What is the architecture of the offline mode in Work for Office?

Every time a document is opened (implicit checkout) while you are online (connected to the DMS), the document is saved locally in the %appdata%\iManage\Work\Recent\ folder. When you close the document or use the Save and Sync option, the document is synced to the DMS. After this, you can edit or view the local copy in offline mode.

NOTE:

If you have remapped the Recent roaming directory to an alternate local directory or a network path (UNC path) using the imRecentPath registry setting, the files are saved to this new location. For more information, refer to the Remapping the iManage Recent directory section in iManage Work Desktop for Windows Customization Guide.

How are offline documents stored? Can the default storage location be changed? 

Offline documents are stored in the %appdata%\iManage\Work\Recent folder, and cannot be changed. 

How do I take documents offline? Will these documents be marked 'checked out'?  

To take documents offline, you can either open them in the native application or select Take Offline or Checkout from the iManage Work client. However, documents from iManage Work that are opened in their native applications are implicitly checked out from the server and saved to %appdata%\iManage\Work\Recent for offline access later.  

How do I sync offline documents back to the server? 

The View Offline panel in the native Microsoft Office applications enables you to upload the offline document to the server or open it for editing before saving the changes or checking in from the iManage Work client.

How does the system respond to changes in network state from online to offline? 

Work for Office automatically detects the change of network state and performs offline operations accordingly. For example, File Open will display the Open [Offline] dialog box instead of the online Open dialog box. The Office ribbon is updated to reflect the network state change: the Connect button appears red, and other buttons are greyed out if operations are not available in the offline mode. 

What happens if I edit a document directly from the local document store without going through the application integration? For example, if I open a document by going to the %appdata% path?

Work for Office handles it in the same way as if the document were opened from the most recently used document list. The path should be %appdata%\iManage\Work\Recent.

What options are available to me while I'm working offline?  

While working offline, you can search for and open a document that is saved to the local drive, make changes to it, and save the changes, either as a new document, a new version, or an overwrite of the existing document.

What happens when I next go online?   

The View Offline panel automatically opens when you are next online, displaying a list of all the documents that you worked on while you were working offline. You then have the choice to: 

  • Open the file for further editing.
  • Upload changes to the DMS server, either for all the documents on the list or for each document individually.

What could be the cause of a potential error while uploading a document to the server? 

If a document was modified while it was available in the offline mode but not implicitly checked out to you, you may get a conflict if the document was modified online and you try to save it to the server. In this case, you have the option of saving the document either as a new version, or a new document.