Firebase project for PWA

Detailed explanation of Firebase integration in our tutorial here​‌

To deploy the app as PWA , we will demonstrate using Firebase hosting.‌‌

First create a project on Firebase.‌‌

Now, in your project directory, run

$ npm install -g firebase-tools

This will install Firebase tools in your project. Now login into Firebase using

$ firebase login

It will redirect you to browser, and authenticate using your google account. Once you are logged in, you can run this command to attach the code to your project.

$ firebase init

It will take you through a list of options for project setup.‌‌

This will create a firebase.json file which should look like the following

{
  "hosting": {
    "public": "www",
    "ignore": [
      "firebase.json",
      "**/.*",
      "**/node_modules/**"
    ],
    "rewrites": [
      {
        "source": "**",
        "destination": "/index.html"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Convert the app into a PWA

The two main requirements of a PWA are a Service Worker and a Web Manifest. While it's possible to add both of these to an app manually, the Angular team has an @angular/pwa package that can be used to automate this.‌‌

To add this package to the app run:

$ ng add @angular/pwa

Finally, build your project into production using

$ ionic build --prod

This will create a production build of your ionic app for PWA deployment. Use Firebase to deploy the app using

$ firebase deploy --only hosting

Whenever you make any changes to the app, make sure you run ionic build --prod before deploying it again on the hosting.‌‌

This will deploy your app on a Firebase url such as https://spotifyapp.firebaseapp.com/ where you will see your app running perfectly.‌‌

The Firebase console will show the deployment like this​‌

For a more detailed step-by-step guide on PWA deployment, check this blog​​‌

When deploying an app through a hosting service, be aware that HTTPS will be required to take full advantage of Service Workers and features like Geolocation etc.‌‌

For more information on PWA related option in firebase.json , check here​