Offline Mode - Katapult Pro Mobile

With so many ongoing efforts to bring reliable internet service to underserved communities across the country, doing aerial/underground design and pole data collection offline is more important than ever before. Working offline in a real-time database can be really tough, but Katapult Pro Mobile makes up for this by defaulting to working offline, storing changes locally and resyncing with the database when service is available.

First, design your job on the desktop using a KMZ, aerial imagery, and Google Streetview. Once it is designed, you can open katapultpro.com/mobile on your mobile device.

At katapultpro.com/mobile, the cloud at the top of the page alerts the user of status of connection with the database. When service is available, the software syncs cached data back to the database, gathers aerial imagery, and refreshes any changes from desktop (this should be rare).

You can prep in advance for an area of poor connection by caching jobs (Manage Offline Jobs button), and while you may lose aerial imagery, you can continue to design and collect data.

*Some Katapult Pro users have had success switching to airplane mode in areas of poor connection because partial, poor connectivity can cause more issues than being fully offline.

Once the job(s) have finished loading, you can turn on airplane mode or enter an area with a poor connection. The interface will let you know when you leave service areas. New aerial imagery will not be loaded, but any design you add can be moved back in the office or snapped into place using a high-end GPS.

Once you have finished collecting your data and adding any additional elements to the design, it's time to come back online. When your device has a connection, you will see the design start to update.

There are some precautions in place to prevent the corruption of offline data when going back online. If fielders ever have issues when re-syncing, they can go to “manage offline jobs” from the menu and press the three-dot menu to access the help button. Depending on your connectivity, this button will allow the device to either send us offline data automatically or download offline data that can be emailed to support@katapultengineering.com.

Once the design has been updated to the cloud, you can hop over to the desktop version to see the time buckets you added while offline. If multiple teams collected the same poles, both time buckets will be added upon sync, which means all photos will still end up on the right locations.

Thanks for reading! If you have further questions, contact us at 717.430.0910 or email support@katapultengineering.com. How can we improve our documentation? Let us know in the comments below!