6 ms·

Ask HN: What is this new “offline” support trend?

6 points by tarikozket 9y ago

Is there gonna be an internet shortage soon? Why would you want your app to send forms when it's offline?

dabockster 9y ago
I do not know what you mean. Can you be a little more specific?
- tarikozket 9y ago
  Here is an example: https://mxb.at/blog/offline-forms/ https://mxb.at/blog/offline-forms/ I started to see another "offline sending support" every single day and can't understand the idea behind. If I'm doing something important, I would want to see that the form I filled is sent. I would never rely on an app saying "Oh yes, I saved this and will send it later for you". I am questioning this trend.
dhaspden 9y ago
Not everybody lives in large urban areas where Internet is an almost guarantee. I myself live in a remote area of Ontario where coverage can be spotty at times. It's nice to have a fallback to offline storage when I don't have access. Not everybody is willing to pay for a data plan as well.
- tarikozket 9y ago
  Yes, I have experienced bad internet connection before too. If I'm filling a form, when I click "Save" button I would expect it to save, if my connection is bad, it would either say "failed" or the loading wheel of death would go forever which would make me move my computer or phone to somewhere else to get better reception. Saving to offline storage and sending via service worker when the devices comes back online sounds horrible because there is no way to explain a user that the form they sent will be processed automagically when they are back online.
  - dhaspden 9y ago
    For sure it's painful. I experienced that with a project we have here. It's a submission portal for students at a remote area college. Students there typically don't have reliable access to the Internet. When they go to submit their answers to their assignment, if they do not have a connection then we have to save the information locally and submit when they come online. It's also nice because now the students can view their list of courses and assignments without having Internet. I wouldn't say there is a use case for every app that markets it but there definitely is a market for offline availability in some cases.
    - tarikozket 9y ago
      I totally understand and support offline reading which makes a lot of sense since you want to access something you had already downloaded. But I believe sending something later and relying on an app for an important form wouldn't make anyone comfortable.
sova 9y ago
Because: 1) subway trains have no wifi 2) concrete and refrigerators block signals 3) data is expensive 4) once I have all the data from the site, I want to read and play on it without necessarily updating every micromove with a ping and response 5) some services don't need real-time call-and-response. Would you want wikipedia live updating every paragraph when all you want to do is read an article?
- tarikozket 9y ago
  I was misunderstood. I mean the "posting capability". I open the most popular HackerNews thread and read the comments on commute but I don't care posting a comment because I know I'm offline.
  - sova 9y ago
    Ah, well imagine you are writing a novel of a reply to someone and it gets lost when you exit out of the app. Wouldn't it be nice to save the form data so when you're on Wifi you can reply? That must be the motivation.
johnmurch 9y ago
Take a trip to NYC and jump on the subway, tons of time you are offline yet have time on your side.

6 points by tarikozket 9y ago

Is there gonna be an internet shortage soon? Why would you want your app to send forms when it's offline?

dabockster 9y ago

I do not know what you mean. Can you be a little more specific?

tarikozket 9y ago
Here is an example: https://mxb.at/blog/offline-forms/ https://mxb.at/blog/offline-forms/ I started to see another "offline sending support" every single day and can't understand the idea behind. If I'm doing something important, I would want to see that the form I filled is sent. I would never rely on an app saying "Oh yes, I saved this and will send it later for you". I am questioning this trend.

dhaspden 9y ago

Not everybody lives in large urban areas where Internet is an almost guarantee. I myself live in a remote area of Ontario where coverage can be spotty at times. It's nice to have a fallback to offline storage when I don't have access. Not everybody is willing to pay for a data plan as well.

tarikozket 9y ago
Yes, I have experienced bad internet connection before too. If I'm filling a form, when I click "Save" button I would expect it to save, if my connection is bad, it would either say "failed" or the loading wheel of death would go forever which would make me move my computer or phone to somewhere else to get better reception. Saving to offline storage and sending via service worker when the devices comes back online sounds horrible because there is no way to explain a user that the form they sent will be processed automagically when they are back online.
- dhaspden 9y ago
  For sure it's painful. I experienced that with a project we have here. It's a submission portal for students at a remote area college. Students there typically don't have reliable access to the Internet. When they go to submit their answers to their assignment, if they do not have a connection then we have to save the information locally and submit when they come online. It's also nice because now the students can view their list of courses and assignments without having Internet. I wouldn't say there is a use case for every app that markets it but there definitely is a market for offline availability in some cases.
  - tarikozket 9y ago
    I totally understand and support offline reading which makes a lot of sense since you want to access something you had already downloaded. But I believe sending something later and relying on an app for an important form wouldn't make anyone comfortable.

sova 9y ago

Because: 1) subway trains have no wifi 2) concrete and refrigerators block signals 3) data is expensive 4) once I have all the data from the site, I want to read and play on it without necessarily updating every micromove with a ping and response 5) some services don't need real-time call-and-response. Would you want wikipedia live updating every paragraph when all you want to do is read an article?

tarikozket 9y ago
I was misunderstood. I mean the "posting capability". I open the most popular HackerNews thread and read the comments on commute but I don't care posting a comment because I know I'm offline.
- sova 9y ago
  Ah, well imagine you are writing a novel of a reply to someone and it gets lost when you exit out of the app. Wouldn't it be nice to save the form data so when you're on Wifi you can reply? That must be the motivation.

johnmurch 9y ago

Take a trip to NYC and jump on the subway, tons of time you are offline yet have time on your side.