Work offline on work orders, checklists, and defects

Turn on offline functionality to keep viewing and updating supported work orders, checklists, and defects even if your internet connection drops.

Before you start

• This is a per-user setting — each person on your team who wants offline access needs to turn it on themselves.
• This feature is being rolled out gradually, so Enable offline functionality may not appear in your account yet.
• Offline access covers work orders, checklists, and defects, together with the reference data they depend on.
• Other areas of Shoreline may be unavailable or have limited functionality while you're offline.
• Shoreline automatically pre-caches smaller reference collections used by supported offline workflows, such as sites, checklist template stubs, defect categories, defect error codes, defect priorities, defect types, relevant users, and organizations.
• Work orders, defects, and checklists are not pre-cached in full. To use a specific item offline, you must first access it while you're online.

Tip: If you know you'll be working somewhere with limited connectivity, access the work orders, defects, and checklists you expect to need before going offline.

Turn on offline functionality

1. Open your user menu and select User Settings.
2. Go to the Offline functionality section.
3. Tick Enable offline functionality.

Note: The setting explains it clearly: "Turning on offline functionality means you will have limited access to the system in case you lose your connection. If turned off, you will have no functionality in case you lose connection."

Once this is turned on, Shoreline stores local copies of supported data you access while online so they can be available if you lose your connection.

Smaller reference collections required by supported offline workflows are cached automatically.

Prepare before going offline

For larger collections such as work orders, defects, and checklists, only items that have already been accessed while online can be available offline.

Before going somewhere with limited or no connectivity:

1. Make sure you're online.
2. Access the work orders you expect to use.
3. Access the defects you expect to use.
4. Access the checklists you expect to use.
5. Allow the information to finish loading.
6. You can then continue working with supported offline functionality if your connection drops.

You do not need to manually open smaller reference collections that Shoreline pre-caches automatically.

What happens when you lose connection

• If you have not enabled offline functionality, you'll see a full-screen Offline message until your connection returns.
• If you have enabled offline functionality, the wifi icon in the top navigation bar shows that you're offline, and supported locally available data remains accessible.

Work orders

• Work orders that you've accessed while online can load from your local copy.
• Most work order fields are read-only while you're offline.
• Limited fields, such as the work order name and completion percentage, may remain editable. Supported changes are queued and sent when you reconnect.
• Work orders that haven't previously been accessed may not be available while offline.
• Locking, approving, rejecting, exporting, bulk actions, and timesheet entry are not available offline.

Checklists

• Checklists you've accessed while online are available to view and edit offline if their full details are cached.
• Checklists that haven't been accessed aren't cached in full, so their Edit option is disabled until you're back online.
• You can start a new checklist while offline using checklist templates that are available locally. It is created on the server when you reconnect.
• Deleting a checklist requires an internet connection.
• File attachments cannot be added or changed while offline.

Note: The checklist tabs inside the classic Work Order window are disabled while you're offline. Use the standalone Checklists module to work with checklists that are available offline.

Defects

• Defects that you've accessed while online can load from your local copy.
• Defects that haven't previously been accessed may not be available while offline.
• From the Defects list, editing and deleting an existing defect are unavailable while offline.
• You can create a new defect while offline using reference data that is available locally.
• If you already have a defect open for editing when your connection drops, supported changes can be saved offline and queued for synchronisation.
• File attachments cannot be added or changed while offline.

Note: The Defects view inside the classic Work Order window has limited offline functionality. Use the standalone Defects module for supported offline defect access.

Time registration

You can register and edit time while you are offline. Your changes are stored on your device and synchronised automatically when you are back online.

How it works

1. Turn on offline functionality and open the time registration screens while you are still online, so your activities and time entries are cached.
2. When your connection drops, you will see You are currently offline. You can continue to register and edit time as normal.
3. When you reconnect, you will see You are back online. Your offline changes will now sync, followed by Data synchronised successfully once syncing is complete.

Note: The 7-day editing window still applies to offline changes. If the 7-day period expires before an offline change can be synchronised, that change is rejected with the message: "This offline change was rejected because the 7-day editing period expired before it could be synchronized."

What is cached automatically?

There are two simple rules for offline data:

Examples of automatically pre-cached reference data include sites, checklist template stubs, defect categories, defect error codes, defect priorities, defect types, relevant users, and organizations.

Large collections are not downloaded in full because they can contain thousands of records.

The simplest rule to remember is: smaller reference data is pre-cached automatically; work orders, defects, and checklists need to be accessed online before you can rely on them offline.

Syncing your changes

Supported changes made while offline are queued locally.

When your connection returns, Shoreline automatically sends the queued changes to the server.

Changes are processed sequentially. If a request fails, Shoreline retains it for retry.

Manage your offline status

Click the wifi icon in the top navigation bar to open Manage offline.

From here you can see whether Shoreline currently considers you online or offline.

Limitations

Note: Offline access is designed primarily for temporary gaps in connectivity. Prepare the items you expect to need before working for an extended period without internet access.

• Offline cache collections keep up to 100 entries, and entries older than 24 hours are automatically cleared.
• Work orders, defects, and checklists that haven't been accessed while online may not be available offline.
• File attachments cannot be added or changed while offline.
• Most work order fields are read-only while offline.
• Administrative actions such as deleting, approving, rejecting, locking, exporting, and bulk actions require an internet connection.