Field Data Capture

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 21:43:27 -0700

The tablet app technicians use on every job for an energy-efficiency contractor. It replaced paper forms, and it’s built for homes with no signal: everything is saved on the tablet first and syncs when a connection comes back.

What techs do in it

See their schedule: today, upcoming and past jobs, with customer, address, notes and directions.
Record measures room by room: weatherstripping, LEDs, aerators, thermostats and so on, with quantities, notes and photos.
Run the gas appliance safety test (NGAT): readings and pass/fail per appliance, with the rules that fail an appliance applied automatically.
Fill in the inspection: attic, roof, electrical, structural and venting checks.
Walk the customer through the work, collect signatures and submit, or mark the job “Can’t Do” with a reason.
Track van inventory and their turn-in sheet, and read the program manuals from inside the app.

How it works

Offline-first. A local SQLite database is the source of truth on the tablet. Every change goes into a sync queue, and a background worker sends it to Supabase when the tablet is online.
Photos and video upload resumably, so a dropped connection halfway through a large file doesn’t start it over.
One backend with the office app. The tablet and the office web app share one Supabase Postgres database, scoped per company with row-level security.
Flutter with an MVVM structure (Provider for state), and Sentry for crash reports from the field.

Postgres on Anthony Snavely

Field Data Capture

What techs do in it

How it works