The Dojo Offline Toolkit, to enable Web applications to work offline, is under development by software architect Brad Neuberg in partnership with SitePen, according to Neuberg’s Coding in Paradise blog.“In summary, it’s a way to have true offline access for Web applications,” Neuberg wrote.“That’s important because if Web applications are going to continue their forward march, being how users primarily use their applications, they have to work offline,” Neuberg said when contacted this morning by telephone. The AJAX-based technology features a small Web proxy that sits on top of the user’s local machine and caches the UI pieces of Web applications so they can work offline. Dojo Offline Toolkit serves as an extension to the Dojo Toolkit, which is an open source JavaScript toolkit for Web development. To function with the Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari browsers, the open source Dojo Offline Toolkit is to be available within three months. “True offline access for Web applications is one of the holy grails of Web development. I believe that providing the Web with true, reliable offline access will open the door to many exciting, powerful possibilities; this is why I have devoted the last few years to figuring out how to bring this ability to the contemporary Web,” Neuberg wrote. With offline technology, consumer applications such as GMail and Blogger could conceivably be the central applications for users even when they do not have a network. CRM systems or a corporate portal also could take advantage of offline capabilities. Software Development