Offline Browsing Secrets In Chrome

Chrome already has an offline mode through Offline Cache Mode. When a page was previously cached and the browser cannot reach the network, Chrome can show the stored copy instead of a failure page. The post also notes related flags in Chrome 37, including auto-reloading offline pages once the browser is back online.

Reading notes

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• Chrome’s Offline Cache Mode was implemented behind flags and can show stale cached content when an offline request fails.
• The feature works on desktop and Chrome for Android.
• To enable it in Chrome 35, open about:flags, enable Offline Cache Mode, relaunch Chrome, disconnect from the web, and load a page you visited before.
• In Chrome stable 35, there is no warning that a cached version exists before the page is shown.
• POST requests are not handled or queued.
• The feature does not work well with AppCache.
• It is most useful for offline viewing of static resources such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images.
• In Chrome 37, the browser is being tested with offline mode enabled by default and a “Show saved copy” button for pages found in the stale cache.
• Another experimental flag, Offline Auto-Reload Mode, tracks pages that failed offline and reloads them when the browser comes back online.
• A second flag, Only Auto-Reload Visible Tabs, limits that behavior to visible tabs.