Ravi S. Iyer: Software Development

Last updated on 31 Aug 2026 Quick Info About Text Scratchpad PWA app including its Netlify live app link As most Android users would want to install the PWA app via Google Play Store, I created a TWA (Trusted Web Activity) Android bundle using PWABuilder and submitted it to Google Play Console. On 31 Aug 2026, the Text Scratchpad  TWA app got published (went live) on Google Play Store . Use 'Early Access' App by Installing from Google Play Store # 31 Aug 2026: This section is currently not relevant. As mentioned earlier, the app has got published on Play Store. However, I am retaining it for any future needs, say for updates to the app where I want users to contribute to 'Closed Testing'. If you want to install the app via Play Store and then use it, you can still do so by following the steps given below.  Using your Google id, visit my Google groups page for this Closed Testing work:  https://groups.google.com/g/ravis-apptesters  and click 'Join Group' button...

Last updated on 31 Aug 2026 Struggling with small input boxes on mobile? Open this Text Scratchpad: One-Tap Copy  app, draft your text comfortably, and use one-tap copy feature to paste into target app.  Android app on Play Store  (first published on 31 Aug 2026)  Live PWA app on Netlify : https://textscratchpad.netlify.app/ Tested on Android and Windows (Chrome). Should work on iOS/Safari (iPhone/iPad) and other platforms, but currently not tested there. How To Use To view image in high-resolution: 📱 Mobile Users: Tap the image first, then pinch to zoom.  🖥️ PC/Laptop Users: Right-click the image and select " Open link in new tab ". Switch to that new tab, then click image to zoom. Details Contents 📣 Introduction 🚀 Installation Options 📖 How to Use ✨ Key Features ✨ How it Keeps Your Typing Smooth 🔍 Zooming App Labels, Messages, and Icons on Android ⚡ Speed & Usability on Mobile 🧹 Uninstallation & Clearing...

Recently, through a tutorial echo chat client app I developed, I was pleasantly surprised to experience the features of advanced web API of WebSockets, Service Workers & IndexedDB, Background Sync API and Web Push API available in Chromium based browsers like Chrome and Edge. Note that these features are provided directly by the browser and accessible via plain HTML and JavaScript. We do not need external libraries and frameworks to access them. The advanced web API features mentioned above, with the exception of WebSockets, are considered to be part of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). I need to mention here that I got back to industry-level software development in 2024 after a gap of over 20 years and my first very limited exposure to developing a minimal PWA app with PWA functionality provided by default by Create React App tool, was in March 2024. Details So when I developed this tutorial echo chat client app, I was quite astonished to see how many device platform capabilities we...

Last updated on 11 July 2026 Post series: Part 1 ,     Prev Part (16) ,     Post Series TOC Contents (sections and/or jump links) Stage-8: Review rounds followed by snapshot folder creation Review rounds for client and server At Browser API level, Service Workers see unique ids for every tab/PWA but main script does not; Ping-Pong approach to identify active tab Broadcast Channel API does not provide list of clients subscribed to it Show push notification if multiple (chat) tabs are open clients.matchAll() list of clients is in order of most recently focused as per MDN git command to show when a particular line of code was added Multi-App workspace with Live Server resulted in URL check for 'client' which would fail in Netlify app When using Live Server for PWA apps in monorepo, change server root to client folder instead of monorepo root Discussion on ways for Service Worker to identify active tab and duplicate connection tab ...