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Offline browsing web site technology?

 
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Hello everyone,


I have heard that there are some offline technologies which can enable users to browse web site in offline mode. It can prefetch some information from the web site (for example, Yahoo map data for some specific cities) when network connection is available. And when in the future the network connection is not available, the user can offline browse the information which is prefetched before. The user can also put some queries to the "prefetched web site" even when the network connection is not available, and the queries can be sent to the web server when network connection is available.

I am wondering whether there are any papers, tutorials and specially Java open source technologies in this topic.


Thanks in advance,
George
 
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I'm not quite sure what you mean by offline web browsing technology using Java. It's already available in Internet Explorer. While you are not connected to the Internet, you can check File>Work Offline menu and browse the pages that you viewed before.

But if you want the whole site with complete links among pages, you might be interested in Teleport, which can be used to save the whole site into your hard disk and viewed later, when you are offline.

Is that what you mean? Or u want to develop a browser using Java to achieve this functionality or sthing?
 
George Lin
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Thanks Ko Ko Naing,


Originally posted by Ko Ko Naing:
I'm not quite sure what you mean by offline web browsing technology using Java. It's already available in Internet Explorer. While you are not connected to the Internet, you can check File>Work Offline menu and browse the pages that you viewed before.

But if you want the whole site with complete links among pages, you might be interested in Teleport, which can be used to save the whole site into your hard disk and viewed later, when you are offline.

Is that what you mean? Or u want to develop a browser using Java to achieve this functionality or sthing?



Your reply is very helpful. I am looking for Teleport similar technologies. It is better an open source technology so that I can do some customizations. I do not want to develop an entire new browser, and I am considering to develop some plug-in components for existing browsers to add offline browser feature.

I also want to add some new features, for example, I can prefetch only a part of the web site and not the entire web site. Another feature which I can imagine is that, the users can also put some queries to the "prefetched offline web site" even when the network connection is not available, and the queries can be sent to the real web server when network connection is available.

BTW, the offline mode of IE is not the technology I am looking for since I can only browse the web pages which I have manually browsed before. I want to enable users to be able to assign a part of a web site, then without manually browsing, the offline browser can prefetch the web pages automatically.

I think you are an expert of this topic. Could you help?


regards,
George
 
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I want to enable users to be able to assign a part of a web site, then without manually browsing, the offline browser can prefetch the web pages automatically.

[/QB]



I'm confused. I understand the prefetch concept, but you want the pages to not be previously browsed, you to be offline, but to prefetch web pages. If you're offline, where exactly do you prefetch from? You have to get them from somewhere?
 
Ko Ko Naing
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Originally posted by George Lin:

I think you are an expert of this topic. Could you help?



George, I'm just a user. I don't know in detail about the implementation of that technology. AFAIK, Mozilla's Firefox is open-source and you can have a look at the source and find out how to develop add-ons to that browser.
 
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I've seen and used AvantGo, which essentially does this for my Palm. Whenever I sync, it connects to the netowrk and downloads the latest content for the various sites that I've selected. (This is really useful for downloading MapQuest directions to my PDA...)
 
George Lin
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Thanks Ko Ko Naing,


Originally posted by Ko Ko Naing:


George, I'm just a user. I don't know in detail about the implementation of that technology. AFAIK, Mozilla's Firefox is open-source and you can have a look at the source and find out how to develop add-ons to that browser.



I think at least you are warm-hearted. Thanks all the same. :-)


regards,
George
 
George Lin
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Thanks Matt,


Originally posted by Matt Fielder:


I'm confused. I understand the prefetch concept, but you want the pages to not be previously browsed, you to be offline, but to prefetch web pages. If you're offline, where exactly do you prefetch from? You have to get them from somewhere?



I am sorry that I have not made myself understood. I mean the following scenario,

- User defines the sites he or she is interested in (online);
- Browser prefetch the content of the defined sites automatically without user interaction (online);
- User can browse the web sites when network connections are not available (offline).

Does these make senses? Could you help?


regards,
George
 
George Lin
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Thanks Joel,


Originally posted by Joel McNary:
I've seen and used AvantGo, which essentially does this for my Palm. Whenever I sync, it connects to the netowrk and downloads the latest content for the various sites that I've selected. (This is really useful for downloading MapQuest directions to my PDA...)



Your reply is very helpful! I have studied the features of AvantGo, and I think it is just the technology which I am looking for. But it is not an open source technology. I am wondering where can I find similar open source technologies?


regards,
George
 
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