Deep dive distractions

Posted by Vito, posted March 23

While working on Search Engine Optimizations today, using the Google Search Console, i learned more about the pitfalls of working with a progressive web app (and Single Page apps in general), with how they make it difficult for the search engines to fetch individual pages within the app. This led to hours of research into a solution, which led me to a discovery that may just provide a boost to several aspects of the site/app.

For my technical friends out there, the latest version of Blazor is capable of starting a user session with interactive capabilities similar to that of running a SPA, using a SignalR channel that keeps a connection to the browser to allow for dynamic UI updates. In the background, the WebAssembly version of dotNet (along with your site) are downloaded to the browser and the site automatically switches from server mode to client mode.

All of the Microsoft documentation says that if you want to run a progressive web app, you need to use Blazor WebAssembly and not Blazor Web (server). If turns out that their documentation is misleading at the least. I've setup a demo site that does in fact serve an installable progressive web app.

This switch may reduce the time it takes to load the initial page considerably, allow for direct access to any page contained within the app (as it can be served by the server, bypassing the need to install the entire dotNet framework before being able to view any page, provide for more options and security when it comes to authentication and authorization, as well as other benefits.

I'm writing all of this to say that most of today and likely the next couple of days, I'll be dedicating my time to researching the capabilities and benefits of this approach and there will likely be few updates during this time.

So I'll see you on the other side of the weekend - hopefully with some great news and a boosted site!