Working offline

Platform: Mobile (the Archer app)

Vineyards are full of dead zones, and the Archer app is built for them. What the app has synced stays readable with no signal, and what you record in the field is kept on the phone until it can upload. There's nothing to switch on. This page explains what to expect, and the few things that do need signal.

Reading without signal

The app keeps a synced copy of your data on the device and reads from that copy first. Out of signal you can still open:

• your work orders — the list and each order's detail load entirely from the synced snapshot;
• your vineyards, blocks, and field features, on the map and in the List tab;
• trouble spots, including the category and type lists you report against;
• the Documents library — the folder structure syncs to your phone, and any document you've opened before is cached on the device (see Documents).

Map tiles (the road and satellite basemap) are cached on the device as you use the map, so areas you've already looked at keep drawing without signal. There's no way to download a whole area in advance.

Your blocks and rows need one sync with signal on that phone first.

Recording without signal

Work you do in the field never waits for signal. Trouble spots you report, features you capture, and check-offs and completions on work orders all queue in an offline outbox on the device and upload automatically. While anything is queued, the Work tab shows a thin "N changes waiting to sync" strip; it disappears once everything has sent.

Queued work survives closing the app. It sends while the app is open: nothing uploads while the app is closed. You don't need to revisit any particular screen. With the app open, it tries to send whenever:

• signal comes back,
• you return to the app, or
• about once a minute, as a backstop.

So once you're back in signal, open the app and let the strip clear.

Unsent work stays with its management group. From app version 0.2.21, if you sign out or switch group before it has sent, it stays on the phone and sends once you're back in that group, with signal and the app open. In older versions, signing out deletes changes that haven't sent yet, so update the app or wait for everything to send first.

What needs signal

• Signing in for the first time, and opening a management group you haven't synced on this phone.
• Opening a document for the first time. After that it opens anywhere.
• Completing a spot from its card on the map. If that fails with no signal, try again when you're back in signal.
• RTK corrections for a rover. They come over the internet.
• Photos need a steady signal to upload. On patchy signal a photo can fail to send, so check a spot's photos once you're back in good signal.

Where the details live

Each workflow's page covers its own offline behaviour:

• Reporting a trouble spot — spots queue with a "saved locally" confirmation and upload when you're back in signal.
• Adding a field feature — features save locally and upload later; part-finished captures park as drafts on the device.
• Working a work order — check-offs and completions queue and send when you're back in signal with the app open.
• Using the field map — the map and its layers, all drawn from synced data.