WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps: Rethinking modern application development

Choose your programming language of choice for building fast, ubiquitously cross-platform, future-proof modern applications: dang - your dream will finally come true! Really...? Let's see. Undoubtedly, everybody needs to build business applications, somehow. The web and the browser platforms have changed the way we can build LOB applications and these platforms have evolved considerably in the past 5 years. More and more native features are available to SPAs (single page applications) running in the browser - a great base for modern applications as so-called Progressive Web Apps (PWA). Now, with the rise of WebAssembly (WASM) as a standard and the improving maturity of PWAs we have powerful tools in our hand to build the next generation of web-based applications. In this session Christian Weyer will talk about the features & possibilities of Progressive Web Apps as app-like appearance, installability or offline operations, paired with the power of WebAssembly as a bytecode for all major modern browsers. See how to use PWAs to build native-like applications on the browser platforms and experience the strength of WASM to run C, C++ or C#/.NET code in the browser, without any plugin. This can be a disruptive approach for both greenfield and brownfield projects. Lean back and watch how the web is evolving into a new stage of capabilities and feel the potential of your next (business) application. Let’s do it!

Transcript

1. WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps Rethinking modern application development Christian Weyer @christianweyer CTO
2. 2 § Founder & CTO at Thinktecture AG § Personal focus on § Mobile & web-based application architectures § Interoperability, cross-device § Pragmatic end-to-end solutions § Cloud-native & serverless architectures § Independent Microsoft Regional Director § Microsoft MVP for ASP.NET (Architecture) ASPInsider, AzureInsider § Google GDE for Web Technologies § christian.weyer@thinktecture.com § ! @christianweyer Christian Weyer Rethinking modern application development WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
3. 3 § Modern Business Applications & the Web § Progressive Web Apps (PWA) pave the way to native § WebAssembly as a native bytecode for the Web WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development The Journey
4. 4 State of the art Modern Business Applications Rethinking modern application development WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
5. 5 § Native operating systems & platforms get less important for users § Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS: a mixture of everything, anywhere § Desktop is still important, not everything is mobile § Software developers need to care about & target ubiquitous systems § Depending on the actual audience, on the actual use cases § The Web has proven to be a universal platform § Modern browsers are power horses – more or less like an operating system WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development Modern Business Applications
6. 6 WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development
7. 7 § Single Page Applications (SPAs) are the new smart clients WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development Modern Business Applications & the Web
8. 8 WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development Browser & JavaScript Architecture (simplified) Compiler Parser JIT Web APIs (DOM, IndexedDb, File Storage etc.) Browser JavaScript (.js) HTML (.html) Inline JS JS Runtime
9. WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development “Houston, we have some problems” 9 The Web is too… Web-ish ! The web is centered around a single language "
10. 10 More native feeling & features Progressive Web Apps Rethinking modern application development WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
11. 11 § Web applications should… § Feel & behave more like a native app § Be installable, without (classic) app stores § Be able to work completely offline, without any server connections § Receive push notifications, without running § Offer in-app payment options § PWAs are targeted at both, mobile and desktop § Progressive Web Apps are not a technology § Collection of characteristics an application must/should support ➔ “Uber Pattern” § Various technologies are available to progressively enhance an application § Some outstanding standards like Web App Manifest, Service Workers WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development Progressive Web Apps (PWA) – the Web gets more native
12. 12 WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development
13. WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development Offline Capability with Service Worker Mobile or Desktop system Remote storage Server HTTPS 13 Browser sandbox Web App HTML/JS Cache storage fetch Service Worker
14. 14 WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development https://caniuse.com/#search=Service%20Workers
15. 15 WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development https://caniuse.com/#search=Web%20App%20Manifest
16. 16 Your native code in the browser WebAssembly Rethinking modern application development WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
17. 17 § Low-level bytecode for the Web – beyond asm.js § Bring any language into the browser § Currently targeted at C/C++ § Achieve superior performance in certain cases § Because JavaScript ! (but not a replacement for JavaScript!) § Stack machine-based § Not AST, or register- or SSA-based bytecode § See https://github.com/WebAssembly/design/blob/master/Rationale.md § Goals § Fast, efficient, portable ▪ Use existing sandboxing tools § Readable and debuggable ▪ Don’t break the Web WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development WebAssembly (WASM) https://twitter.com/getify/status/997098808344547328
18. 18 WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development WASM & JS Architecture (simplified) Compiler Parser JIT Web APIs (DOM, IndexedDb, File Storage etc.) Browser JavaScript (.js) HTML (.html) Inline JS JS Runtime WebAssembly (.wasm)
19. 19 WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development https://caniuse.com/#search=WebAssembly
20. 20 § Re-use existing code by targeting WebAssembly, embedded in larger JavaScript / HTML application § Anything from simple helper libraries, to compute-oriented task offload § Main application frame & logic in WebAssembly, UI in JavaScript / HTML / CSS § Entire code base in WebAssembly and cross-compile from foreign frameworks and platforms to Web § What about e.g. the UI layer? WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development WASM-based Applications
21. 21 WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development WASM Simple Sample § Binary (.wasm) & text (.wat) format
22. 22 § C/C++ tools & compilers § Binaryen: compiler and toolchain infrastructure library for WebAssembly, written in C++ § LLVM: The modern C/C++ compiler toolchain § Emscripten: LLVM-to-JavaScript-or-WASM compiler § Tools cross-compiling from major languages § Cheerp, from C++ § TeaVM, from Java § Rust § Go § mono-wasm, from C# § Baremetal: WebAssembly Studio § Playing around with WASM in the browser WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development WASM Tooling C / C++ Source code .wasm module HTML doc JS glue code Emscripten +
23. 23 § Mono is Microsoft’s technology for cross-platform client applications § Xamarin is based on Mono, Unity as well § Support for .NET Standard § Mono team is working on tooling to compile Mono/.NET code to WASM – experimental state § Aka ‘mono-wasm’ § JIT – for fast development cycles, including live reload § AOT – for optimized runtime deployment & execution WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development .NET & WASM C# WebAssembly LLVM bitcode mcs IL Mono AOT compiler LLVM WASM backend
24. 24 § After v1 (the MVP), the consortium keeps working on new features § Threads § Garbage Collection § Direct DOM access § Many more things… § Still a long way to go to get beyond the MVP § https://github.com/WebAssembly/design/blob/master/FutureFeatures.md § Yes, we will see another platform having to mature! Exploits, anyone? § https://www.slideshare.net/cisoplatform7/webassembly-a-new-world-of- native-exploits-on-the-browser WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development WASM: Here & to Stay
25. 25 An experiment based on WASM Blazor Rethinking modern application development WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
26. 26 § Blazor is an experimental Single Page Application (SPA) framework based on .NET – by the ASP.NET team § Blazor projects run 100% in the browser § On top of a WASM build of the Mono .NET runtime § Compiled .NET assemblies are loaded into the browser and JIT compiled § Uses Razor / .cshtml templates for rendering HTML / CSS § Uses C# for writing client application logic § Basic architecture feels a bit awkward § WASM v1 was meant to be used in a different way WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development Blazor – an experiment on an experiment* * as of Oct 1, 2018
27. 27 WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development Blazor Architecture* Compiler Parser JIT Web APIs (DOM, IndexedDb, File Storage etc.) Browser blazor.js Blazor page (.html) JS Runtime mono.wasm mono.js mscorlib.dll etc. myapp.dll * as of Oct 1, 2018
28. 28 § It is NOT about running any .NET Code just in the browser § We still have a sandbox § Various .NET Standard APIs will just not work in the browser § It is NOT a way to port Razor / MVC / server-side web applications to an SPA § It is NOT a way to bring XAML / WPF / Xamarin into the browser § It is NOT stable (story-wise) § It is NOT production-ready § Therefore, it is NOT suitable for real-world applications § Currently no plans for supporting WebComponents WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development What is Blazor NOT?
29. 29 § Embrace the Web § Build great UIs with HTML and CSS § Build great SPAs with JavaScript/ TypeScript § Leverage Progressive Web principles § Enhance your SPA with WebAssembly WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development Modern Applications: WASM-enhanced SPA as PWA
30. 30 § The Web is still the Web § You need to know HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Period. § Progressive Web Apps § Emerging technologies enable more app-like feeling and behaviors of Web apps – including offline § Service Worker is the rockstar § WebAssembly § Brings any programming language and sandbox-aware framework to the browser § May pave the way to write business applications without large JavaScript parts – some day… maybe SPA frameworks will be enhanced by WASM § Use it wisely: it is not The Holy Grail (and anything building on it likewise) WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development Summary The future m ight be bright! ?
31. WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps Rethinking modern application development Christian Weyer @christianweyer christian.weyer@thinktecture.com Thank you! https://github.com/thinktecture/techorama-nl-2018-wasm-pwa
32. 32 § Progressive Web Apps § https://developers.google.com/web/progressive-web-apps/ § Is ServiceWorker ready? § https://jakearchibald.github.io/isserviceworkerready/ § PWAs with Angular § https://angular.io/guide/service-worker-intro § WebAssembly Specification § http://webassembly.github.io/spec/core/index.html § LVVM § https://llvm.org/ § Emscripten § http://kripken.github.io/emscripten-site/ § Mono & WebAssembly § http://www.mono-project.com/news/2018/01/16/mono-static-webassembly-compilation/ § ASP.NET Blazor § https://blazor.net/index.html WebAssembly & Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Rethinking modern application development Resources