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Paul Kinlan
Paul Kinlan

Posted on • Originally published at paul.kinlan.me on

onappinstalled - for when an app is installed.

Chrome has recently (well at least in 2017) implemented window.onappinstalledevent. It is triggered when a user installs a progressive web app either via the Add to Homescreen API (the prompt() function on the event delivered via theonbeforeinstallprompt event) or now more importantly via the manual method of Add to Homescreen.

This is a very useful addition because it allows you to see engagement on the prompt vs people who use the system banners or menu buttons to install a progressive web app.

I’ve added it to Airhorner so you can see it in action if DevTools is attached. The code is below that manages onbeforeinstallpromptand onappinstalled - in this case I use onbeforeinstallprompt to defer the install prompt to a custom button, and onappinstalled to clean up the UI and do some basic analytics.

const Installer = function(root) {
  let promptEvent;

  const install = function(e) {
    if(promptEvent) {
      promptEvent.prompt();
      promptEvent.userChoice
        .then(function(choiceResult) {
          // The user actioned the prompt (good or bad).
          // good is handled in 
          promptEvent = null;
          ga('send', 'event', 'install', choiceResult);
          root.classList.remove('available');
        })
        .catch(function(installError) {
          // Boo. update the UI.
          promptEvent = null;
          ga('send', 'event', 'install', 'errored');
          root.classList.remove('available');
        });
    }
  };

  const installed = function(e) {
    promptEvent = null;
    // This fires after onbeforinstallprompt OR after manual add to homescreen.
    ga('send', 'event', 'install', 'installed');
    root.classList.remove('available');
  };

  const beforeinstallprompt = function(e) {
    promptEvent = e;
    promptEvent.preventDefault();
    ga('send', 'event', 'install', 'available');
    root.classList.add('available');
    return false;
  };

  window.addEventListener('beforeinstallprompt', beforeinstallprompt);
  window.addEventListener('appinstalled', installed);

  root.addEventListener('click', install.bind(this));
  root.addEventListener('touchend', install.bind(this));
};
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