With Twixl, a user has several ways to read an article:
- On the fly: the article is downloaded and opened as the user swipes to the article.
- Monolithic collection: when the publisher has marked a collection as monolithic, the user can download this collection for easier offline reading of the articles in that collection.
- Collection on demand (Long-press): the user can choose to download a complete collection (both on-the-fly and monolithic) for easy offline access by long-pressing the thumbnail of that collection. This requires no configuration from the publisher's side.
- Full offline mode (Keep all data offline): if activated by the publisher, the user must first download all content before he can use the app.
1. Download a 'monolithic' collection for offline access
Setting a collection to 'monolithic' gives the reader the option to download one or more collections so every page of the collection is immediately ready to read or the collection can be read without an internet connection. The monolithic setting can be activated by the publisher for each individual collection in the 'collection options'.
1.1. Watch a short 'How to' movie
1.2. How to activate this feature?
If you edit the settings for a particular collection, under 'Collection Options' you'll see an option called 'Monolithic download' that can be checked. If this option is checked, when a user/reader navigates to this collection in the app, the complete collection will be downloaded first, before the first content item or the browse grid is displayed.
Note that if the option Keep All Data Offline in your Application Settings is active (see below), this option will not appear in your collection settings, as it is irrelevant in that case.
1.3. How can the reader use this?
- For collections that have the option 'Monolithic download' checked, the process will be fully transparent, and a progress bar will be displayed during the download.
- Monolithic downloads are never automatically deleted by the system and stay on the device. To remove the downloaded collection, a user can long-press the item in the browse grid, then delete the content for that collection. It can always be re-downloaded later.
- You can use the custom URL scheme tp-downloads:// to allow users to get an overview of all downloaded collections.
1.4. How to display a download status icon in your browse grid
If you want to make it clearer for a user whether a collection is ready to download or has already been downloaded, you can include the placeholder {icon-download-status} in your item style.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
When downloading a monolithic collection, the content items that are downloaded will only go one level deep. This means that, if the collection contains e.g. collection links (to other collections), these will not be downloaded.
2. Download a collection on demand
Using long press on any collection, whether monolithic or not, will always allow download of the full collection for offline access.
Long-pressing a collection that has already been downloaded will show the option to delete the downloaded content from the device. It can always be downloaded again.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Similar to how a monolithic collection is treated, the content items that are downloaded will only go one level deep. This means that, if the collection contains e.g. collection links (to other collections), these will not be downloaded.
3. Full Offline Mode
We provide an app setting (i.e. set by the publisher), where all content of all collections will be downloaded completely when first starting up the app. This is ideal for sales people who sometimes don’t have an internet connection when they are on the road. Every time a user goes back to the app and he’s online, a check will be performed if there is new and/or updated content that needs to be downloaded.
WARNING:
Requires users to download all app contents on first startup. Ideal for certain in-house apps, but not recommended for App Store apps, as such an app will most likely be rejected by Apple.
3.1. How to activate this (as a publisher)?
- Create a build of your app. Test the new build thoroughly.
- Activate Keep All Data Offline in the Application Settings of your app.
3.2. How can the reader use this?
First of all, the reader needs to download the latest version of your app. Every time a user goes back to the app and he is online, a check will be performed whether there is new and/or updated content that needs to be downloaded. When new content is available, a dialog will force the user to download the latest content. When the content has been downloaded and is available offline, the app can be used.