0.92 build 1433 (windows) offline function issue when accessing shared folders

[ewilen]

As I noted in the thread, http://www.zimbra.com/forums/error-r...-work-mac.html, offline functionality seems to be working okay for Macs even when they are accessing shared folders. (ZCS 5.0.12 NE Mac OS 10.4; ZD 0.92 build 1433 Mac OS 10.5)

However, things are still a bit odd for Windows. When I had ZD 0.92 (1433) for Windows open I accepted a share invitation, then disconnected the network. ZD basically stopped working at this point: I could still see folder names in the left panel, but clicking on them didn't change the contents of the upper right panel.

Closing and reopening the ZD window didn't help. Neither did restarting the service via Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.

What does seem to work is right-clicking on the zimbra icon in the Tray, choosing quit, and then relaunching Zimbra. The shared folder(s) aren't accessible at this point, but all of the user's own folders seem to be fine, and mail can be composed/placed in the outbox. When the connection is reenabled, access to the shared folders is restored and mail in the outbox gets sent.

So essentially what I'm seeing right now is an annoyance with a workaround. (Outside of access to shared folders while offline, which might be nice but isn't necessarily something someone would expect.)

[jjzhuang]

You are running into a known issue that has been addressed in build 1433. We actually made 1433 bulid just to address this issue. Because 1433 was to address a single problem we didn't push that to all users. To get it, you'll need to go to zimbra website to download the installer and run it. The installer will detect an existing install and do the righ thing.

[ewilen]

But I am using build 1433.

What I am seeing now isn't a show-stopper. I described the workaround in my 2nd-to-last paragraph: quit zimbra via the tray icon and relaunch.

But it's still a minor annoyance because ZD appears to flake out if you disconnect from the network while the window is open, and simply closing/opening the window doesn't fix the problem. For 99% of Windows users, closing the last (or only) window of a program is the same as "quitting".

Assuming my experience isn't unique, it would be good to have a more graceful transition to "offline mode". E.g. the alert that says "cannot connect to the server" with "okay" could be changed to one that says "Cannot connect to the server. Would you like to restart in offline mode?" with "Okay" and "No, thanks." If the user chooses "Okay", this would automatically shutdown Zimbra Desktop and relaunch.