e107 without internet connection and synchronization with live version

[Jimmi08]

Hi,
I am fishing for some ideas.

You may know, or maybe not, that I created a solution for tracking racers, start, finish, checkpoint, online results, and stuff like that.

The main problem is that in the mountains there is often no internet connection and they can't use mobiles or readers to send results. So my boss got the idea and he wants:

• use special comp with xampp to have full install of e107 without an internet connection. It will be used at the start and finish points (where chip scanner/reader will be used). After the available connection, data should be posted to live site.
• checkpoints (they are not so important) will use the live version as before, or manually if there is no connection.

And now they want to synchronize everything... With racers, traces etc I will use only export/import functionality...
Any ideas?

[Alex-e107nl]

Hi use the Uniform server https://e107.nl/download/5/uniformserver-with-e107-2-3-3 e107 installed and blazingly fast (made sure!) and you can update mysql when an internet connection is established .. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19150688/update-mysql-only-if-internet-is-connected

ODO https://www.odoo.com/nl_NL/app/point-of-sale-shop works exact the same way, when your internet connection failes the register works locally and when it returns it synchonizes with the online database...

I knew that in one system i had worked with had this but my grey cells are not so fast tonight :-)

[Jimmi08]

I can't say anything about the server itself (for example, we use xampp on other local project because Wampp page was in French initially, so I am stuck with PHP 8.2 now)

The question was about e107 itself. For example, bootstrap5 frontend theme depends on CDN.

@rica-carv I will use different tables. The final results are in different table already, What I have learned before, if they say this will never happen, it will do. So I am almost sure that the same racer will have results both from live or local DB.

But how to do synchronization itself? With API and curl or like alt_auth works - connect to DB directly. Second way looks easier and safer. And less work. And you can test if the second DB is available...

I decided to split the plugin into small plugins at first... I wish e107 has something similar to gold plugins... some group of plugins. Or possibility to add more plugin's category in admin area.

Thanks

[rica-carv]

For example, bootstrap5 frontend theme depends on CDN.

@Jimmi08 Well, it shouldn't. The BS theme dependency should always be handled by e107, and if for some reason CDN is not available, it should / will load the local BS files available. In fact, it's how it works now, when you're offline. That's why the BS files are bundled inside e107 also....
I know that because i do sometimes the e107 stuff offilne. 😉

So I am almost sure that the same racer will have results both from live or local DB.

Well, there's always a way to cheat the offline system with the local DB.... 😆
So you can't guarantee 100% that the live DB will be equal to the offline DB...
Not every user is so straight forward user 😉
And if they are recording "times", they don't even need to tamper e107 code... See what i mean?

I decided to split the plugin into small plugins at first...

For what? Don't you only need to synch the plugin tables data?
The base plugin PHP code will be exactly the same in any setup of that site, right?

[Alex-e107nl]

I have used Odo as a pos for 10+ years without any problems but that was not the point, they have the function that @Jimmi08 is searching so maybe he can find it in there code and use it in his project... synchronising multiple databases on- and offline.... ( delayed synchronization )

[rica-carv]

@Alex-e107nl Odoo might have the cod, but i doubt you can access the core code of oddo to do that.
Oddo is a platform, and last time i checked, a online platform. It could not even work without internet. More, Odoo only works with its owns apps, and it doesn'te even can host a site, as far i tested it last year.
But hey, my opinion is worth what it's worth...

[Alex-e107nl]

This also has the same function.... https://webkul.com/blog/point-of-sale-pos-system-opencart/ sync after being offline...

[Jimmi08]

@rica-carv I found it

this is in bootstrap3 theme

        // Load CDN provider for Bootswatch.
        if($bootswatch = e107::pref('theme', 'bootswatch', false))
        {
            e107::css('url', 'https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/bootswatch/3.4.0/' . $bootswatch . '/bootstrap.min.css');
        }

I have set Use CDN for core libraries OFF

But if you lost your internet connection, admin is not working anymore (Select some customized style) and either frontend. It wasn't this way some years ago, I remember I could work offline in my garden...

[Alex-e107nl]

Yep that was the easy way to implement bootswatch, i always duplicate the whole bunch locally... is more work but as you know i do not want to use cdn's etc... thats also why tinymce has to go... is always using cdn...

[rica-carv]

The BS libraries are still on e107 core, só theoretically BS should work offline, either on admin backend ir in front-end.

I'll give a try today and see if it works offline...

[Jimmi08]

implementation of bootswatch is problem, not core bootstrap library, after removing this from boostrap3/5, it works

[rica-carv]

@Jimmi08 Ok, i just realize now you're after bootswatch. After all, bootswatch seems to be a bootstrap add-on....

[Jimmi08]

Just note:

My theme xml (yes, I am testing mobile theme by Alex in offline mode).

	<stylesheets>
		<css file="style.css" name="Default" scope="front" />
		<css file="css/admin-exas-core.css" name="Core Business Light" description="A high-contrast light skin" thumbnail='images/admin-exas-core.webp' scope='admin' exclude='bootstrap'/>	
        <css file="*" name="*"/>
	</stylesheets>

Cache cleared. Manually deleted theme cached file to be sure.

Did you know that this: <css file="*" name="*"/> should load all CSS files with prefix admin_ ?

But result in Theme Manager for frontend theme:

Test for this is if(substr($val,-4) === '.css' && strpos($val, "admin_") !== 0)

but strpos($val, "admin_") !== 0 is always true

I am not sure why this test fails. Normally you can't see this.

Weird.