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Firestore Offline Persistence โ€‹

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Interactive Architecture Tour: Open Live Tour (Offline Persistence)

This document details client-side IndexedDB caching, multi-tab synchronization, private browsing fallbacks, and conflict resolution strategies.


1. Offline Caching & Multi-Tab Synchronization โ€‹

To support uninterrupted scripture study during commutes or connectivity drops, Firestore caches data locally in IndexedDB:

typescript
db = initializeFirestore(app, {
  localCache: persistentLocalCache({
    tabManager: persistentMultipleTabManager()
  })
});
โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚                      Client App                        โ”‚
โ”‚     Tab 1 (Active Chat)          Tab 2 (Dashboard)     โ”‚
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ฌโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ฌโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜
             โ”‚                               โ”‚
             โ–ผ                               โ–ผ
โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚         persistentMultipleTabManager (Shared Lock)     โ”‚
โ”‚       Coordinating access and mutation syncing         โ”‚
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ฌโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜
                             โ–ผ
โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚                 IndexedDB Local Cache                  โ”‚
โ”‚    Document cache and offline write mutation queue     โ”‚
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ฌโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜
                             โ–ผ
                 [ Firestore Cloud Sync ]
  • Multi-Tab Coordination (persistentMultipleTabManager): Allows multiple tabs and WebViews to share the same IndexedDB store safely without locking conflicts.
  • Offline Mutation Queue: Writes made offline are queued locally and automatically committed to Cloud Firestore once connectivity is restored.

2. Private Browsing & Fallback Strategies โ€‹

To prevent startup crashes in environments where IndexedDB is blocked (e.g. iOS Safari Private Browsing):

typescript
let db: Firestore;
try {
  db = initializeFirestore(app, {
    localCache: persistentLocalCache({
      tabManager: persistentMultipleTabManager()
    })
  });
} catch (e) {
  console.warn("IndexedDB not available, falling back to memory cache:", e);
  db = getFirestore(app); // Safe fallback to in-memory caching
}

3. Offline Conflict Resolution & Safeguards โ€‹

  • Personal Notes & Settings: Stored within dedicated user subcollections (users/{uid}/notes), eliminating multi-user edit collisions.
  • Transaction Gating: Operations requiring server-side validation (such as joining a group with a 5-member cap) are cleanly blocked when offline, prompting the user to reconnect.
  • Optimistic UI for Messages: New chat messages are assigned temporary IDs (tempId) for instant rendering, cleanly resolved once the backend commits the record.

Released under the MIT License.