I'm creating an application for my school which should check every n minutes if there is a new mark on the website.
To do this when the user login for the first time, the number of the actual mark is saved in the "UserDefaults". When app is terminated, after n minutes, the number of mark is recounted and compared with the previous one and send a notification in case the number is changed.
What I'd like to know if there is a way to perform this task. I've tried to create a timer in -applicationWillTerminate- but it's fired only once.
This is what I tried:
func applicationWillTerminate(_ application: UIApplication) {
DispatchQueue.main.async {
self.timer = Timer.scheduledTimer(timeInterval: 1, target: self, selector: #selector(AppDelegate.findMark), userInfo: nil, repeats: true)
self.timer.fire()
}
}
Selector findMark is the task.
Thanks in advance!
You have two options
Background App Refresh
Silent push notifications
Easiest one is Background App Refresh. Because later one needs a server to send the notification. You can check following API for the usage. Basically you set Background Fetch capability on Capabilities/Background Modes of your app. Then from time to time, iOS will wake up your app and call application(_:performFetchWithCompletionHandler:) delegate. You will have around 30-45 seconds to call your function and call completion handler. If you don't finish it on time, iOS will kill your app. If you don't obey the rules, iOS will give you less chances to wake up. For more detailed usage of Background Modes, you may check following tutorial
It's not possible to perform tasks like described in your question after the app is terminated. As described in the documentation:
App Termination
Apps must be prepared for termination to happen at any time and should not wait to save user data or perform other critical tasks. System-initiated termination is a normal part of an app’s life cycle. The system usually terminates apps so that it can reclaim memory and make room for other apps being launched by the user, but the system may also terminate apps that are misbehaving or not responding to events in a timely manner.
Suspended apps receive no notification when they are terminated; the system kills the process and reclaims the corresponding memory. If an app is currently running in the background and not suspended, the system calls the applicationWillTerminate: of its app delegate prior to termination. The system does not call this method when the device reboots.
In addition to the system terminating your app, the user can terminate your app explicitly using the multitasking UI. User-initiated termination has the same effect as terminating a suspended app. The app’s process is killed and no notification is sent to the app.
Link: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/TheAppLifeCycle/TheAppLifeCycle.html
Edit:
You cannot perform any task after the application is terminated. What you can do is get that calculation done from server side and send a Push Notification to the device.
Accutally , the answers is yes. But you should not.
We can use Location to archive your goal.
Accroding to offical document in here: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/LocationAwarenessPG/CoreLocation/CoreLocation.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009497-CH2-SW10:
Note: If your app is terminated either by a user or by the system, the
system doesn’t automatically restart your app when new location
updates arrive. A user must explicitly relaunch your app before the
delivery of location updates resumes. The only way to have your app
relaunched automatically is to use region monitoring or the
significant-change location service.
So we can archive it by using Starting the Significant-Change Location Service:
If you leave the significant-change location service running and your
iOS app is subsequently suspended or terminated, the service
automatically wakes up your app when new location data arrives. At
wake-up time, the app is put into the background and you are given a
small amount of time (around 10 seconds) to manually restart location
services and process the location data. (You must manually restart
location services in the background before any pending location
updates can be delivered, as described in Knowing When to Start
Location Services.) Because your app is in the background, it must do
minimal work and avoid any tasks (such as querying the network) that
might prevent it from returning before the allocated time expires. If
it does not, your app will be terminated. If an iOS app needs more
time to process the location data, it can request more background
execution time using the
beginBackgroundTaskWithName:expirationHandler: method of the
UIApplication class.
Call location update in willFinishLaunchingWithOptions and applicationDidBecomeActive Then you can excute your own code right after
[_locationManager startUpdatingLocation];
But is is extremly drain your battery, you may be rejected by app store.
Related
I'm creating an application for my school which should check every n minutes if there is a new mark on the website.
To do this when the user login for the first time, the number of the actual mark is saved in the "UserDefaults". When app is terminated, after n minutes, the number of mark is recounted and compared with the previous one and send a notification in case the number is changed.
What I'd like to know if there is a way to perform this task. I've tried to create a timer in -applicationWillTerminate- but it's fired only once.
This is what I tried:
func applicationWillTerminate(_ application: UIApplication) {
DispatchQueue.main.async {
self.timer = Timer.scheduledTimer(timeInterval: 1, target: self, selector: #selector(AppDelegate.findMark), userInfo: nil, repeats: true)
self.timer.fire()
}
}
Selector findMark is the task.
Thanks in advance!
You have two options
Background App Refresh
Silent push notifications
Easiest one is Background App Refresh. Because later one needs a server to send the notification. You can check following API for the usage. Basically you set Background Fetch capability on Capabilities/Background Modes of your app. Then from time to time, iOS will wake up your app and call application(_:performFetchWithCompletionHandler:) delegate. You will have around 30-45 seconds to call your function and call completion handler. If you don't finish it on time, iOS will kill your app. If you don't obey the rules, iOS will give you less chances to wake up. For more detailed usage of Background Modes, you may check following tutorial
It's not possible to perform tasks like described in your question after the app is terminated. As described in the documentation:
App Termination
Apps must be prepared for termination to happen at any time and should not wait to save user data or perform other critical tasks. System-initiated termination is a normal part of an app’s life cycle. The system usually terminates apps so that it can reclaim memory and make room for other apps being launched by the user, but the system may also terminate apps that are misbehaving or not responding to events in a timely manner.
Suspended apps receive no notification when they are terminated; the system kills the process and reclaims the corresponding memory. If an app is currently running in the background and not suspended, the system calls the applicationWillTerminate: of its app delegate prior to termination. The system does not call this method when the device reboots.
In addition to the system terminating your app, the user can terminate your app explicitly using the multitasking UI. User-initiated termination has the same effect as terminating a suspended app. The app’s process is killed and no notification is sent to the app.
Link: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/TheAppLifeCycle/TheAppLifeCycle.html
Edit:
You cannot perform any task after the application is terminated. What you can do is get that calculation done from server side and send a Push Notification to the device.
Accutally , the answers is yes. But you should not.
We can use Location to archive your goal.
Accroding to offical document in here: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/LocationAwarenessPG/CoreLocation/CoreLocation.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009497-CH2-SW10:
Note: If your app is terminated either by a user or by the system, the
system doesn’t automatically restart your app when new location
updates arrive. A user must explicitly relaunch your app before the
delivery of location updates resumes. The only way to have your app
relaunched automatically is to use region monitoring or the
significant-change location service.
So we can archive it by using Starting the Significant-Change Location Service:
If you leave the significant-change location service running and your
iOS app is subsequently suspended or terminated, the service
automatically wakes up your app when new location data arrives. At
wake-up time, the app is put into the background and you are given a
small amount of time (around 10 seconds) to manually restart location
services and process the location data. (You must manually restart
location services in the background before any pending location
updates can be delivered, as described in Knowing When to Start
Location Services.) Because your app is in the background, it must do
minimal work and avoid any tasks (such as querying the network) that
might prevent it from returning before the allocated time expires. If
it does not, your app will be terminated. If an iOS app needs more
time to process the location data, it can request more background
execution time using the
beginBackgroundTaskWithName:expirationHandler: method of the
UIApplication class.
Call location update in willFinishLaunchingWithOptions and applicationDidBecomeActive Then you can excute your own code right after
[_locationManager startUpdatingLocation];
But is is extremly drain your battery, you may be rejected by app store.
Before asking a question, let me clarify what I understand about iOS App states:
Backgrounded: In this state, your app is not in the foreground anymore but it is still able to run code.
Suspended: Your app enters this state when it’s no longer able to run code.
Now, I wanted to keep downloading going on when App is in background, i.e. it still does exist in multitasking screen. It is working as expected with background transfer service.
But, in some tutorial reference, I have read that you can perform downloading even when App is Backgrounded / Suspended. Can it work even when my App is suspended, i.e. removed from multitasking screen ?
I have been reading many documents including Apple class reference regarding background transfer service with download task, but no one clarifies that the download will not work when App is suspended (killed).
Appreciate your thoughts and advices !!!
If your app has been suspended by the system (without force quiting from multitasking screen) your background session will continue to work.
If you force quit the application all download tasks will be canceled.
The following is from backgroundSessionConfigurationWithIdentifier(_:) documentation :
If an iOS app is terminated by the system and relaunched, the app can use the same identifier to create a new configuration object and session and retrieve the status of transfers that were in progress at the time of termination. This behavior applies only for normal termination of the app by the system. If the user terminates the app from the multitasking screen, the system cancels all of the session’s background transfers. In addition, the system does not automatically relaunch apps that were force quit by the user. The user must explicitly relaunch the app before transfers can begin again.
Apps displayed in the multitasking UI aren’t necessarily executing code or fetching data. Listed apps may be suspended or not running at all
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] applicationState] will check your application state, you can test your app.
NSURLSession class can hand off downloads and uploads to the operating system when the app becomes inactive. As with almost all background execution APIs, if the user force quits from the multitasking UI, the background operation will terminate
In iOS 7, Apple added support for background fetch—a kind of smart, per-app crontab that wakes up at opportunistic times. There is no way to force background fetches to execute at exact intervals. iOS checks how much data and battery power was used during previous background fetches when scheduling future callbacks.
Background fetches can also be triggered by remote push notification and have a very similar delegate method with the same completion handler.
Full Tutorial is here
https://blog.newrelic.com/2016/01/13/ios9-background-execution/
I've written a geo-fencing iOS app that uses startmonitoringsignificantlocationchanges to trigger an action that requires network query. It does not work reliably because sometimes the network delay causes the app to be terminated. I do realize that the documentation says, iOS may terminate the app if I try to do network query that takes too long:
"If you leave this service running and your application is subsequently suspended or terminated, the service automatically wakes up your application when new location data arrives. At wake-up time, your application is put into the background and given a small amount of time to process the location data. Because your application is in the background, it should do minimal work and avoid any tasks (such as querying the network) that might prevent it from returning before the allocated time expires. If it does not, your application may be terminated."
Is there an alternative way to start network query in the background when iOS launches my app as a result of entering a region?
Yes, you have to call beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler. See here:
http://www.mindsizzlers.com/2011/07/ios-background-location/
my client asks me to develop some app that periodically retrieves the user location & the phone battery status, and then send them to our backend server for data analysis, then feed back by push notification.
But through the app doc, I get to know that from apple ios dev doc:
For tasks that require more execution time to implement, you must
request specific permissions to run them in the background without
their being suspended. In iOS, only specific app types are allowed to
run in the background:
Apps that play audible content to the user while in the background,
such as a music player app
Apps that keep users informed of their
location at all times, such as a navigation app
Apps that support
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
Newsstand apps that need to
download and process new content
Apps that receive regular updates
from external accessories
I'm wonder if this would be feasible if we wrap this app as some navigation app so we can have long-running background tasks? Does appstore will reject on our app?
BTW, what is the definition of navigation app by Apple?
You might consider using:
[CLLocationManager startMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges];
This will cause your app to be restarted if it has been killed whenever the location changes significantly, allowing you to update the details on the server at fairly regular intervals, assuming the user is moving. This does not require any special background permission. From the docs:
If you start this service and your application is subsequently terminated, the system automatically relaunches the application into the background if a new event arrives. In such a case, the options dictionary passed to the locationManager:didUpdateLocations: method of your application delegate contains the key UIApplicationLaunchOptionsLocationKey to indicate that your application was launched because of a location event.
Your other option is to configure the app as requiring continuous location updates in the background, but without knowing the primary function of the app it is hard to know if this will pass store submission or not.
https://github.com/yarodevuci/backgroundTask Check my code here I am using audio player that plays blank wav file Works perfectly on IOS 8 Battery usage around 10% in 24 hour period How to use:
var backgroundTask = BackgroundTask()
backgroundTask.startBackgroundTask() //Starts playing blank audio file. You can run NSTimer() or whatever you need and it will continue executing in the background.
backgroundTask.stopBackgroundTask() //Stops the task
Our iOS app retrieves new app data every time it is freshly started i.e. not resumed from the background. App data is updated periodically every couple of months via web services so this is generally fine.
However, there may be edge cases where the user's iOS device - iPad, specifically - may keep the app suspended in the background for an extended period of time - potentially indefinitely.
Is it possible to mitigate this edge case by telling iOS "please release this app if it has been suspended for more than a few hours"?
The issue you describe is due to poor app design or a poor understanding of app architecture. If you need to refresh app data whenever the app becomes active you can simply call your update function off of the UIApplicationDelegate event (or register for a notification), specifically:
applicationDidBecomeActive:
Tells the delegate that the application has become active.
- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application Parameters
application
The singleton application instance.
Discussion
This method is called to let your application know that it moved from
the inactive to active state. This can occur because your application
was launched by the user or the system. Applications can also return
to the active state if the user chooses to ignore an interruption
(such as an incoming phone call or SMS message) that sent the
application temporarily to the inactive state.
You should use this method to restart any tasks that were paused (or
not yet started) while the application was inactive. For example, you
could use it to restart timers or throttle up OpenGL ES frame rates.
If your application was previously in the background, you could also
use it to refresh your application’s user interface.
After calling this method, the application also posts a
UIApplicationDidBecomeActiveNotification notification to give
interested objects a chance to respond to the transition. Availability
When the app is suspended it shouldn't be refreshing. Per Apple's documentation, unless your app has registered for one of the specific background processes, the app is essentially frozen until it resumes. There shouldn't be any network calls made.
However, if you DO want to kill the app once it's been suspended for too long, you could implement a hack that registers a background timer for 10 minutes, then after 10 minutes call some garbage code that you know will crash. Problem solved :)