Javascript files when offline

[TML]

Hello,

I have a scenario whereby a mobile device, when connected to the
internet views php files from the web server. When, however, there is
no internet connection the mobile device views files from its local
cache.

So, when they are online do I create a localserver, capture javascript
files so they have the application available when they are offline via
the manifest file?

Are the Javascript files replacements for the php files? Do the
Javascript files have to interact with the sqlite database on the
mobile device?

Guidance welcome!
TML

[sobolanul]

Hi.

I will try to explain this as simple as I can.

First, the content generated by php files is dynamic content. php
files contain only basic html code and rest is generated based on
parameters sent to server, content of the session, or any other
"variables" in the system.
Examples:
Calling my_nice_php_file.php or my_nice_php_file.php?show=lastMonth or
my_nice_php_file.php?show=welcome_screen could be ENTIRELY different
pages

One method to get those files offline is to cache in manifest ALL
possible parameters combination and set IgnoreQuery
to false. This means that your manifest should contain a record for
each possible query combination for each file. In our example, willl
be 3 entries for my_nice_php_file.php file.
This could be a tedious work and result into a huge manifest (imagine
a page were a daily report is generated based on the day passed as a
get parameter and the report is available from last 15 years).

This method solves only partial you problem. If there are files that
need POST parameters to generate the content or use things stored in
session, then this method will not work. To have this functionality
offline, you have to reproduce it in java script code. Depends of the
complexity of the web application this is ranged from very simple to
real complex js programming.

I hope this gave you a better understanding of the "magic" of Gears.

Eduard