While companies are increasingly conducting their businesses online, it simply isn’t possible to stay connected to the internet at all times. Take for example IrisLogic’s client, a leading ERP company that provides ERP web applications, who faced a very similar situation until we stepped in.
Our client’s ERP package is top of the line and is highly sought after in the industry. The application includes a ‘Service Ticket Page’ which records the time and expense and captures the customer’s signature as a confirmation once the service has been provided. However, there was one glitch – the users could not connect to the web-hosted application in case of limited or no network connection at the customer site. They could not take the customer’s signature and close the task unless the device (the tablet in this case) was connected to the internet!
IrisLogic came up with a simple solution to solve the problem – we built a mobile app that works seamlessly even when the device (the tablet) is offline.
1. The application allows users to import data such as “Employees”,”Category” and “Open Service Tickets” when they are connected to internet
2. This imported data is stored on the device (on-device storage)
3. So even when there is no connectivity or the device is offline – the service tickets can be read and modified on the device using the stored data.
4. The modified service tickets are also saved on the device.
5. Whenever internet connection is available – users can simply export the modified service tickets data along with signatures to the backend ERP application.
6. The backend ERP application processes this exported data to reflect in their system.
* We used “Ionic Framework” version 2 (Ionic 2) to develop the mobile application that can be installed on the devices (tablets). Ionic Framework is an open source SDK that enables developers to build performant, high-quality mobile apps using familiar web technologies (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). Ionic is based on Angular Framework.
* To save the data locally on the device, we used Ionic Storage. Ionic Storage is an easy way to store key/value pairs and JSON objects. Ionic Storage internally uses SQLite which is a file-based database for persistent storage.
* To import/export the data – we applied HTTP GET/POST request to ERP APIs.
* To import/export Signature image files – we used Ionic Cordova FTP and File plugin to upload/download images from ERP FTP server.
In many cases, it is mission critical for applications to function seamlessly online as well as offline. This can be achieved by storing small amounts of user data directly on a device during intermittent network loss. This allows users to work in offline mode, and then sync it to the web application when the connection is available.
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