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Dom
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« on: August 22, 2011, 11:22:54 AM » |
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G'day!
After about a week I've finally got something to get stuck into here at work, and I thought I'd pose a question here. This is the situation:
We've got various melons (engineers) out and about all around the country, doing whatever it is engineers do. At some point they'll need to fill in a survey of some kind, and then that data will be uploaded to our servers. The info will be stored in a database, as far as I know.
Anyways, they don't always have great coverage where they are, so what we want is to have the ability to store the survey answers offline, and then perhaps upload the answers as and when they get some internet coverage.
Does anyone have any thoughts on how to do this? I'm just looking for general ideas at the moment, as it's all a bit experimental.
My ideas were:
- Use a javascript form to create an XML file that is stored locally, and then the user can upload the XML file to our servers when they get some coverage.
- Use HTML5 offline storage somehow
I've not done either of those things before, but can anyone else think of other ways to tackle the problem?
Thanks!
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samhs
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« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2011, 12:03:58 PM » |
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Interestingly, I've just specced something almost identical to this for a client a week or two back. We're going to opt for the HTML5 offline cache option, but have yet to work out all the finer details.
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Loose adj a not held together; not fastened or firmly fixed in place Lose verb to misplace something. To fail to keep or obtain something, especially because of a mistake, carelessness, etc. --- Blog: www.ohwrite.co.ukTwitter: www.twitter.com/samhs |
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Dom
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« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2011, 01:04:47 PM » |
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Ah cool. Well as I don't know anything about how that works, I'm not sure how it would get the offline data into our systems.
I have a feeling that permissions issues would stop a browser writing an XML file to a desktop, so HTML5 may well be the only way we can do it.
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suedenem
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« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2011, 10:40:27 AM » |
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Are you limited to a browser-based application?
Surely linking the XML schema to an Excel sheet and exporting the resulting XML file which you can then simply sync with the server would be more appropriate?
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So this SEO copywriter walks into a bar, grill, pub, public house, Irish bar, bartender, drinks, beer, wine, liquor...
Beware my weird, cross-dressing comment's; they are pretty standard examples of trolling.
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Dom
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« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2011, 10:43:50 AM » |
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It didn't occur to me actually, but that's always a possibility. Although having said that, I'm a web developer, so I've not had that much experience with Excel. I guess that's why their first thought was to have some kind of HTML page that could run locally.
As it happens, I've managed to create a small javascript app that saves files to the C: drive when using IE, and it works quite well.
If it turns out that that isn't really appropriate though, I'll suggest doing something with Excel. Thanks for the suggestion.
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suedenem
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« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2011, 11:04:33 AM » |
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NP. Always happy to point out the bleedingly obvious  Glad it's working - a web page saving arbitrary files to a PC unless in an über-controlled technical sandbox environment is madness on just about every level, with the very thought of it making me shudder, although I can see how you can get away with it on a few technicians' laptops. |
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So this SEO copywriter walks into a bar, grill, pub, public house, Irish bar, bartender, drinks, beer, wine, liquor...
Beware my weird, cross-dressing comment's; they are pretty standard examples of trolling.
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robwhizz
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« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2011, 11:26:51 AM » |
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Are you doing this on handsets? We do something very similar, but it's a custom bit of software running on Windows Mobile (with Android in development). If there's no mobile internet it stores everything and sends as soon as it has a signal. It updates sqlserver via IIS.
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Great post Jon! I have been following the effort since you started it, and although I have understood its purpose this post does a really great job solidifying the full rationale.
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Dom
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« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2011, 11:37:04 AM » |
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I'm not sure what they'll be using to be honest; I think they use netbooks with Windows 7 on them. Basically, whatever can be done cheapest, quickest and dirtiest is usually what our company goes for.
But yeah, all the HTML page does is save a few values in an XML file, that the engineers can upload to our servers as and when they get a signal.
It seems to work OK for now.
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