A CRM database online/offline

[eluser]KingSkippus[/eluser]
Wow, there's not really an easy way to do what you're asking to do. In order to run anything offline as you're describing, you almost have to have it wrapped in a self-contained application. For a web-based application, this means that you would probably have to include a copy of a web server app on the CD or USB drive, launch it, and have it running before trying to access it.

I can think of two options offhand, neither of which would be particularly easy. First would be to have a web-based application that has some sort of read-only database api built into it as well as the human-friendly front end. If you want an example of this, check out the MediaWiki API, which allows programmatic access to its database in addition to the standard Wikipedia-style human interface. Then have a client-based application that could access the API and cache the results locally for offline access.

Alternatively, you could possibly use some of HTML 5's local storage capabilities. To be honest, I've done practically zero HTML 5 development, so I'd be totally out of my element in offering advice on that front, and really don't even know if it could suit your needs.