Using the Bluerithm App Offline
Looking for the field tool? In the new Bluerithm, field and offline work happen in the same app. Load a project for offline use as described below.
Loading Projects for Offline Use
To make a project available offline, you can use the Make Available Offline button, shown below.
For smaller projects, this will load the project and it will then be ready for offline use.
Note: on mobile devices we strongly recommend using the app in installed mode versus a browser tab. See Installing the App.
For larger projects, the app will open a folder selection page, where you can specify what parts of the project you'd like to make available offline.
For large projects you may need to load the project in chunks using this folder selection. How much you can load at a time will depend on the hardware specs of the device you're using (i.e. an old, small smartphone will handle smaller chunks at once, whereas a modern laptop will handle much more).
Images in descriptions and notes
Screenshots and images in a project's descriptions, notes and table descriptions (see How do I paste a screenshot or image into a description or note?) can go offline with the project.
After Make Available Offline has downloaded the project, Bluerithm asks Take images offline too? It shows how many images the project's text holds, the most they can use on this device (200 MB, for all your downloaded projects together) and the space the app can still use.
- Download images keeps them on this device, so they show while you're offline. Images you paste later, while online, are kept straight away.
- Not now skips them. The text still works offline, but images you haven't viewed online won't show. Images you have already looked at online can still show, from your browser's own cache.
The question is asked once per project on each device. To change your answer, sync your changes, then turn the project's Available Offline off and back on: you'll be asked again. On larger projects that you download by folder, you can also change it on the project's Offline Data page, Files And Images tab: tick or untick Images in text, see how many images are offline, and click Download Now to fetch any that are missing.
If the 200 MB limit is reached, or the device runs low on space, the remaining images are skipped; the project itself still downloads and works offline. Turning Available Offline off removes the project's images from the device, and signing out or clearing the app data removes all of them.
Set the app to Offline Mode
Once the project data has been downloaded, it is usually a good practice to set the app to offline mode. This blocks it from trying to immediately sync updates with the cloud as you're working and keeps all changes strictly local on your device.
There are no limitations (besides local device storage capacity) to how many projects you can have loaded on your device at a time.
Once a project is loaded, it's available for use, online or offline.
Project Data Aging
Projects that have been loaded for offline use will display a 'Last Fetched At' timestamp indicating when the project data was loaded.
The color of the will change from green to orange to red as time passes from the last project load. If the timestamp is red AND there is an internet connection, the app will attempt to force a download / refresh when the project is next clicked.
If you want to force a project refresh at any time, you can use the Refresh button on most pages of the app.
The project data that is loaded is current as of the time you made your selections.
While your device is offline, any changes you make on your device will be reflected immediately, but changes others make will not. To get the latest project data, the project will need to be refreshed.
Keep Your Data Fresh
It's good practice to not keep project data loaded except when necessary (i.e. if you're planning a time in the near future for site work where you know you won't have a good internet connection). So once you've completed your work, synced your offline data, it's best to click the Available offline button, which will unload the offline data and ensure your app is using fresh data. If you need to work offline again, you can do a new offline data download.
Syncing Offline Data to the Cloud
As changes are made to the project, they're tracked by the app. The counter in the upper right corner indicates how many changes need to be synced with the server once an internet connection is restored.
The app will try to synchronize when internet connectivity is available. The app must be open for this to occur. You can also click on the offline changes counter to manually initiate a sync.