Eric Farrar

Up until recently, Web applications were "connected-only" applications. Users could only use the application by connecting to the central server and all data access was done in a single place. For many years, people accepted that was the limitation of Web applications. But it isn't a limitation any longer. Over the past year a number of technologies have come along such as Adobe AIR and Google Gears that allow offline access to the data and the application. This is a huge boon to Web developers who, up until now, were hampered by the offline problem of Web applications. Both of these solutions employ a local, lightweight database to serve and store the data while the application is offline. Migrating your "connected-only" application to an "occasionally connected" application will likely require significant architecture changes to facilitate the change tracking and ... (more)

The Pitfalls of Creating Data in an Occasionally Connected Application

Up until recently, Web applications were "connected-only" applications. Users could only use the application by connecting to the central server and all data access was done in a single place. For many years, people accepted that was the limitation of Web applications. But it isn't a limitation any longer. Over the past year a number of technologies have come along such as Adobe AIR and Google Gears that allow offline access to the data and the application. This is a huge boon to Web developers who, up until now, were hampered by the offline problem of Web applications. Both of th... (more)