Working offline

The Infor Field Inspector mobile app is designed to exchange data with the agency's server in real time, but it can also continue to work offline. "Offline" can mean that there is no internet connection, or that there is an internet connection but the mobile device is not connected to the agency's VPN.

The details will depend on your agency's configuration, but the general idea is that the app downloads a set of data to the mobile device so that it can work offline. You can work with the downloaded data while disconnected, and then upload your changes when a connection is available.

On the home screen of the mobile app, the Work Mode button indicates the current connection status, and can also be used to disable the connection to the server.

  • If the app is connected to the server, the Work Mode button shows a check mark.

    Work Mode button

  • If no connection is available, the Work Mode button shows a circle. The information that is available when the app is disconnected depends on your agency's configuration.

    Work Mode button (disconnected)

  • If you want to disable the connection to the server, tap the Work Mode button. The check mark on the button is then replaced by an X. To enable the connection, tap Work Mode again.

    Work Mode button (disabled)

While you are working offline, any changes that you make are referred to as pending changes, because the information is stored only on the mobile device. Each pending record has one of these statuses:

  • Queued: The record is waiting to be processed.
  • Processing: The record is currently being processed.
  • Completed: The record was successfully uploaded to the server.
  • Failed: The record could not be uploaded due to an error.
  • Fatal: A serious error occurred.

How your pending changes are uploaded to the server depends on the app's settings. On the Settings page of the mobile app, you can set Sync Pending Changes to Server to either Manually or Automatically.

If you select Automatically, pending changes are uploaded at the interval specified in the Upload Pending Changes Every (seconds) field.

If you select Manually, you can use the Synchronize command in the mobile app's menu to upload your pending changes.

Note: Not all pending changes are included in an automatic upload. For example, if any records have failed to upload for some reason, they will not be reprocessed until you perform a manual sync. To be uploaded automatically, pending records must have a status of Queued.