The IGB team should discuss ways to improve the handling of mid-session loss of data providers.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the issue:

1) If a user attempts to open a file, IGB will check to make sure that the main site is available. If it is, it should then check to see if the specific file is available. If the main site is unavailable, IGB should check to see if the mirror site is available and if it is then check to see if the file is available on the mirror site.

2) If the file is available on the main site then IGB will open it. If the file is not available but the main site is available then IGB should display a popup that asks the user if they wish to use the mirror site (as long as a check ensures that it is available). If a user wishes to use the mirror site at this point then all opened files should be reopened from the mirror site to prevent users having to reopen files.

3) If the main site is completely unavailable then IGB should automatically attempt to use the mirror site (as long as a check ensures that it is available). If it is not available then IGB should display a pop-up that says "IGB Quickload is not available at this time. Check your local internet connection and retry. If problems persist, please contact the IGB team." The pop-up would have buttons to "retry", "contact the IGB team" (which could take them to the Help page on Bioviz) and maybe even an "Offline" button. The "Offline" button is a way of giving up on retrying. The trick here is to provide an easy way for users to "retry" at a later point if data providers become available.

There are so many things to think about here that it is difficult for me to examine every scenario, which is why we should discuss this as a team.