[Evergreen-general] Planning the next EG Offline Interface

[Jeff Davis]

My other concern about a standalone app would be picking a tool that 
won't become obsolete in a few years (XUL, old Dojo) and doesn't require 
a ton of work to stay up-to-date (Angular).  I have no opinion on JavaFX 
specifically, but we are already using Java for Hatch, so maybe there is 
precedent?

I personally like the idea of a standalone app if it's easy to manage 
and use.  I think our staff have found the current offline UI to be 
unintuitive and kind of finicky.

Does anyone know offhand how other ILS products deal with offline?

Jeff


On 3/11/22 7:46 AM, Terran McCanna via Evergreen-general wrote:
> My initial thoughts on a separate app:
> 
> Advantages:
>   - A lot of staff tend to be confused by the concept of an offline web 
> app and find it easier to understand an installed program.
>   - It would get around the need to load pages into cache before using 
> it for the first time, which staff don't usually understand.
>   - It could potentially be installed from a flash drive to a computer 
> that is not connected to the internet.
> 
> Disadvantages:
>   - Staff would need to install it and do upgrades on every machine.
>   - It would be more difficult to locally customize and it would create 
> a separate product for the developers to maintain.
> 
> Questions:
>   - How would it handle the workstation name? Would staff need to set it 
> up at first use? (Note that it would be useful for it to have a 
> workstation name that indicated that the offline app was used for each 
> transaction so we could identify offline transactions in reports/logs.)
>   - Would the staff client still be able to tell if there were pending 
> offline transactions to upload? (Note that it would be nice to see this 
> alert once logged into the staff client as well as on the login page.)
>   - Would this resolve the problem of not being able to download large 
> patron block lists? (PINES hasn't been able to download block lists at 
> all since moving to the web client.)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 	
> 
> Terran McCanna, PINES Program Manager
> 
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> 
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2022 at 10:28 AM Bill Erickson via Evergreen-general 
> <evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org 
> <mailto:evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi All,
> 
>     I'm thinking of turning my attention to porting the Evergreen
>     Offline interface as we continue our march away from AngularJS. 
>     Unlike other interfaces, where the end goal is pretty
>     straightforward -- just migrate it to Angular -- I think the Offline
>     UI would benefit from some discussion.
> 
>     I've long been a proponent of not requiring external software to use
>     the browser client.  Once an EG server is up, just open your
>     browser, and you're good to go.
> 
>     Hatch is obviously external software, but I don't consider it a
>     requirement to use the client.  It smooths over some aspects of the
>     workflow, but it does not provide functionality that can only be
>     done with Hatch.
> 
>     However, I have also heard some comments in IRC to the effect that
>     having a purely web-based offline interface may be causing some
>     consternation / complications.   I don't recall the context or the
>     specific concerns, only the seed stuck in my mind.
> 
>     Because of these conflicting ideas, I thought it best to get some
>     feedback.
> 
>     Here I propose two options to consider that I think cover the
>     extreme ends of the spectrum.  There may be middle ground or other
>     options entirely.
> 
>     1. Create a progress web app in Angular that performs exactly as the
>     AngularJS version.  There will be slight style variations and some
>     differences to how the offline code is managed (Angular has a nice
>     set of tools for progress web apps) as with the other Angular pages,
>     but it would essentially be a direct port.
> 
>     2. Create a standalone application that's just an offline
>     interface.  It would be a separate program you run on your PC. 
>     Because I don't like showing up empty handed, I've created a proof
>     of concept JavaFX app at https://github.com/berick/eg-offline-jfx
>     <https://github.com/berick/eg-offline-jfx> complete with screen
>     shots.  (I can explain the choice of JavaFX later as needed).
> 
>     Both have pluses and minuses.  Before we get too into the weeds,
>     though, I'm curious if there is an obvious direction people feel we
>     should take, specific technology notwithstanding.  (Also, by all
>     means, let's get into the weeds :)
> 
>     I welcome your questions and feedback!
> 
>     -b
> 
> 
> 
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