[html5] Offline apps

[Ilkka Huotari]

I took another look at this and I believe I understand more of it.

It seems that appcache is geared towards stand-alone apps in a
browser, especially to replace mobile native apps (example: load from
the cache even if we are online).

I suppose it works well for that use case. However, for some other use
cases, an this is just in my opinion ... and sorry to be direct ...
breaks things horribly. For example if I use the appcache in a more
traditional web app/website, things get pretty awry. Just by defining
the manifest file I can make a site quite broken.

I think it would help to mention what kind of use cases the appcache
is for. I wasn't expecting it to be specifically for this one kind of
use cases (stand-alone apps) - I honestly thought I could apply it to
any website. That's why I was pretty confused.

About the normal HTTP cache: I tried to apply it to an offline
situation, but there are many problems with that. It's not a good (or
even a possible) solution either. Basically because I really cannot
cache those dynamic files/urls (there may be something I missed but
I'm pretty sure anyway).

So... at this point my conclusion is that offline apps can be
implemented in a pretty narrow situations/use cases, and not every
kind of app can't be made work offline. It's a bit sad (and I'm a bit
sad I couldn't do it) as I think in principle there could be a way to
make them work/expand the field quite a bit.

Maybe at some point in the future?

Ilkka

(disclaimer: I may be horribly wrong in any point myself, feel free to correct)