Download website into Ipad memory?

[petalino]

I have a peculiar situation.

Using an Ipad instead of a traditional cash register inside a vendor kiosk at a mall.

Ipad is using ATT web access in order to communicate with the credit card processor (SQUARE).

I have disabled Safari, so that employees would not browse the web during worktime and also to prevent valuable megabytes purchased from ATT from being used up for non work related browsing.

For reference purposes, I would like to be able to download my company website onto the Ipad, so that my employees can access it at any time, even without access to the internet or without usage of Safari.

I assume that this is not possible, since website functionality is provided by a webbrowser (which I disabled), but I just thought that I would ask for your opinions here.

Any ideas on how to achieve this?

 

[Menneisyys2]

I have a peculiar situation.

Using an Ipad instead of a traditional cash register inside a vendor kiosk at a mall.

Ipad is using ATT web access in order to communicate with the credit card processor (SQUARE).

I have disabled Safari, so that employees would not browse the web during worktime and also to prevent valuable megabytes purchased from ATT from being used up for non work related browsing.

For reference purposes, I would like to be able to download my company website onto the Ipad, so that my employees can access it at any time, even without access to the internet or without usage of Safari.

I assume that this is not possible, since website functionality is provided by a webbrowser (which I disabled), but I just thought that I would ask for your opinions here.

Any ideas on how to achieve this?

Do your pages change a lot OR do you have a lot of inner links to follow? If the answer is "no" for both questions, then, programmatically, it's rather easy to mirror the contents of your webpage by using offline .webarchive browsing. It's some 5-10 rows of code at most. (I've also taught this stuff on my iOS programmign courses BTW, therefore, if you are able to deploy compiled projects on your devices, I can quickly post the code that simply renders local .webarchive files from the local file system.)

 

[Geekbabe]

Having the company's website readily available online to your employee's is important for a lot of reasons including the fact that it gives you another set of eyes making sure the site is up & running smoothly.

Why not consider allowing use of the browser but only to access the company website, create an employee agreement around this issue that states any other use is a violation & will result in disciplinary action up to & including termination.. have the employee sign it.

In the USA costs for things like a data plan for a business are deductible on our taxes, any increased usage by your employees
to access your website would be a tax write off.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Do your pages change a lot OR do you have a lot of inner links to follow? If the answer is "no" for both questions, then, programmatically, it's rather easy to mirror the contents of your webpage by using offline .webarchive browsing. It's some 5-10 rows of code at most. (I've also taught this stuff on my iOS programmign courses BTW, therefore, if you are able to deploy compiled projects on your devices, I can quickly post the code that simply renders local .webarchive files from the local file system.)

BTW,

1. I've found the filter functionality of iCab Mobile, paired with its Guest mode so that users can't define their own filters, works just fine.

2. full mirrored Web sites grabbed via Wget ( http://code.google.com/p/cocoawget/downloads/detail?name=CocoaWget2.7.0.dmg&can=2&q= ) and transferred ZIPped to GoodReader don't work (links don't work).

All in all, I recommend iCab if you only want your users to access links / resources inside your company's homepage.

 

[petalino]

Thanks Menne

I will now download Icab Mobile browser.

Could you give me a hint on how to setup the GUEST MODE?
You seem to know its innerworkings.

BTW,

1. I've found the filter functionality of iCab Mobile, paired with its Guest mode so that users can't define their own filters, works just fine.

2. full mirrored Web sites grabbed via Wget ( http://code.google.com/p/cocoawget/downloads/detail?name=CocoaWget2.7.0.dmg&can=2&q= ) and transferred ZIPped to GoodReader don't work (links don't work).

All in all, I recommend iCab if you only want your users to access links / resources inside your company's homepage.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Thanks Menne

I will now download Icab Mobile browser.

Could you give me a hint on how to setup the GUEST MODE?
You seem to know its innerworkings.

Will post a complete tutorial this night.

 

[petalino]

thanx

Will post a complete tutorial this night.

 

[qCzar]

You seem to have found a solution but for future reference you won't be able to download your website. Your website likely employs Server Side scripting that the iPad can't run.

 

[Menneisyys2]

You seem to have found a solution but for future reference you won't be able to download your website. Your website likely employs Server Side scripting that the iPad can't run.

Was it directed at me? If yes, what did you exactly mean?

 

[quasinormal]

You download entire websites with Site Sucker. I've used it and found it works well. It uses its own browser to view downloaded files.

http://www.sitesucker.us/ipad/1.x/1.2.x/1.2.2/manuals/en/pgs/BasicOperation.html

 

[qCzar]

Was it directed at me? If yes, what did you exactly mean?

Nope, the original poster. But quoting a specific post didn't seem relevant since the initial question seemed to be answered satisfactorily. But to elaborate for clarity, a website like MacRumors is built on more than just HTML and CSS, which can be viewed on any device using a web browser as HTML and CSS are read by the web browser. Which is why you'll see some website render different under Safari or FireFox, or they might advertise "Looks best in Crome."

There is then PHP (.php extension) and other languages that are server side. These languages are the behind the scenes workers to the HTML show. It's what displays my username instead of yours at the top of the page and other things. The server side languages are never interpreted by the web browser but you can install the framework on a computer to run server side scripts locally or while offline. Doing this on the iPad isn't possible, but doing so after a jailbreak may be.

Then there's the fact if your site uses a database such as MySQL tables, you'll have to install the database framework so you an retrieve and store information.

 

[babelshot]

I have a peculiar situation.

Using an Ipad instead of a traditional cash register inside a vendor kiosk at a mall.

Ipad is using ATT web access in order to communicate with the credit card processor (SQUARE).

I have disabled Safari, so that employees would not browse the web during worktime and also to prevent valuable megabytes purchased from ATT from being used up for non work related browsing.

For reference purposes, I would like to be able to download my company website onto the Ipad, so that my employees can access it at any time, even without access to the internet or without usage of Safari.

I assume that this is not possible, since website functionality is provided by a webbrowser (which I disabled), but I just thought that I would ask for your opinions here.

Any ideas on how to achieve this?

We have an app which does precisely that - downloads entire website and store it in device memory. It does not need Safari app so you can keep it disabled.

Offline Pages Pro is not free but it's most sophisticated app of its kind, supporting Javascript, interactive galleries, etc.

http://appstore-pro.offlinepag.es/

 

[Enjoylife1788]

This is interesting.