Working Without Internet
Tournaments happen in school halls, and school halls lose connectivity. iRank is built so that a whole tournament day — pairing, judging, standings, payments, registration — runs with no connection and catches up when one returns.
How to tell
A banner appears at the top of the screen when you are offline. It also shows how many actions are waiting to be sent.
When the count reaches zero, everything you did has reached the server.
What keeps working
| Task | Offline |
|---|---|
| Opening a tournament you have already viewed | Yes |
| Pairing a round | Yes |
| Judging and submitting ballots | Yes |
| Viewing released rankings | Yes |
| Recording a payment | Yes |
| Registering a team | Yes |
| Viewing a tournament you have never opened | No |
iRank cannot show you something it has never seen. Open the tournament you are running before you lose signal — ideally the evening before, on the same device and the same browser.
What happens to your work
Every action is written to your device first and queued. The queue survives closing the tab, reloading the page, and restarting the phone.
When a connection returns, the queue is sent in the order you did things. You do not need to press anything.
Why some things are checked again
Anything a device works out on its own — a draw, most of all — is re-checked by the server when it syncs. The server re-runs the same pairing algorithm over the same teams and compares the result.
If they match, the draw is accepted. If they do not, it is rejected and the tab team is told, rather than two devices quietly disagreeing about who is debating whom.
If something cannot be sent
An action that fails repeatedly is marked as needing attention rather than dropped. A coordinator can see which device is holding it and what it was.
The usual cause is that the situation changed while you were offline — a round was reopened, a team withdrew. The action is not lost; it needs a decision.