Xamarin forms geolocator plugin working intermittently - ios

Question

We are trying to use the plugin "Xam.Plugin.Geolocator" in our Xamarin Forms project. The project is currently IOS only.
Our app returns a list of business based on the device users current location. We hit an API to return our JSON formatted list data and the API is functioning correctly.
We would like the list to update whenever the user pulls down, changes tab and when the page initially loads but currently this is only working once or twice in around 100 attempts. I've not found a pattern yet to why it's failing, or indeed when it works.
We set App Properties when the page loads, the tab is selected and the user refreshes like this -
public async void GetLocation()
{
try
{
locator = CrossGeolocator.Current;
if (locator.IsGeolocationAvailable && locator.IsGeolocationEnabled)
{
var position = await locator.GetPositionAsync();
App.Current.Properties["Longitude"] = position.Longitude.ToString();
App.Current.Properties["Latitude"] = position.Latitude.ToString();
}
else
{
await DisplayAlert("Location Error", "Unable to retrieve location at this time", "Cancel");
}
}catch(Exception e)
{
await DisplayAlert("Location Error", "Unable to retrieve location at this time","Cancel");
}
}
We call the above method in the three areas
1) when the page is loaded
public NearbyPage()
{
InitializeComponent();
GetLocation();
SetNearbyBusinesses();
NearbyBusinesses = new List<NearbyBusiness>();
SetViewData();
SetViewVisibility();
}
2) when the tab is clicked
protected override void OnAppearing()
{
base.OnAppearing();
GetLocation();
SetNearbyBusinesses();
NearbyLocationsView.ItemsSource = NearbyBusinesses;
NoLocationsView.ItemsSource = UserMessages;
SetViewVisibility();
}
3) when the user pulls down to refresh
public void RefreshData()
{
if (!CrossConnectivity.Current.IsConnected)
{
NoInternetMessage.IsVisible = true;
return;
}
GetLocation();
NoInternetMessage.IsVisible = false;
SetNearbyBusinesses();
NearbyLocationsView.ItemsSource = NearbyBusinesses;
NoLocationsView.ItemsSource = UserMessages;
SetViewVisibility();
_analyticsService.RecordEvent("Refresh Event: Refresh nearby businesses", AnalyticsEventCategory.UserAction);
}
Can anyone shed some light on what we're doing wrong or have experience with this plugin that can help us resolve this issue?
Thank you
EDIT
By "work", i mean that we'd like it to hit our API with the users current location data and return new results from the API every time the user pulls down to refresh, the page is loaded initially or when they press on a specific tab. Currently it works occasionally, very occasionally.
We can't debug with a phone connected to a macbook, as since we installed the geolocator plugin the app always crashes when connected. The app seems to work ok when deployed to a device, apart from the location stuff. We're currently deploying to test devices via Microsofts Mobile Centre.

Answer 1

Ok, so with the debugger always crashing and being unable to see any stack trace etc we took a few shots in the dark.
We've managed to get this working by adding async to our method signatures down through our code stack. This has resolved the issue and the geo location and refresh is working perfectly.
For example when we changed the above method 3. to refresh the data, it worked perfectly.
public async Task RefreshData()
{
if (!CrossConnectivity.Current.IsConnected)
{
NoInternetMessage.IsVisible = true;
return;
}
GetLocation();
NoInternetMessage.IsVisible = false;
SetNearbyBusinesses();
NearbyLocationsView.ItemsSource = NearbyBusinesses;
NoLocationsView.ItemsSource = UserMessages;
SetViewVisibility();
_analyticsService.RecordEvent("Refresh Event: Refresh nearby businesses", AnalyticsEventCategory.UserAction);
}
We refactored more of that code but adding async was what got it working.
I hope this helps someone else save some time.