Make ASP.Net (C#) Web App Available Offline

Question

I have been tasked with making my company's Web App available offline. Before I move to the actual development phase, I want to be sure that my current strategy will not turn out to be a bust.

I first thought about using html5 app cache but after doing some tests I found that it seems to not cache the server side operations but the actual html that is rendered (Please correct me if I'm wrong). This will not work because the rendered html depends upon who is currently logged in. From my tests, it always rendered the html as if the last person that logged in (online) is logging in.

My current strategy is this: I cache only the login page and an offline (.html) page to correspond to each aspx page that will need to be available offline. Every successful login (online) results in creating or updating Web SQL Database or IndexDB (depending on browser) with all data needed for that person to operate offline including a table that will be used for login credentials. In this way the only requirement for logging in offline is logging in with your login credentials at least one time.

My concern is that I am overcomplicating it. In order to make this work, I will need to create an html page for each current page (a lot of pages) and I will have to rewrite everything that is currently being done on the server in JavaScript including validation, database calls, populating controls such as dropdown lists and data grids, etc. Also everything that I change in the future will require a subsequent offline change.

Is there an established best practice for what I am trying to do that I am overlooking or am I venturing into new ground?

Answer 1

Please refer to these links, which gives you some insight on what is to be achieved. I'm not sure these are best practices, but these will be good starting point.

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/aravindbenator/offline-mvc3-application/ http://www.developerfusion.com/article/84438/isolated-storage/