Annotations, highlights and handwritings is not being saved

[brunoinds]

The highlighting and notes in the lessons is no longer being saved after closing the application. The original PDF handwriting is not being saved as well.

[VitalikL]

@brunoinds Just to confirm, can you provide a screen recording of the issue - I can not reproduce it on my end. Also, you are connected to the internet when it happens, right?

[brunoinds]

Hi @VitalikL! Yes, the steps to reproduce the error is:

1. Open the application with internet connection and choose a lesson
2. Disable internet connection
3. Make a highlight on the text (does not matter if is in the original PDF or in the markdown lesson itself)
4. Close de application
5. Connect to the internet again
6. Open the lesson (the highlights are not longer there)

I know the highlights/annotations are probably saved on the server-side. But sometimes, not all iPads has cellular data available in everywere (specially in crowded churches or other scenarios), so a localStorage or some kind of client-side cache could be implemented to avoid this unexpected behavior in the point of view of the user. So, when the connection returns, the data could be pushed and syncronized with the server.

[mrlad]

I'm seeing the same/similar problem on my iPad and I'm connected to the internet 100% of the time. What I'm seeing is that my highlights and comments from Saturday and Sunday tend to be preserved but all the highlights for the rest of the week aren't saved/preserved.

I also have an android phone and the changes aren't synced.

I just noticed the problem two weeks ago and it happened again this week. I will try to create a replication scenario.

[mrlad]

My annotations for today disappeared after I switched away to another app (X in this case). Had a WiFi connection when this occurred. So I think we can rule out internet connectivity as the cause.

[mrlad]

Still haven't nailed down a scenario. Tonight, I added comments under two questions and added a highlight, switched away and killed the app. The comments and highlights were gone.

Then tried the same scenario with just the comments, and they were preserved.

Tried just a highlight with the same scenario, and it was preserved.

I wonder if the app gets killed prior to syncing, the changes are lost? Is there a way to force a sync?

[brunoinds]

@mrlad Interesting! I think we should use the optimistic UI approach. Where all annotations (comments,highlights...) are first saved locally on the device memory, and, asynchronously pushed to the server. So, if the app is killed, the device will first get the annotations that are on the device memory first and retry to upload them. When each annotation is pushed, they are removed from the device memory.

[VitalikL]

@brunoinds @mrlad The next version is going to support the locally saved annotations, comments & etc, with the synchronization upon the next time internet connection becomes available.

[mrlad]

Do you have a beta testing process (i.e. TestFlight) to verify fixes before they're officially pushed to the App Store?

[VitalikL]

@mrlad Yes we use TestFlight for testing. If you are interested to be part of it, let me know by email your appleid / email so i can add you

[mrlad]

Yes I'm interested in beta testing with TestFlight. Where can I find your email address so I can send the requested info?

[VitalikL]

@mrlad @brunoinds We made some changes on the backend, please confirm if you are still experiencing this issue

[brunoinds]

@VitalikL Thanks for the changes made! I appreciated that 😀! But, I still continue experiencing the issue. I've followed the same steps that I've mentioned here:

Hi @VitalikL! Yes, the steps to reproduce the error is:

1. Open the application with internet connection and choose a lesson
2. Disable internet connection
3. Make a highlight on the text (does not matter if is in the original PDF or in the markdown lesson itself)
4. Close de application
5. Connect to the internet again
6. Open the lesson (the highlights are not longer there)

I know the highlights/annotations are probably saved on the server-side. But sometimes, not all iPads has cellular data available in everywere (specially in crowded churches or other scenarios), so a localStorage or some kind of client-side cache could be implemented to avoid this unexpected behavior in the point of view of the user. So, when the connection returns, the data could be pushed and syncronized with the server.

I don't know really well how the annotation saving is being implemented. But, it looks like it's more about a front-end issue rather than a back-end problem... 🤔

[VitalikL]

@brunoinds Ahh, now I understand, I thought there issue with the active network connection and there was one issue on backend, which we fixed. With regards to offline annotation and notes sync, this will be coming in the upcoming release.

Thank you!

[mrlad]

I've not had a problem the last couple of days. When did the change roll out?

[mrlad]

@VitalikL , reminder, I still need an email address so I can sign up for Testflight. You don't have one in your github profile.