connected to the Internet? Nothing could be easier with Gears.
You are
driving a rental car during a dark night, wandering in the countryside in search
of your resort. Your laptop is on, but you cannot Capture any 3G or Wi-Fi
signal. Your card serves to do nothing, the address of your destination being
noted in a Gmail letter which you can access, but you are not connected. Too
bad!
There is one simple way to check your email, even offline, without
having to use a mail handler that retrieves messages, as Outlook Express or
Windows Live Mail. How? Using Gears, a technology developed by Google. With it,
you can also access your written documents with Google Documents to your
WordPress blogs, list your current files consulted with Google Reader, your
favorite YouTube videos, etc.
In recent years, the sites are in fact
moved from a static to a dynamic state. A site often consists of a single page,
in which the elements change according to the actions of the user. For example,
only card content changes when you view Google Maps, page remains the same. When
the site offers a more complete, it is called a "rich Internet application" or,
more simply, an online software.
Consult a classic site without being
connected is easy enough: simply download the web page, that all browsers can
do. But with online software, this method is not satisfactory: the pages you
see, so that you can download, are far from containing all information necessary
to operate the software.
A manager database
So if you download directly the homepage of Gmail, we simply see the
titles of emails displayed at the consultation. Unable to view the content of
messages, especially to find old emails. The messages themselves are stored in a
database located in Google’s computers. When you want to see one in particular,
the online software interrogates the database, draws from the message and
displays it.
To run this software without online connection, you must
have the hard disk that forms the database and software that allows the site to
communicate with the database. This suggests that Gears: make it usable offline
all the data necessary to run a dynamic site offline by attaching themselves to
your internet browser. Places to practice: follow the guide.
Install Gears
Gears is compatible with all computers
using Windows XP or Vista, with Mac OS X 10.5.3 and beyond, but not yet with
Windows 7. You can even use the Gears technology in your Windows Mobile
smartphones and Android. Once installed, Gears is integrated into Firefox from
version 1.5 and Internet Explorer from version 6.
button to begin installation.
appears. Click "Save File". This first name is Gears Setup.exe.
Locate
the downloaded file on your hard drive and start installation by double-clicking
it. A standard procedure of installation starts. It ends by displaying a dialog.
Click "Restart Now" to automatically restart your browser, with Gears technology
integrated.
Turn on Gears
Gears does
not automatically check your software online. It needs to be told specifically
that you want to work offline. To do this, visit a site compatible, eg Google
Docs. A new tab appears at the top of the page offline. Click it.
A
window appears asking you to confirm manually, reminding you not to do it from a
public computer, since all your online documents will be downloaded to the
computer. Click "Enable offline".
A new warning window appears. Check
the box "I trust this site …" then click the "Allow" button.
In a
small window in the top right tells you that Gears will download the contents on
your hard drive and synchronize your version of "offline" with the online
version. When the manual is complete, a line of text on a yellow warns you.
Now a new little icon tells you whether you work online or offline: it
is green if you’re logged in, and gray when you’re offline. As simple as
that.
The alternative Chrome
The Gears
can integrate naturally Google browser, Chrome, without needing to install
anything.
And to run the online software compatible with Chrome, nothing
more simple: When you surf a site that you want to view offline, just click on
the icon page chipped at the top right, then select "Create application
shortcuts …" from the menu that appears.
A dialog box will ask just
where to save shortcuts to launch your software directly online: On the desktop,
Start menu or the Quick Launch bar.
Software that
connect
The online software must be specifically designed to
work offline with Gears. The list of compatible sites is still relatively
limited and includes the vast majority of sites branded Google. But there is
already a good range of software. The main sites available offline
are:
1. Gmail (mail.google.com):
offline profile, click on the green icon Labs, located in the upper right of the
page, then the page that appears in the Offline profile select the "Enable"
button. Then click the "Save Changes" button located at bottom of page.
2. Google Docs (docs.google.com):
word processor that will synchronize your local documents on the Web every time
you reconnect.
3. Google Reader (www.google.com/reader):
you subscribe to a single interface. To move to Google Reader, click the
Settings link. A new icon appears in the upper right. Click on the little green
circle with a white arrow downward to go offline. At first use, you must confirm
manipulation. Article titles and their contents are then downloaded to your hard
drive.
4. Google Calendar (www.google.com/calendar):
add new events without having to necessarily be within range of an access point
to the Internet. Once you pass in connected mode, the service syncs and saves
changes made offline. Just click the Offline link to take advantage of this
option.
5. Remember The Milk (www.rememberthemilk.com):
will remind you. To go offline, just click the Offline link at the top right of
the main interface.
