Offline mode for mobile app

The mobile app is designed with offline availability in mind. This way, artists can access their itineraries, even when they lost their internet connection for a moment. To create transparency about this feature, we explain how things work.

Storing data that the user viewed

When a user accesses -for instance- the details of a show in the app, this information is stored locally on the phone. 
The data is stored on the phone and persists when you close the app, upgrade the app or restart the phone.
When the user signs out in the app, data is removed. Before signing out, the user sees this warning.

Preloading data

Besides the storing of the data that the user has viewed, we actively preload data happening in the near future. 

When a user opens the app and navigates to the appointments for an artist, data is retrieved from our API. This can be a mix of flights, shows, ground transports, train rides and external calendar info.

This kicks off a process that iterates every appointment. If a piece of data is not stored yet, or the local version is older than 1 hour, the data is retrieved from our API and stored on the phone.

Preloading is a relatively slow and resource-consuming process. There are some observations in the way that data is preload on the phone:

• Appointments are preloaded if they take place within 30 days from now. 
• Only appointments that are shown in the calendar/list are preloaded.
• When the app is closed during preloading, the process is cancelled and will restart from the beginning the next time a user opens the app again.
• Only data is preloaded for the artist that is chosen. When the user doesn't access the artist profile, the data is not preloaded.

Testing offline availability

You can test yourself how offline availability in the app works:

1. Open the mobile app on your phone.
2. View some information, like show and other details in the app.
3. Turn on the flight mode on your phone, so you lose your internet connection.
4. The information that you have previously viewed is still accessible. 

Getting offline availability "right" is notoriously difficult; there is a good reason that apps like Facebook only work online. When you have any comments, don't hesitate to contact support.