[PWA] Is it a good practice to set version in manifest tag?

[gbdematos]

Version

3.11.0

Environment info

System:
    OS: Windows 10
    CPU: (4) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz
  Binaries:
    Node: 12.5.0 - C:\Develop\Laragon\bin\nodejs\node-v12\node.EXE
    Yarn: 1.17.3 - C:\Develop\Laragon\bin\yarn\bin\yarn.CMD
    npm: 6.9.0 - C:\Develop\Laragon\bin\nodejs\node-v12\npm.CMD
  Browsers:
    Edge: 44.18362.387.0

Hi!

When launching the app if already installed, the manifest is not updating, as seen here:
https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/integration/webapks#update-webapk

"Chrome will only update a WebAPK if the Web Manifest URL does not change. If you change the web page from referencing /manifest.json to reference /manifest2.json, the WebAPK will no longer update. (Don't do this!)"

As the assets version is attached to the tag ("manifest.json?v=1.1"), isn't it detected as a different file and not updated?

I'm having trouble with this, since I have an app and changed it icon, but id didn't update on any of the devices that has it installed.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create 3 projects using vue-cli with pwa plugin.

2. Create 2 sets of 192x192 and 512x512 images (I created a red and a green circle) and add the first set to all 3 manifest.json files.

3. In projects number 1 and 3 leave the default config, without changing anything.

4. In project number 2, configure vue.config.js like this:

pwa: {
    assetsVersion: '1.0'
}

5. Deploy each project and install them to your homescreen. You'll have this as a result:

6. In all 3 projects, update the paths to the icons in manifest.json to the 2nd set of icons.

7. In project number 2, update vue.config.js to this:

pwa: {
    assetsVersion: '2.0'
}

8. In project number 3, change manifest.json name to manifest2.json and update vue.config.js to this:

pwa: {
    manifestPath: 'manifest2.json'
}

9. Again, deploy all 3 projects.

10. Wait for 1 or more days and then open the apps on your phone (it has to be connected to wi-fi and charging).

11. Only project number 1 icons will update:

So, to me, this proves that adding the assets version to the manifest URL is in fact a bad practice, as the server seems to interpret it as a different manifest and this goes against chrome best practices:

Chrome will only update a WebAPK if the Web Manifest URL does not change. If you change the web page from referencing /manifest.json to reference /manifest2.json, the WebAPK will no longer update. (Don't do this!)

---

Edit: added steps to reproduce.

[LinusBorg]

What the docs describe there is that by moving the file to a different path, the webapk won't be able to find it anymore as it can't know about the new path.

But changing a URL parameter isn't the same thing.

As long as your web server doesn't do anything with this v parameter (which by default it would not), the webapk will still be able to find the file.

The parameter just forces web browsers to refresh the file as to the browser's cache, this is a new URL.

So in summary: I don't see an issue with this and if you have one, you would have to provide a reproduction as is required in our issue guidelines.

So far the whole problem description is one sentence.

[gbdematos]

What the docs describe there is that by moving the file to a different path, the webapk won't be able to find it anymore as it can't know about the new path.

But changing a URL parameter isn't the same thing.

As long as your web server doesn't do anything with this v parameter (which by default it would not), the webapk will still be able to find the file.

The parameter just forces web browsers to refresh the file as to the browser's cache, this is a new URL.

So in summary: I don't see an issue with this and if you have one, you would have to provide a reproduction as is required in our issue guidelines.

So far the whole problem description is one sentence.

I don't think this is the case. I added the reproduce steps now, thanks.