Service Workers (SW): Facilitating Offline Accessibility in Web Applications
Main Article Content
Abstract
Consistent access to web application contents is of paramount importance to its end users. Irrespective of a user’s location and the internet condition, there is the desire to interact with web applications, particularly through the use of mobile devices. Attempts have been made by previous researchers to introduce the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) caching otherwise known as the browser cache which is automatically enabled by the browser and the Application Cache (AppCache) as an attempt to foster offline accessibility. While these approaches have helped, there still exists the problem of poor memory management and content validity.
A systematic Literature Review (SLR) was done on existing techniques, after which an overview of Service Workers (SW) and the identification of various SW caching strategies were proposed. Any of the proposed SW strategies can be adopted by web application developers based on the network condition and the contents of the application as this will help in reducing the loading time of the application, promote efficient mobile memory management, and increase the number of active usersDownloads
Article Details
COPYRIGHT
Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to automatic transfer of the copyright to the publisher.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work
- The journal allows the author(s) to retain publishing rights without restrictions.
- The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions.
References
O. Akeem and Y. Sun, “Mobile E-learning Support System for Secondary Schools in Nigeria,†in In 2018 1st IEEE International Conference on Knowledge Innovation and Invention (ICKII), 2018, pp. 262–265, doi: 10.1109/ICKII.2018.8569091.
R. R. Eka, T. V. Utami, and K. D. Listriana, “Mobile Based Learning Development for Improving Quality of Nursing Education in Indonesia,†in In 2019 IEEE Conference on Sustainable Utilization and Development in Engineering and Technologies (CSUDET), 2019, pp. 39–44, doi: 10.1109/CSUDET47057.2019.9214755.
A. Al-Hunaiyyan, S. Al-Sharhan, and R. Alhajri, “Prospects and Challenges of Mobile Learning Implementation: Kuwait HE Case Study,†2017. Accessed: Mar. 14, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346473760.
S. S. Oyelere, J. Suhonen, and E. Sutinen, “M-learning: A New Paradigm of Learning ICT in Nigeria,†Int. J. Interact. Mob. Technol., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 35–44, 2016, doi: 10.3991/ijim.v10i1.4872.
J. Chen, “Service Worker Caching and HTTP Caching,†Web Dev, 2020. https://web.dev/service-worker-caching-and-http-caching/ (accessed Jul. 25, 2021).
S. Meysam, “Caching in Web Applications,†Codementor, 2018. https://www.codementor.io/@meysamsamanpour/caching-in-web-applications-fz1gzizpa (accessed Jul. 25, 2021).
M. I. Zulfa, R. Hartanto, and A. E. Permanasari, “Caching Strategy for Web Application – A Systematic Literature Review,†International Journal of Web Information Systems, vol. 16, no. 5. Emerald Group Holdings Ltd., pp. 545–569, Nov. 09, 2020, doi: 10.1108/IJWIS-06-2020-0032.
E. Bidelman, “A Beginner’s Guide to Using the Application Cache,†HTML5Rocks, 2013. https://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/appcache/beginner/ (accessed Jul. 25, 2021).
B. James, “Problems with Application Cache,†Disqus, 2012. https://blog.jamesdbloom.com/ProblemsWithApplicationCache.html (accessed Jul. 25, 2021).
M. Firtman, “Service Workers Replacing AppCache: A Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut,†Medium, 2016. https://medium.com/@firt/service-workers-replacing-appcache-a-sledgehammer-to-crack-a-nut-5db6f473cc9b (accessed Jul. 25, 2021).
J. Posnick, “Preparing for AppCache Removal,†WebDev, 2021. https://web.dev/appcache-removal/ (accessed Jul. 25, 2021).
L. Chris, “What is a Service Worker? Transform Your Web Site to an Instant Loading Powerhouse!,†Love2Dev, 2021. https://love2dev.com/blog/what-is-a-service-worker/ (accessed Jul. 25, 2021).
J. Lee, H. Kim, J. Park, I. Shin, and S. Son, “Pride and Prejudice in Progressive Web Apps: Abusing Native App-Like Features in Web Applications,†in Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 2018, pp. 1731–1746, doi: 10.1145/3243734.3243867.
A. D. Hume, Progressive Web Apps, 1st ed. New York: Manning Publications Co., 2018.
T. Parbat, “Evaluation and Implementation of Progressive Web Application,†Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, 2018.
A. Gambhir and G. Raj, “Analysis of Cache in Service Worker and Performance Scoring of Progressive Web Application,†in 2018 International Conference on Advances in Computing and Communication Engineering, ICACCE 2018, 2018, pp. 294–299, doi: 10.1109/ICACCE.2018.8441715.
R. S. Mishra, “Progressive Web App: Review,†Int. Res. J. Eng. Technol., vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 3028–3032, 2016.
I. Malavolta, G. Procaccianti, P. Noorland, and P. Vukmirovic, “Assessing the Impact of Service Workers on the Energy Efficiency of Progressive Web Apps,†in In 2017 IEEE/ACM 4th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft), 2017, pp. 35–45, doi: 10.1109/MOBILESoft.2017.7.
caniuse.com, “Can I Use Service Workers,†Fyrd, 2021.