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Working with Other Applications > Using the Offline Client

Using the Offline Client

Using Oracle Offline On Demand (the Offline client), you can do much of your work, such as adding accounts, updating opportunities linked to accounts, marking tasks as completed, and setting up appointments, while you are disconnected from the Internet.

To work with the Offline client, you copy or download the records from Oracle CRM On Demand to your computer. When you download records, you can limit the records that you want to include, based on the criteria that you set up.

After downloading, you can view or update those records as well as create new records while working offline. The user interface (UI) for Offline client is similar to Oracle CRM On Demand UI, but Offline client offers a subset of the functionality that Oracle CRM On Demand has. The following features are not supported in the Offline client:

• Business Process Management. Because the Offline client operates as a disconnected client, it does not support server-based functions, such as workflows, field validation, custom default values, or postdefault values. For more information, see About Field Management.
• Page Layouts. Based on the limits in Microsoft Excel, the maximum number of fields that can be displayed in the Offline client page layout is 250. Because the Offline client inherits page layouts from the online page layout defined for the user, this limit affects the Offline client as well.
• Tab Display. To download records successfully to the Offline client, the corresponding record type tab must be displayed as part of the user’s online tab layout. For example, if you want to download accounts to the Offline client, then the Accounts tab must be displayed in Oracle CRM On Demand for the user.

When you reconnect to the Internet, you can upload the new record information to Oracle CRM On Demand at your company. The process of keeping both sets of records consistent is called synchronization.

NOTE: To use the Offline client, the administrator must set the Enable Offline Access privilege in your user role.

NOTE: Shared addressing is not compatible with Oracle Offline On Demand. If shared addresses are enabled for the company, and if you are creating new account or contact records with addresses in Oracle Offline On Demand, then data uploads from Oracle Offline On Demand to Oracle CRM On Demand fail. However, if you create new account or contact records without addresses, then the data uploads corrrectly from Oracle Offline On Demand to Oracle CRM On Demand. For more information on shared addresses, see Addresses.

Related Topics

See the following topics for related information:

• What Records You Can Use Offline
• Downloading Records to Your Offline Client
• Uploading Records From Your Offline Client
• About Conflict Resolution with the Offline Client