Offline Item Images

Overview

It is possible to sync images for offline use. By using the Sync Images option, next to Sync Data, item images will be stored with the local SQLite database. This does require Sync Data to be used first for the creation of the local database. With item images synced, they will now be used, where enabled, for the Add Multiple Items and Add Catalog Items screens.

Settings

Syncing images to the local database can be costly in terms of disk space and it is possible due to the large number of images that may need to be synced and the possible large image size that there won’t be enough space on the mobile device to store all of the images. To help keep that from happening, only images below a certain size will be synced. This size limit is referenced in the setting Image Size Sync Limit found under the Synchronization category in server settings. It defaults to 10 kilobytes which is about the standard size for a 200 x 200 pixel image, depending on file format. This value can be changed to whatever fits your needs.

Image Size Sync Limit – Set the size limit, in kB, for images to be synced. Only images below that limit will be synced to the offline database.

Usage

In order to have item images work in offline mode, they must first be synced to the local SQLite database on the device. This sync happens separately from the main database sync as, due to image size and quantity, this sync can take a very long time and should not have to be performed nearly as often as the main database sync.

From the slide menu, select Sync Images, a message will appear confirming the choice to sync the item images and recommending that, due to the large amount of data being synced, performing the operation over Wi-Fi is preferred. During the process you will be able continue using the app while waiting for it to complete. The sync status bar will update with the amount of data downloaded up to that point.

Once the sync is complete, item images will be viewable in offline mode for the Add Multiple Items screen and for the Add Catalog Items screen.

Note: Images will only be available for the Add Catalog Items screen if the server setting Show Item Images on Catalog Screen is set to True. This setting is False by default.

Warnings

• If you attempt to sync item images without having a local database created on the device, an error message will appear stating that the local database must first be created by syncing the main database first as the item images are stored with that database.
• Item images are synced to the device in chunks as long as there is enough space on the device to store them. If the device runs of space in the middle of syncing, only the images up to that point will successfully be synced and the process will then stop. This most likely won’t come up, but depending on device setups, amount of space on the device already taken up by other apps and the OS itself, and on the possibly large amount of space required to store the images, this may be an issue.
• Some images can fail to load, possible reasons for this include:
  • The image was in a location the server couldn’t access
  • The image was in a file format that the server couldn’t understand
  • The server wasn’t able to find the image at the listed file path
  • The image size exceeded the Image Size Sync Limit

If this happens, the sync process will keep going and move on to the next image. When the process completes, a message will be displayed indicating the number of successful images synced and the total number of images it attempted to sync. Details for why any images failed to sync can then be found in the System Log under the source of Image Sync Detail.