How do I cache other routes for offline browsing?

Question

I am setting up a Progressive Web App supporting offline browsing.

I have already set up offline browsing for my main route ('domainsample.com/') and it responds 200 even if offline.

But when I navigate to other routes ('domainsample.com/about') I receive a No Internet Page error.

Here is a sample I deployed in Heroku the URL: https://pwa-hehe.herokuapp.com

I used Vue CLI 3 to set up the project and Node.js and Express.js to run my dist folder in the server.

// server.js
const express = require('express')
const path = require('path')
const history = require('connect-history-api-fallback')

const app = express()

const staticFileMiddleware = express.static(path.join(__dirname + '/dist'))

app.use(staticFileMiddleware)

app.use(history({
    disableDotRule: true,
    verbose: true
}))

app.use(staticFileMiddleware)

app.get('/', function (req, res) {
    res.render(path.join(__dirname + '/dist/'))
})

var server = app.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000, function () {
    var port = server.address().port
    console.log("App now running on port", port)
})

// manifest.json
{
  "name": "pwa-offline",
  "short_name": "pwa-offline",
  "icons": [
    {
      "src": "./img/icons/android-chrome-192x192.png",
      "sizes": "192x192",
      "type": "image/png"
    },
    {
      "src": "./img/icons/android-chrome-512x512.png",
      "sizes": "512x512",
      "type": "image/png"
    }
  ],
  "start_url": "./index.html",
  "display": "standalone",
  "background_color": "#000000",
  "theme_color": "#4DBA87"
}

// service-worker.js

/**
 * Welcome to your Workbox-powered service worker!
 *
 * You'll need to register this file in your web app and you should
 * disable HTTP caching for this file too.
 * 
 *
 * The rest of the code is auto-generated. Please don't update this file
 * directly; instead, make changes to your Workbox build configuration
 * and re-run your build process.
 * 
 */

importScripts("https://storage.googleapis.com/workbox-cdn/releases/3.6.3/workbox-sw.js");

importScripts(
  "/precache-manifest.d3f1ce5d8331bddc555348f44cfba9d8.js"
);

workbox.core.setCacheNameDetails({prefix: "pwa-offline"});

/**
 * The workboxSW.precacheAndRoute() method efficiently caches and responds to
 * requests for URLs in the manifest.
 * 
 */
self.__precacheManifest = [].concat(self.__precacheManifest || []);
workbox.precaching.suppressWarnings();
workbox.precaching.precacheAndRoute(self.__precacheManifest, {});

Answer 1

There's a simpler solution that doesn't involve using InjectManifest.

Simply add this to your vue.config.js file:

pwa: {
  workboxOptions: {
    navigateFallback: 'index.html'
  }
}

It will automatically add the necessary code to your service worker:

workbox.routing.registerNavigationRoute(workbox.precaching.getCacheKeyForURL("index.html"));

I had the same problem and I found the solution here: https://github.com/vuejs/vue-cli/issues/717#issuecomment-382079361

Answer 2

To anyone who is also using the vue/cli-pligin-pwa and vue-cli 3, I have solved this problem.

The vue/cli-pligin-pwa does its job in caching your js files for offline use of your web app.

but since you're using a Single Page App, you'll have to set a some kind of fallback.

The request for the page e.g.(sample.com/about) will be a navigation request and it will serve the cached page for /index.html

Source: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/workbox/modules/workbox-routing#how_to_register_a_navigation_route

So what I did is, I made a custom service worker by entering this line of code in my vue.config.js file

// vue.config.js

module.exports = {
    pwa: {
        // configure the workbox plugin
        workboxPluginMode: 'InjectManifest',
        workboxOptions: {
            swSrc: 'public/service-worker.js'
        }
    }
}

and now, create a service-worker.js in your public folder directory, and write up the the generated line of codes from vue/cli-pligin-pwa and add the line : workbox.routing.registerNavigationRoute('/index.html');

//service-worker.js

self.__precacheManifest = [].concat(self.__precacheManifest || []);
workbox.precaching.suppressWarnings();
workbox.precaching.precacheAndRoute(self.__precacheManifest, {});

workbox.routing.registerNavigationRoute('/index.html');

// install new service worker when ok, then reload page.
self.addEventListener("message", msg => {
    if (msg.data.action == 'skipWaiting') {
        self.skipWaiting()
    }
})