Offline access control for an application

A method to facilitate offline access control for an application associated with an industrial automation environment, the method comprising:

• displaying a user login prompt for the application on a display system of a computing system, wherein the user login prompt provides an offline access option for a user to request offline access to the application;
• receiving user login credentials and a selection of the offline access option to request the offline access to the application;
• transferring the user login credentials and the selection of the offline access option for delivery to an authentication server, wherein the authentication server authorizes the user for the offline access to the application based on the user login credentials;
• receiving an authentication response transmitted from the authentication server, wherein the authentication response comprises at least one period of time for offline access wherein the user is allowed to operate the application for the period of time without requiring authorization from the authentication server;
• displaying the at least one period of time on the display system;
• receiving a user selection of a period of time from the at least one period of time;
• and
• allowing the user to operate at least a portion of the application with offline access for the period of time selected by the user.

An apparatus to facilitate offline access control for an application associated with an industrial automation environment, the apparatus comprising:

• one or more computer-readable storage media;
• and
• program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage media that, when executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to at least:
• display a user login prompt for the application on a display system, wherein the user login prompt provides an offline access option for a user to request offline access to the application;
• receive user login credentials and a selection of the offline access option to request the offline access to the application;
• transfer the user login credentials and the selection of the offline access option for delivery to an authentication server, wherein the authentication server authorizes the user for the offline access to the application based on the user login credentials;
• and
• receive an authentication response transmitted from the authentication server, wherein the authentication response instructs the application to display a plurality of offline time periods on the display system that authorize the user to operate the application without requiring authorization from the authentication server for respective durations of time;
• receive a period of time selection from the user selected from the plurality of offline time periods;
• and
• allow the user to operate at least a portion of the application without requiring authorization from the authentication server for the selected period of time.