How to Create a High-Performance VueJS PWA on a Secure NGINX Server

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) have revolutionized the way we build web applications. By combining the best of the web and mobile apps, PWAs deliver fast, engaging, and reliable experiences to users across all devices. In this in-depth tutorial, we‘ll walk through how to create a high-performance VueJS PWA and deploy it on a secure NGINX server optimized for speed.

Why VueJS and NGINX?

VueJS has emerged as one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks for building dynamic, responsive user interfaces. Its component-based architecture, intuitive API, and excellent documentation make it a top choice for developing PWAs.

NGINX is a powerful web server renowned for its high performance, stability, and low resource consumption. By leveraging NGINX, we can ensure our PWA is served to users with optimal speed and efficiency. NGINX also provides robust security features and easy integration with Let‘s Encrypt for seamless HTTPS set up.

Step 1: Set Up a Secure NGINX Server

First, we‘ll configure an NGINX server with HTTPS using a free SSL certificate from Let‘s Encrypt.

Install NGINX on your server:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

Configure NGINX to use HTTPS:

http {
  server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    location ~ /.well-known/acme-challenge {
      allow all; 
      root /var/www/html;
    }

    location / {
      return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    }
  }

  server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

    root /var/www/yourdomain.com;
    index index.html;

    location / {
      try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
    }
  }
}

Obtain an SSL cert from Let‘s Encrypt:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com

Your NGINX server is now securely configured with HTTPS. Let‘s optimize the settings for performance.

Optimize NGINX for Performance

Modify your NGINX configuration to include the following performance enhancements:

http {
  # Enable Gzip compression
  gzip on; 
  gzip_comp_level 5;
  gzip_min_length 256;
  gzip_types
    application/atom+xml
    application/javascript
    application/json
    application/ld+json
    application/manifest+json
    application/rss+xml
    application/vnd.geo+json
    application/vnd.ms-fontobject
    application/x-font-ttf
    application/x-web-app-manifest+json
    application/xhtml+xml
    application/xml
    font/opentype
    image/bmp
    image/svg+xml
    image/x-icon
    text/cache-manifest
    text/css
    text/plain
    text/vcard
    text/vnd.rim.location.xloc
    text/vtt
    text/x-component
    text/x-cross-domain-policy;

  # Cache static assets 
  location ~* \.(?:jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|cur|gz|svg|svgz|mp4|ogg|ogv|webm|htc|svg|woff|woff2|ttf)\$ {
    expires 1M;
    access_log off;
    add_header Cache-Control "public";
  }

  # Cache JS/CSS files for 1 year
  location ~* \.(?:js|css)\$ {
    expires 1y;
    access_log off;
  }

  # Enable keep-alive connections
  keepalive_timeout 65;
}

These optimizations will significantly improve the performance of your PWA by compressing transferred data, caching static assets, and reusing existing connections.

Step 2: Create Your VueJS PWA

Now let‘s scaffold a new VueJS project with PWA support using the Vue CLI. Make sure you have Node.js installed, then run:

npm install -g @vue/cli
vue create my-pwa

In the Vue CLI prompts, choose "Manually select features" and include "PWA Support".

Once the project is created, cd into the directory and install the dependencies:

cd my-pwa
npm install

Next, open the vue.config.js file to configure your PWA:

module.exports = {
  pwa: {
    name: ‘My Awesome PWA‘,
    themeColor: ‘#4DBA87‘,
    msTileColor: ‘#000000‘,
    appleMobileWebAppCapable: ‘yes‘,
    appleMobileWebAppStatusBarStyle: ‘black‘,

    workboxOptions: {
      skipWaiting: true
    }
  }
}

Here you can specify your app name, theme colors, and iOS/Windows-specific PWA settings. The skipWaiting: true workbox option ensures the service worker activates immediately for returning users.

You‘re now ready to develop your PWA! VueJS provides a wonderful dev experience – simply run npm run serve to launch a live-reloading dev server.

When you‘re ready to build for production, run:

npm run build

This command generates your production-optimized PWA in the dist directory.

Step 3: Deploy Your PWA to NGINX

To deploy your freshly built PWA to your NGINX server:

1. Copy the contents of your dist folder to your server‘s web root directory (/var/www/yourdomain.com)

2. Ensure your NGINX config points to this directory and includes the necessary headers for PWAs:

server {
  location / {
    root /var/www/yourdomain.com;
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

    # PWA headers
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload";
    add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src ‘self‘ http: https: data: blob: ‘unsafe-inline‘" always;
    add_header Referrer-Policy "origin-when-cross-origin" always;
    add_header Feature-Policy "camera ‘none‘; geolocation ‘none‘; microphone ‘none‘; payment ‘none‘; usb ‘none‘" always;
  }
}

Restart NGINX:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Your Vue PWA is now live! Visit your domain to see it in action.

Step 4: Test Your PWA‘s Performance

To verify your PWA is functioning properly and fully optimized, run a Lighthouse audit:

1. Open your PWA in Chrome
2. Go to Dev Tools > Audits
3. Click "Perform an audit…"
4. Select the "Progressive Web App" and "Performance" checkboxes
5. Click "Run audit"

If your configuration is correct, you should score close to 100 in all categories. Lighthouse will provide further suggestions to optimize any lacking areas.

Verify Offline Functionality

A key PWA feature is the ability to function without network connectivity. To verify this:

1. Open your PWA and perform a hard refresh to load the latest service worker
2. Go to Dev Tools > Application > Service Workers and verify your SW is activated
3. Check the "Offline" box in the Network tab
4. Reload your app – it should load instantly despite being offline!

Thanks to service worker caching, your users can still access your app‘s core functionality without an internet connection.

Advanced Techniques

Server-Side Rendering with Nuxt.js

To further enhance performance, consider implementing server-side rendering (SSR) using Nuxt.js. Nuxt is a higher-level VueJS framework that offers built-in SSR support, boosting your app‘s speed and SEO. Learn more at https://nuxtjs.org.

Implement HTTP/2 and HTTP/3

HTTP/2 offers significant performance benefits like multiplexed streams and header compression. NGINX fully supports HTTP/2 – simply include the http2 directive in your config.

For even greater speed, you can enable HTTP/3 which uses the cutting-edge QUIC protocol over UDP. Although still experimental, HTTP/3 is already supported in Chrome and nginx with the QUIC module: https://cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/performance/http3-vs-http2/

Explore Advanced Caching Strategies

Effective caching is crucial for PWA performance. Consider implementing more advanced caching strategies beyond the basic static file caching covered earlier:

• Use Service Worker API‘s Cache interface for fine-grained cache control
• Implement a stale-while-revalidate policy to serve cached content instantly while updating caches in the background
• Selectively cache dynamic API responses using network-first or cache-first methods
• Balance optimal cache hit rates with maintaining fresh content by setting appropriate cache expiration headers

Dive deep into Jake Archibald‘s "Offline Cookbook" for expert guidance on PWA caching: https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/instant-and-offline/offline-cookbook

Conclusion

Congratulations! You now have a fully functional, high-performance PWA running on a secure NGINX server. Let‘s recap the key steps:

1. Set up an NGINX server with HTTPS and performance optimizations
2. Created a new Vue PWA using the Vue CLI
3. Configured the PWA settings and built for production
4. Deployed the PWA to your NGINX web server
5. Tested performance and offline functionality with Lighthouse

By leveraging the power of VueJS and NGINX, you can deliver lightning-fast, immersive web experiences to your users. The advanced techniques like server-side rendering, HTTP/3, and smart caching offer even more avenues for speed.

I encourage you to continue exploring the world of PWAs and fine-tuning your implementations. Experiment with different architectures, test performance relentlessly, and always put your users‘ experience first.

The web platform is constantly evolving, with new APIs and best practices emerging regularly. Stay engaged with the community, follow industry leaders, and adopt a mindset of continuous learning. With the right mix of modern tools and diligent optimization, your PWAs can rival the speed and functionality of native apps.

Now go build something amazing!