How to copy html files to ipad and then launch in a browser

Question

Here's a crazy question...The client wants a web application to be available on the ipad when not connected to the internet. My first thought was that it would be a great opportunity to use the offline app feature of HTML5, except that the entire web app (including all the media) is 3GB, and apparently all of it must be available. This exceeds the 5MB limit of the app cache. The website does not necessarily have to rely on any dynamic server side code. It can be straight HTML files. Does anyone know if it would be possible to manually copy the entire website onto the ipad and from there easily launch it in a browser? I was not able to do this, but I have to believe there's a way. Any other approaches to this problem that you can think of? Thank you.

Answer 1

I had a similar problem and here's what I found that worked (using an iPad and a PC):

1. Download (on the PC) the program HTTrack to the PC. This program can create an offline mirror of a website and has all sorts of options for what gets included.
2. Run HTTrack on the PC and create a folder for your website.
3. Install (on the iPad) the free App "Documents 5" by Readdle.
4. Connect Documents 5 to some sort of cloud based storage (I used by Google drive account, but I'm sure Drop Box would work also)
5. Zip the entire offline website folder mirrored using HTTrack and upload the zip file to cloud storage (Google drive)
6. Click on the zip file in Documents 5. It should be downloaded to the iPad
7. Click on the downloaded zip file in Documents 5. It should be automatically extracted.
8. Now open the extracted folder and click on index.html. This is your website offline.

I don't know if there is a way to move the index link to the home screen...