Trust Google to come up with tools to simplify and improve the conditions for web designers. And this is what exactly is being done through their Polymer App Toolbox.
This Toolbox emphasizes the Progressive Web Apps Mantra of Google and is used for building native like mobile Web Apps with Google’s Polymer library.
What actually is a native mobile web app?
A native web app is the app which has been built specifically for the mobile and its user interface. These apps are developed using the specific OS as the guide and thus are mature and follow user experience guidelines. These apps perform better on the OS they are built for and all the apps that are native to a system feel connected. Thus, with Polymer App Toolbox, Google has set out to provide web developers a chance to create apps that are native-like in approach and can be built easily and with less hassle. Native user interface helps the users to learn the working of the app easily and get used to the interface quickly. These apps are easier to locate and have access to device hardware and the software alike. The example of native apps are the simple clock apps, the reminders etc that one is able to set on their mobile phones.
What is the Polymer App Toolbox and what all does it consist of?
As Google has quoted, this Polymer App toolbox provides the developers with a set of loosely coupled components and tools to build a Progressive Web App using all the modern platforms available. Basically, it is a toolbox that has set of components and tools based on web platforms that are primitive but it can be used to produce cutting edge and progressive web apps, as remarked Taylor Savage, Google product manager for Polymer Toolbox.
Polymer Toolbox has included components for layout, routing, localization, and storage along with the command lie-in tool which is used to tie in everything altogether. Polymer also comes with a library to leverage Web Components, a standardized platform which is used for extending HTML and other componentizing apps.
What is the inspiration for coming up with Polymer?
Mobile apps have come a long way since their launching and this has what prompted Google to come up with a web based platform for development of mobile apps. Web platform has generally not been great for delivering immersive experiences as the lowest level of visual primitive that was available to a web developer is HTML tag, according to Taylor Savage. HTML has not since evolved much but the users and their expectations have gone through the roof.
JavaScript on the other hand has gotten more powerful with the times and it has been used as an escape hatch to create app-like experiences on the mobile web. Meta-platforms, runtimes, frameworks and tool chains have been built around JavaScript, which worked for the desktop applications but the changes in the mobile web has led the strategy of over-reliance on JavaScript obsolete.
So, now Google has come up with Polymer Toolbox which makes it easier for the web app developers to use what is already available in the browser to build their desired apps that have native like experience. They have provided building tools and libraries to leverage the new powerful features to build lower-overhead, higher quality applications through the web interface, explains Taylor Savage.
Google is also offering guidance on introduction to the Polymer App, getting to know it through experts, and learning the installation of the Polymer CLI, initializing project templates and serving projects.