The Daily Office Developer Notes

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Daily Office Developer Notes

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The Daily Office progressive web app (PWA) is written in verified HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript generated out of a custom PHP 8+ and MySQL database framework, with all code development and editing in Textastic for iOS. The app is delivered out of its own domain (dailyoffice.app) over the Cloudflare CDN. Special thanks to Br. Thomas Bushnell, BSG, for managing our web server over the course of much this project’s evolution, and to the numerous individuals from within and outside the Brotherhood for suggesting improvements since the app’s first launch in 2013. Help spread the word! Link this resource (https://dailyoffice.app) on your websites and social media accounts.

The Daily Office app is specially tailored for use directly from the home screens of iOS, iPadOS, and Android mobile platforms, but may be used from virtually any contemporary web browser.

This app is free to use for private devotions and public liturgies. The Brotherhood of Saint Gregory reserves all rights on formatting and web code. Please do not re-compile or redistribute code from this web app without permission.

- Br. Richard Edward Helmer, BSG
Daily Office App Developer

Additional Credits

JavaScript library API by jQuery. Mobile device detection by PHP Mobile Detect. Add to Homescreen jQuery plugin by Matteo Spinelli. Used under the open-source MIT License.

Biblical Translations

The Daily Office App currently employs the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation for the office readings. In a few passages of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), verse numbers have been slightly modified from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office lectionary to reflect changes to versification introduced by the NRSV translators.

By default, the app makes several substitutions to words, phrases, and whole verses in the Gospel According to John, The Acts of the Apostles, and the Pauline epistles with parallel language from the Contemporary English Version translation (CEV)*. This addresses a longstanding problem in English translations, including the NRSV, where an uncritical rendering of the Greek term Ἰουδαῖοι as “the Jews” can make some passages of these Christian scriptures appear gratuitously anti-Semitic and in other instances obscures the text’s meaning. An essay addressing this contextual adaptation in more detail is available online. This feature may be turned off in the app options menu.

* John 3:25 includes a substitution from the Common English Bible (CEB).

Version Technical Notes

Last updated July 9th, 2025

^ Versions 13 - 15

Added toggle for Lord’s Prayer translation and improved commemoration closing behavior. Added feature to save and share preset settings with other app users. Bug fixes. (Ver 14.91-15.84)
Advent 2023 consolidation release, bugfixes, typo corrections, and enhancements. Added features to provide a link in the options menu for sending custom settings to others by email or text, plus a feature to save and share preset options. Fixed font size adjustment bugs and added new toggle in options menu.(Ver 14.51-14.90)
Advent 2022 consolidation release, including changes to Lesser Feasts and Fasts authorized by the 80th General Convention in 2022, new icons by Tobias Haller BSG, addition of Galley’s antiphons for canticles at Morning Prayer, option for third reading (the Gospel) at Morning Prayer, minor bugfixes, and code updates. August 2023: beginning with v13.85, added Galley’s psalm antiphons and psalm gloria options. Bugfixes and enhancements for the Great Litany feature. (Ver 13.00-14.50)

> Versions 9 - 12

Minor bugfixes. Added options for supplemental Marian devotions, with thanks to Br. David Benedict for the adapted versions of these prayers. Updated Sanctoral in accordance with the adaptations to Lesser Feasts and Fasts adopted by BSG Chapter 2022. Updated hagiography and collects out of Lesser Feasts and Fasts as authorized by the 80th General Convention (2022). Consolidated into Version 12 with bug fixes and minor corrections. Added collect for Juneteenth. Fixed Venite/Pascha Nostrum bug during Eastertide and removed alternating option for Invitatory. Corrected omission of salutation and suffrages in MP and EP when the Great Litany is included. Improvements to dark mode font and background colors. Fixed collect options bug for Noonday and Evening Prayer. Added Great Litany options for the prayers. Fixed Galley antiphons for Holy Innocents’. Added iPhone 12 series adjustments to interface. Expanded a more careful treatment of Ἰουδαῖοι by interpolating words and phrases from the CEV in the Book of Acts and some of the Pauline epistles. Resolved safe margin inset issues for landscape view on mobile devices. Added collects to Morning Prayer for secular holidays: MLK, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and Veterans Day. (Ver 11.02-15.84)
Allow use of the Venite on the 19th of the month when using the Daily Office lectionary psalm cycle. Fixed refresh bug when window or app is reopened. Restored BCP handling of eves of major feasts falling on Saturdays in Advent, Lent, and Easter. Moved app to a more powerful server. Corrected collect, Phos Hilaron, and color for end of Holy Week. Added instant toggle for the Suffrages. Added option for suggested canticles for Evening Prayer (BCP p. 145). Corrected nomenclature for weekdays in Lent and collect at Evening Prayer for the Eve of 1 Lent. (Ver 10.50-11.01)
Fixed dark mode bugs in options menu. Clarified nomenclature for weekdays after the Epiphany. Added option for Gospel Reading at Morning Prayer for Year Two (cf. BCP p. 934). Database corrections. (Ver 10.33-10.49)
Added dark mode recognition to the app. Fixed psalm tone and scroll positioning bugs in iOS 13+. Quashed minor bugs and database errors. Notified community that Safari can be set in new iPadOS 13+ to load mobile tablet version of app via the Reader View -> Website Settings dialogue in the address bar. (Ver 10.18-10.32)
Resolved several minor bugs in Android implementations of the app. The bulk of the app cache is now delivered via Cloudflare CDN. Resolved offline cache fetch scripting problems in desktop Google Chrome. (VARY headers are tricky... From ghoulies and ghosties / And long-leggedy beasties / And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!) (Ver 10.10-10.17)
Moved app to its own new domain: dailyoffice.app (Ver 10+)
Caching office files on server for faster fetching. Database corrections. Resolved cookie handling bugs. (Ver 9.50+)
Added rubrics back to the Noonday Office. Completed migration to new, faster server host. Consolidated all updates made in Version 8 and launched for Lent, 2019. Fixed scroll position bug. (Ver 9.00-9.04)

> Version 8

Database corrections. Updates to prayer list. Corrected format of gloria patri when singing double Anglican chant settings. (Ver 8.70-8.741)
Added warning page for iPad users who have not updated to iOS 12.1.1 or higher. Added customization to show or hide openings sentences separately for Evening Prayer and Morning Prayer. Added customization for Morning Prayer canticles and Phos Hilaron at Evening Prayer. (Ver 8.61-8.70)
Fixed Thomas Becket collect bug (Dec 29). Added cookie notice. Refined cookie handling. Database corrections. Boot loop, freezing, and offline loading problems on iPad finally resolved. iOS 12.1.1 fixed state, cache, and memory management bugs in Safari/Webkit, which were likely at root of the bad behavior. Fix confirmed by several users of the Daily Office App. (Ver 8.51-8.60)
Added new splash images for iPhone XR and iPad Pro 11". Log files from iPad boot loop bug now in the hands of Apple engineers for advice. Testing several roots of the problem. Removed .ogg audio capability for testing. (Ver 8.48-8.50)
Added new splash images for iPhone XS Max screens. Incorporated amendments to the Rule adopted by Chapter in August, 2018. Added option to include supplemental seasonal antiphons from Galley’s Prayer Book Office for the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis at Evening Prayer. Fixed minor calendar bugs. Attempting to isolate possible persistent bug with standalone Safari in iOS 11-12 on the iPad, which appears to occasionally trigger a fatal kernel error that leads to a boot loop at restart. (Ver 8.37-8.47)
Messaging and instructions added if browser cookies are disabled. Improved cookie handling by Service Workers caching. Updated Privacy Disclosure (below). Added commemorations of Thurgood Marshall, Pauli Murray, and updated commemoration of Florence Li Tim-Oi per authorization of the 79th General Convention. (Ver 8.27-8.36)
Updated prayer lists, now ordering religious communities by patron and name to break the monotony of alphabetized lists. Corrected canticles for The Feast of the Visitation. Minor under the hood tweaks and bugfixes. Interface fixes for iPhone X. Improved statistical tracking. (Ver 8.11-8.26)
Added option for Invitatory antiphons at Morning Prayer. Geeking out with HTML5: Improved “Under the Hood” reference resources and moved Local Storage listing and granular control to its own page. (Ver 8.08-8.10)
Version 8 consolidates all of the advancements in Version 7 towards a more durable, cross-platform Progressive Web App. Prepared for the public release of iOS 11.3, and the update’s implementation of Service Workers and Web App Manifest HTML specs. (Ver 8.00-8.07)

> Version 7

Added font options for the app. Georgia remains closest to the BCP font set (Sabon^®) and the most widely available across platforms, so it is the default. One or two alternative serif fonts are offered, depending on the platform, and three ubiquitous sans-serif fonts. Fixed legacy caching bugs. Corrected rubrics for intercessions in MP and EP. Added detailed app instructions. (Ver 7.52-7.69)
Tweaked to bring up to current Progressive Web App (PWA) standards. Bug and formatting fixes. iOS 11.3 beta 3 and later now initializes Service Workers cache correctly in offline mode. Cache controls now also work correctly and are restored in WebApp mode in iOS 11.3 beta 3 and above. Updated app icons and fixed splash screens for iOS 11. (Ver 7.38-7.51)
Added Service Workers compatibility to cache reset in options menu and downloading indicator when Service Workers is caching in the background. (Ver 7.33-7.37)
Service Workers cache launch for iOS 11.3, Chrome, and all other platforms. iOS 11.2.6 and below will continue to use older appCache. Improved formatting for paragraph breaks in canticles. Corrected bugs in CSS caching and web app manifest.(Ver 7.28-7.32)
Began implementing Service Workers background caching for the app. iOS 11.3 is the first iOS to offer Service Workers in Mobile Safari. 11.3 beta 1, however, fails to initialize Service Workers in Safari standalone mode while offline, and even the Safari browser fails sometimes to fetch from the cache when in offline mode. This bug is already noted by other developers, so I am hoping it will be fixed before 11.3 is released in its final form. On other platforms where Service Workers are already implemented (such as Chrome), the new Service Workers cache is now running in parallel with the older appCache approach. appCache remains in place for earlier versions of iOS. (Ver 7.27)
Code cleanup, database corrections, and improved formatting for canticles. (Ver 7.25-7.26)
At long last, iOS 11 caching bug is resolved. Note that iOS 11 cache can only be changed from within the Safari app. Standalone (full screen) version will mirror cache settings in Safari. Caching on other platforms should also now perform better. (Ver 7.24)
Corrected calendar to correctly reflect concurrences of The Fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve & The First Sunday of Christmas and Eve of the Holy Name & Epiphany and the Eve of the First Sunday after the Epiphany. Corrected database and canticle errors for the Holy Name. (Ver 7.21-7.23)
Appcache bug persists in iOS 11.1 & 11.2. Cache is limited to 1 week in iOS 11.x as a workaround. Underlying bug appears to be problem with Safari in iOS 11.x in standalone mode parsing a cache manifest beyond a particular length. (Ver 7.18-7.20)
Fixed iOS 11 status bar issue in standalone/fullscreen mode. Database corrections. Bug reported to Apple regarding appcache problems in iOS 11.x standalone mode. Other web app developers have made similar bug reports to Apple. (Ver 7.12-7.17)
Created workaround for iOS 11 standalone caching issues by significantly reducing cache size to one week. UI issues with iOS 11 standalone (fullscreen) mode as well as cache refresh problems remain only partially resolved. As of this version with iOS 11, cache settings and -- on the iPad -- mask status bar settings are disabled in fullscreen mode. Apple may remove underlying causes -- cache restrictions, inconsistent standalone caching management, and poor implementation of statusbar-related meta tags -- in a later iOS 11 release. Minor bug and database fixes. (Ver 7.10-7.11)
Updates, database corrections, and bugfixes. (Ver 7.07-7.09)
Updates to hagiography with A Great Cloud of Witnesses. (Ver 7.06)
Simplified nomenclature for the Ordinary Time weekdays after Pentecost. (Ver 7.05)
Added supplemental EOW canticles option for Morning Prayer. (Ver 7.04)
Added CEV substitutions option in John (details above). Bugfixes, consolidation of all Version 6 enhancements, Options Menu improvements. (Ver 7.00-7.03)

> Version 6

Added option to show page references. (Ver 6.38)
Button click sound UI enhancement. (Ver 6.37)
Added option for Pascha nostrum to be the default Invitatory through all Eastertide. Added options to include (or not) BSG readings from the Rule and prayers at Noonday and for the BSG customary conclusion to Evening Prayer. (Ver 6.36)
Holy Saturday/Easter Eve optional OT reading database fix. Options added for traditional language of Lord’s Prayer and EP Suffrages switch. (Ver 6.35)
UI Status Bar improvements for iOS, including new option to mask status bar in standalone mode.(Ver 6.34)
Cache performance improvements and bugfixes. Cache refreshes occur automatically: 1) Upon any version change; 2) Monthly if cache size is set to 3 months; 3) Once a quarter if at 6 months; 4) Once every four months if cache size is set at 9 months; 5) Semi-annually if cache size is at 1 year; 6) Annually if cache size is set at 2 years. (Ver 6.33)
Evening Prayer night palette bug fixed. (Ver 6.32)
“Hallelujah!” is now omitted from psalmnody during Lent. (Ver 6.31)
Added options to use Collect of the Day at Noonday. Restored General Thanksgiving as default option. Added cache-size adjustment. (Maximum in some mobile browsers is currently one year due to cache size limits.) Additional option refinements. (Ver 6.30)
Enhancements to options menu. Resolved commemoration collect bug. (Ver 6.29)
Added options to include or omit confession and General Thanksgiving at Morning and/or Evening Prayer. (Ver 6.28)
Added option for Noonday psalms furnished by the BCP (p. 103). Improved Options menu. (Ver 6.27)
Added option for lectionary Psalm Cycle. Added remaining verses of Psalm 95 to the Venite during Lent. Bug fixes and interface improvements. (Ver 6.20-6.26)
Added floating psalm tone to Evening Prayer setting and option to choose different tones. (Ver 6.18)
Added option for low-light colors for Evening Prayer and Compline. Added section breaks in psalms in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer. (Ver 6.16)
Corrections to book titles. Corrected opening sentence and antiphons for Thanksgiving MP. Corrected antiphon for the Twelve Days of Christmas. (Ver 6.14-6.15)
Added tap/click ⋮ to hide Jump Bar. Swiping left on mobile devices now hides it as well. Adding paragraph breaks and formatting to scripture passages to ease reading. Bug fixes, animation and UI improvements, and much improved incremental magnification toggles for mobile devices. Magnification switches are now positioned in the lower right-hand corner (hidden when the jump bar is hidden by swiping up left). ○ has been added to clear magnification settings. Options can now be accessed in the upper-righthand corner with ≡, while the Jump Bar can be restored with ⋮ (Ver 6.12-6.13)
Collect of the Day now is the commemoration collect according to the BSG Sanctoral. Added clarifying rubrics for the collects and prayer for mission that reflect the rules found in the Book of Common Prayer. (Ver 6.11)
Additional bug fixes, removed less-reliable interface features, restored window animations, added splash screen, cleaned up code, simplified options menu, and reduced cache download size to under 14MB. (Ver 6.05-6.10)
Bug fixes for optional second Evening Prayer reading and Noonday on feasts of Gregory. (Ver 6.02)
Option for having a second reading at Evening Prayer now available with the September, 2016 update. (Ver 6)

> Version 5

Saturday EP corrections and updates to calendar and app to handle occurrences and concurrences of Evening Prayer on feasts and fasts according to Howard Galley’s reading of the BCP rubrics in The Prayer Book Office. Corrected seasonal color selection for eves. (Ver 5.05.02)
Updates app to reflect the new BSG Sanctoral 2016, which includes three Gregorian feasts: commemorations of Gregory the Great on March 12 and September 3, and All Souls Gregorian on September 15. (Ver 5.05)
Corrected concluding versicle to Evening Prayer according to BSG customary, added BCP introduction to readings and concluding response, and corrected a handful of minor bugs. (Ver 5.04.14)
Disabled bookmark feature to test pending removal. Jumpbar may be hidden by swiping up left on the bar. A restore button (≡ ⋮) restores jumpbar visibility. (Ver 5.04.13)
Added font-size toggle (+ | -) for mobile devices. (Ver 5.04.10)
Added cross-scripting (XSS) and cross-site reqest forgery (CSRF) safeguards.
Caching for offline use now available for non-Safari browsers (Chrome, etc.) in iOS 10.
Fixed Venerable Bede database error and Ascension Day bug for 2017. (Ver 5.04.08)
Fixed Pentecost-Proper 2 bug and database errors. (Ver 5.04.07)
Browsers are now starting to deprecate application caches served over non-secure connections due to cross-scripting vulnerabilities. The Daily Office web app has migrated to loading and caching via a secure connection. (Ver 5.04.04)
On mobile platforms, swiping up left on the jump menu now hides it, and links to the previous and next office appear. Tap on the upper left-hand corner to restore the menu. (Ver 5.04.04)
Began introducing default toggle settings. The first allows a user to have all offices open with available musical settings. The second makes the Venite the default Invitatory (with appropriate exceptions) in Morning Prayer. The switches are in the copyright window. Mobile users can access the window by tapping the BSG logo next to the copyright at the bottom of any office. Tapping the logo again hides the window. (Ver 5.04.03)
Now employing local storage to retain scrolling position and settings for each office, even when used as a standalone web app on mobile platforms. Data stored in your browser is listed below. Tap or click on an individual setting name to clear it. Tap or click “Clear local storage” to clear all saved settings. (Ver 5)
Will now automatically jump on open to the last accessed office for up to ten minutes after the app is closed. (Ver 5)
Commemorations follow the current draft BSG Sanctoral, based on the authorized commemorations and collects of The Episcopal Church (Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 2006). Commemorations currently in trial use in A Great Cloud of Witnesses (2015) are not included. Additional commemorations may be added, subject to the Brotherhood Chapter’s review of sanctoral proposals in July, 2016. (Ver 5)
Moved the Daily Office app location to a more intuitive web location: gregorians.org/office/ (Ver 5)
Added forward and back navigation between offices by swiping on the jump menu on mobile devices or clicking on arrows in desktop and laptop browsers. (Ver 5)
Several server-side script, javascript, and database bugs and errors have been corrected. (Ver 5)
Added hyperlink to iBooks from hymn rubrics in iOS. Makes for a handy shortcut for users with electronic editions of hymnals. (Ver 5)
Chrome and other third-party iOS web browsers for iOS versions 9.3.3 and below do not currently support caching due to limitations of Apple’s WKWebView. For caching capability and offline use in iOS, use Safari instead. *Update: Caching now works for WKWebView in iOS 10.
Looking ahead, HTML5 cache manifest protocols (used to store the office for offline use) have been deprecated in favor of an emerging service worker protocol. Not all browsers, significantly including Safari on iOS platforms, employ this new protocol yet. As it becomes more universal, I will shift the office web app caching to this protocol.

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The Brotherhood of Saint Gregory (BSG) is a religious community of The Episcopal Church and is incorporated under civil law as a religious not-for-profit. This privacy disclosure is subject to applicable United States, New York, Maryland, and California statutes, and canons of The Episcopal Church.

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App Version

15.84

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Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; [email protected]) - IP:

Under the Hood

Cookie List

Cache Manifest

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Local Storage

✗ Clear all local storage

This installation was downloaded on September 21st, 2025.

Since June, 2019, the Daily Office Web App has launched over times.