Tired of slow-loading websites and clunky mobile experiences?
Meet Magento PWA Studio, the toolkit that’s set to transform how you build eCommerce sites.
This powerful solution is designed to create Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) that offer lightning-fast performance, offline capabilities, and a seamless user experience across all devices.
In this post, we’ll explore the ins and outs of Magento PWA Studio, how it works, and why it’s a game-changer for modern eCommerce.
Contents
What is PWA?
PWA stands for Progressive Web Applications, a cutting-edge technology that combines the best features of native apps and websites. PWAs deliver a superior user experience by enhancing usability, speed, and engagement. They offer several key features:
Firstly, the “Add to Home Screen” feature allows users to add a PWA to their mobile device’s home screen with just a few clicks, ensuring your brand’s icon is always visible without a lengthy installation process.
Push notifications, which boast an opt-in rate of 81% for Android users and 51% for iOS users, enable businesses to send personalized messages, driving high traffic and conversion rates.
Another standout feature is offline mode. Unlike regular websites that go blank when the internet connection drops, PWAs allow users to access previously loaded pages, ensuring uninterrupted browsing.
Additionally, PWAs are optimized for speed, loading almost instantly on subsequent visits, catering to users’ expectations for fast-moving content.
Progressive Web Applications are revolutionizing eCommerce by offering an app-like experience directly through the web, making them a powerful tool for businesses aiming to improve user engagement and satisfaction.
Here’s an article you might want to check out if you want to know more about PWA for Magento specifically.
What is Magento 2 PWA Studio?
Magento PWA Studio is a comprehensive set of developer tools designed for building, deploying, and maintaining a Progressive Web Application (PWA) storefront on Magento 2.3 and above.
It leverages modern tools and libraries to create a robust build system and framework, adhering to Magento’s principle of extensibility. Magento PWA Studio simplifies the process of creating a PWA storefront directly on the Magento backend.
Here are some of its key features and components:
PWA Buildpack
This includes essential tools for project setup, configuration management, and an extensible framework. It aids developers in configuring their environment and managing workflows across development, testing, staging, and production environments.
Custom React Hooks
PWA Studio offers custom React hooks and components through the venia-ui and peregrine packages. These hooks allow developers to create functional components that can reuse the same functionality across various class components, simplifying state management and data retrieval.
Venia Theme Package
Venia is the flagship Magento PWA storefront built using PWA Studio tools and libraries. It serves as a reference model that developers can use as a starting point for their own projects.
The Venia package comes with pre-built UI and design components, covering everything from the home page to checkout. If you want to learn more, check out this article where we wrote about the Magento PWA Studio demo (Venia) extensively.
Advantages of Magento PWA Studio
Magento 2 Compatibility
Magento PWA Studio supports Magento 2.3 and above. This is super beneficial for Magento stores since most of them now operate on Magento 2.
Also, the PWA Studio is from Adobe – the Magento provider, meaning it’s built-in compliance with the code standard of Magento. This will help avoid any code conflict issues and let PWA run smoothly on top of Magento.
Easier integration into Magento
Everything from the application builder you get is configured and ready to use. Developers can stay ahead a couple of hours handling the application builder’s setup.
Furthermore, developers can take out and only use parts of the PWA Studio for Magento. This gives flexibility as well as reduces the complexity of the PWA development.
Also, the PWA studio provides an extensive range of ready-made elements that can be used right away as they are. Yet, they are available for modification if necessary.
Out-of-the-box Architecture and Framework Application
Accelerate the Progressive Web Applications building process with ease and high accuracy with PWA Studio’s out-of-the-box architecture. Apart from the installation and configuration that are open to working on it, no more change is needed as it is built as ready-to-use software.
You can take advantage of this resilient framework that has been tested rigorously by Magento to create your online store and start selling sooner. Or you can merge some custom solutions into this out-of-the-box software for an adaptable framework that best meets your expectations.
Fast Updating and Maintenance Process
Both the Magento version and PWA studio get updates simultaneously, so no effort is needed to learn the Magento updates to fix PWA operations like other PWA solutions accordingly.
This would help the updating and maintenance process happen faster and with ease.
Disadvantages of Magento PWA Studio
Poor Design Interface
As you will see, the Venia storefront for mobile and desktop devices is quite tedious, sketchy, and unattractive. The overall layout, font, and color combination might not meet your expectations.
Limited Features
Unfortunately, the Venia storefront doesn’t contain enough Magento core features, and it’s also not optimized for mobile, which is a bummer for the surging popularity of mobile usage nowadays.
Limited Compatibility with Extensions
As extensions or add-ons are from third-party developers, they might not be fully compatible with PWA studio as Magento frequently updates it.
To fix this, you have to wait for the updated extensions released from those developers and then install them to continue using them.
The Abstractions and Complexibility
PWA Studio is built as the universally applicable solution in mind with the best effort possible from the Magento team. This means that there are more available codes than needed, so developers would have to exclude all the irrelevant parts of the apps to improve the page loading speed.
Ready-made code solutions from PWA Studio can imply excessive complexity and apparent bugs, therefore time is requested to invest to untangle and clear up the misfits and complicated code structures.
Related Post: Magento PWA Studio Vs Vue Storefront – Comparison & Advice
Requirements For Magento PWA Studio Installation
- Magento 2 backend: Without it, your Magento PWA storefront will be pointed to the default Magento 2 backend.
- NodeJS: Your Node version must be from 10.14.1 LTS and above. To check your existing one: node -v
- Yarn: Besides NodeJs, your Jarn version also needs to be at least 1.13.0. To check your current one: yarn -v
- Magento UPWARD Connector extension: This extension is used for routing requests to UPWARD-PHP.
How to Set Up Magento 2 PWA Studio
This section will walk you through the setup process, ensuring you have everything you need to get started with building a fast, responsive, and engaging PWA storefront on the Magento platform.
Step 1: Run the following commands to install the PWA Studio
cdinto the directory where you want to install PWA Studio and run the command:
yarn create @magento/pwa
Then, you need to answer all the questions in the terminal as the following guide:
- Project root directory (will be created if it does not exist): you have to enter your root directory’s name.
- Short name of the project to put in the package.json “name” field: you must enter your PWA storefront project name.
- Name of the author to put in the package.json “author” field: you need to enter the author information with the format: Author Name <author email>. For example: TigrenPWA <[email protected]>.
- Magento instance to use as a backend (will be added to ‘.env’ file): you should select Magento 2.3.3 with Venia sample data installed to include the sample data from the PWA Studio Venia theme. Also, your PWA storefront will be pointed to the default Magento backend on Cloud. However, it’s possible to point it back to your Magento backend later.
- Braintree API token to use to communicate with your Braintree instance (will be added to ‘.env’ file): you need to press Enter.
- NPM package management client to use: here you must select yarn.
- Install package dependencies with yarn after creating the project: finally, you need to select Yes.
Step 2: Set up the development environment variables
If you want to change the development environment variables (e.g.: MAGENTO_BACKEND_URL, BRAINTREE_TOKEN/), you need to update your project’s .env file and alter the property values.
MAGENTO_BACKEND_URL=https://magento-backend.example.com/
BRAINTREE_TOKEN=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Step 3: Prepare PWA Studio build
Run the following commands in the PWA Studio root project directory:
yarn install
yarn build
Step 4: Install the Magento UPWARD Connector extension
The Magento 2 UPWARD connector is a module for routing requests to UPWARD-PHP. It will replace the default Magento front-end template with the powerful PWA Studio storefront.
You need to run the following commands in the Magento root project directory in order to install that module:
composer require magento/module-upward-connector
bin/magento s:up
bin/magento s:d:c
bin/magento s:s:d
Step 5: Configure the Magento UPWARD Connector module
You can easily configure the UPWARD Connector by following Magento’s tutorial.
Who Should Use The Magento PWA Studio?
Magento 2 PWA Studio is an excellent resource for developers.
As an open-source project, it is regularly updated, independent of Magento releases, with new features, theme enhancements, and quality improvements. This makes Magento PWA Studio a reliable and evolving code source for developers aiming to build Progressive Web Applications.
One of the standout features is the proof-of-concept Venia Storefront, designed to replace the Magento 2 frontend while running on top of the Magento 2 backend. Developers can easily set up and customize the Venia PWA storefront to suit their needs.
Leveraging the free, high-quality code from Magento PWA Studio, developers can create standard Progressive Web Applications efficiently.
However, Magento PWA Studio is not recommended for merchants without technical expertise.
PWA integration is a complex process requiring strong technical knowledge. If you’re a business owner wanting to build a PWA with Magento PWA Studio, you’ll need to hire developers.
Additionally, the Venia PWA theme only provides essential functions, lacking many features of the default Magento theme. Creating a new PWA from scratch with PWA Studio tools can take 3 to 4 months to add basic features and up to 6 additional months for custom features.
You can refer to the Venia Storefront as a starting point for examples of Magento PWA in action.
Conclusion
Magento PWA Studio represents a significant advancement in creating fast, engaging, and mobile-friendly eCommerce websites. It offers a robust set of tools for developers to build and customize Progressive Web Applications, enhancing user experience and performance.
However, its complexity and the technical expertise required make it a better fit for developers than for merchants without a technical background.
If you’re looking to transform your online store with a PWA but need expert assistance, consider partnering with Tigren. As one of the first companies to offer Magento PWA solutions since 2017, we have established ourselves as a top service provider.
With a proven track record of successful Magento PWA development projects, Tigren can help you achieve your eCommerce goals and deliver an exceptional shopping experience to your customers.
Reach out to us to learn more about how we can support your PWA integration and take your business to the next level.
