System requirements for use of InfoEx application

REQUIREMENTS
Permission	All user levels
Connectivity	n/a

This document describes the system requirements for running the InfoEx application. We recommend that you use the latest version of Google Chrome on either a PC or a Mac to enjoy the full capabilities of the InfoEx application.

Background

The new InfoEx system is a web application that runs in a browser. When you load the application for the first time from https://infoex.avalancheassociation.ca/, it is downloaded and stored in the application cache of your browser. Having it stored locally will allow you to use certain features of the application (e.g., observation entry) even when you do not have an Internet connection. The usability of the InfoEx application on different platforms is determined by the availability of two main technologies.

Support for the Filesystem API of HTML5

The filesystem API of HTML 5 allows web applications to read and write files to a sandboxed file system within the browser. The InfoEx application uses this technology for the following features:

• Allowing users to enter and store observations while being offline
• Storing local customizations such as setting for observation entry forms

At the time of this writing only Google Chrome, Opera and Blackberry Browser are supporting this technology. See Can I use... for the latest information on browser support for this HTML 5 standard.

Google Earth plug in for browsers

The InfoEx application uses the Google Earth plug-in for browsers to display InfoEx data geospatially on a map background. While the plug-in allows you to zoom into areas and explore the landscape in a three dimensional view, it does not have the full capabilities of the Google Earth application. At the time of this writing, the Google Earth plugin is only available for a limited number of browsers on the Windows operating systems (XP and higher) and Mac OS X (10.4 and higher). The plugin is not available for any version of iOS or the Android platform.

Platform support

It is the support for the two software requirements mentioned above that limit the use of the InfoEx system on various devices. See the table below for more details on the supported of the InfoEx functionality on the various platforms.

Platform	InfoEx support	Google Chrome	Ability to write to local file system1	Google Earth plugin for browsers	Comment
Any PC running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later, Vista, 7 or 8	Fully functional	✔	✔	✔	Google Earth plug in only works on the desktop environment of Windows 8 and not the Metro interface
Any Mac computer running OS X 10.6 or later	Fully functional	✔	✔	✔
Any Android phone or tablet running Android 4.0 or later	Partially functional	✔	✔	×	Mapping functionality not available due to the lack of the Google Earth plugin
iPhone, iPad and iPod touch running Apple's iOS 6.0 or later	Not functional	✔	×	×	Unable to use the application due to the limited capabilities of the Google Chrome browser on the iOS operating system

¹Support of the Filesystem API

Related documents

• Installing the InfoEx application
• Updating to the latest version of the InfoEx application

Functionality tested by

• Oct. 22: Pascal Haegeli / QA Server / Test Version 0.31.00)