Enhance Offline Applications with Alpha Anywhere's Client-Side Data Cache

Richard Rabins

The Client -ide Data Cache allows you to fetch data from a server and store it on the client's browser.

Offline access is a must for mobile apps. While Alpha Anywhere has built-in support caching data when the the device is in offline mode via local storage (or the file system in PhoneGap apps), it can be difficult to fetch and store data offline when the information isn't being stored in a list control or other method for which Action Javascript methods are available. If you wanted to download and cache a file in a PhoneGap application, for example, you may need to write an Ajax callback to peform the task and then create extra javascript to store the data somehow in the mobile application. Alpha Anywhere's new client-side data cache lets you download information from the server and store it until you need it. In PhoneGap applications, the data can even be stored on the device's file system, enabling you to store a significant amount of data on the device. Data stored in the client-side data cache can be loaded from a SQL database, an xbasic method, or static data source. In the video below, we explore the new features available for the client-side data cache and how you can use them to enhance your applications with offline web support.

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About Author

Richard Rabins

Co-founder of Alpha Software, Richard Rabins focuses on strategy, sales, and marketing. Richard also served as CEO of SoftQuad International from 1997 to 2001, when it owned Alpha. In addition to his 30 years with the company, Richard played a key role as co-founder, and served as president and chairman of the Massachusetts Software Council (now the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council), the largest technology trade organization in Massachusetts. Prior to founding Alpha, Richard was a project leader and consultant with Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), and a management consultant with Management Decision Systems, Inc. Richard holds a master's degree in system dynamics from the Sloan School at MIT, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and master's degree in control engineering from University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has served on the boards of Silent Systems, Legacy Technology and O3B Networks, and is co-founder of Tubifi www.tubifi.com.

The Alpha platform is the only unified mobile and web app development and deployment environment with distinct “no-code” and “low-code” components. Using the Alpha TransForm no-code product, business users and developers can take full advantage of all the capabilities of the smartphone to turn any form into a mobile app in minutes, and power users can add advanced app functionality with Alpha TransForm's built-in programming language. IT developers can use the Alpha Anywhere low-code environment to develop complex web or mobile business apps from scratch, integrate data with existing systems of record and workflows (including data collected via Alpha TransForm), and add additional security or authentication requirements to protect corporate data.