[UC] Offline Support / Local-First

[Laurin-W]

As a user,
I want to use resources offline or with an unstable connection without running into data inconsitencies.
So that my UX is not disrupted and I don't have to resolve sync conflicts .

Preconditions:

n/a

Trigger:

• User reads or modifies a resource. The application has a bad or no connection to the internet.
• Two actors manipulate the same resources simultaneously.

Actors:

• user
• application
• storage provider (running on local device)

Distinction:

• Conflict Resolution (CRDT)
• Local device needs to sync parts or all of the data with replicas
• Challenge: The device is offline and wants to create or manipulate resources
  • HTTP identifiers are issued by remote server (not acccessible)
    • Alternative: A local service manages the LWS resources; another URI scheme becomes necessary
  • Resources need to be preloaded on the device

Scenario:

User does not notice if offline or online. Changes to a resource by other actors are seemless.

Alternative case(s):

n/a

Error scenario:

• A resource is edited in multiple places (or by multiple users) and upon synchronization, there are conflicts that need to be resolved. A manual resolution is going to be a UX failure.
• A resource is created (with a unique identity) or requested but the address resolution fails.

Acceptance Criteria:

• The user can use LWS apps without internet connection.
• There are no inconsistencies

References:

• @hzbarcea's comment [UC] Move between service providers #30 (comment) about seperating storage/identity from address/location
• Like local-first support, E2EE will probably require a service on the device that provides (encrypt, decrypt) resources to an application as well [UC] End-to-end encryption (in/out data transfer and storage) #44
• [UC] DECOUPLING between API PROTOCOL(s) and INTEROP specs #24 spells out why this use case will require an abstraction of the solid specs concerned with data transfer. This way HTTP could remain to be supported, at least for un-encrypted, non-local-first applications