Can a #PWA be considered #selfhosted?

I am working on a chat app with a unique difference. It's a #progressivewebapp with no fixed backend.

I am able to do thing like store data, #encrypt/#decrypt #data, access #network, camera etc.

I would like it that when somone goes to the website, the app running in the #browser, can be considered "selfhosted". You would be using your own device to run the #javascript in the browser and #storage provided by the browser is also from your #device.

As a javascript app, it will do all the encryption, data storage, etc on your browser using only the resources the browser will provide. I believe the functionality as a result is substancially independent and selfhosted.

the app is cached for running offline and is essentialy a static bundle that can work by running index.html without a static server.

Further details about how my app works can be seen on the #opensource project here: https://github.com/positive-intentions/chat

I think there is a reasonable case for this to be considered selfhosted. Unless the definition of selfhosted is strictly "cumbersome to setup". What are your thoughts?

@fogoplayer

Thanks for you thoughts

It doesn't need to be someone else's server. I recommend you host it yourself. Selfhosting is especially important for security. Either on your own static server or even on your own GitHub pages. (See readme)

I previously used to provide the full static bundle as a zip, but it was making the repo quite large unnecessarily so I removed it... The Frontend/ folder on the repo root is all that's needed to run the app on your desktop directly on the browser of your choice.

@xoron Excellent! Then I would say that yes, If someone is running their own server of it, it would be self-hosted—and that's separate from the fact that the server is (ahem) serving a local-first app (and I am a big fan of local-first apps!)

As an aside, if you ever revisit making a build-less version available, if your zip file is under 2 GB you can upload it as a "release," separate from your repo: https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/releasing-projects-on-github/managing-releases-in-a-repository