I'd like to create a very simple app to block internet access for certain app's between 7PM and 7AM on my iPhone.
However the mobile phone & imessage should stay usable, so it's no airplane modus.
This is to have some "no notification time" and don't see for example new e-mails coming in.
Would this be possible to archieve? Can an app control this behaviour for other app's?
Thanks a lot in advance for your answers!
Best regards,
Koen
No, you cannot do that. Apple "sandboxes" apps so that they have no ability to change the behavior of other apps.
If you did find a way to do that, Apple would reject your app, and probably quickly update the OS to prevent whatever method you used to do it.
EDIT:
You might be able to find a way to do this for jailbroken devices, but obviously those can't be released to the App store.
First thing, Such Apps are not allowed to be published on App Store.
I have worked with private-apis, and i know that this is not possible with only private apis. This may be possible once after you jailbreak your phone + using private libs, and may be you can create tweaks for jailbreak to achieve this functionality.
Related
I was wondering if its possible to write an ios app that 'disables' other apps from opening?
For example, when I press the disable button on my app, I cannot open whatsapp for the next 15 minutes.
If that's not possible, could a workaround such as blocking all HTTP requests to a certain URL be possible? or even blocking (or turning off) notifications from certain apps?
I've also been wondering whether or not a security module might disallow such code..
Any help would be much appreciated!
None of the suggestion you made in your question will work on a AppStore app. Since the app is sandboxed it can not interact on the level you want with the system.
Your only possibility is to write an app for jailbroken devices.
There might be private API present as per your need but one thing is clear if you target for Apple AppStore ,it will be rejected due to its policy as aslo said by other person. Moreover ,If you still wana develop it you should go for it and there is Cydia which is a appstore for jail broken phone so you could upload your app and try to sell it off. Hope this info is useful for you.
I'm currently developing an app using enterprise account for internal purposes only.
I heard something about daemon for jailbroken devices in order to make my app just like an android service.
Is there anything I can do when not jailbroken?
Maybe 3rd party framework or piece of codes? Maybe private framework?
Something like this maybe: Make the application restart by itself on a jailbroken device
But for non-jailbroken.
P.S. - The app of course is not for app store and could not be on app store.
I agree with Tander. But we have achieved almost similar effect using combination of SLC (Significant Location Change), Background fetch and Silent push notifications. Whole point is that app periodically trigger call to API to let know it is alive.
If this fails, we sent normal Push Notification. I was looking into this for fair amount of time and didn't come up with nothing better. But note that you get very limited process time to execute code using this options.
Unless the device is jail broken the short answer is no.
This is a strange one, I have a need to create an iOS app that runs in the background on an iOS device, but can not be visible on the Home screen of the device. The app may need to show up in Settings to configure a few options, but it mostly needs to run behind the scenes.
I do not need to publish this app on the app store, it is strictly an enterprise app for my company.
Does anyone know how this kind of behavior might be achieved? Configuration profiles? API's? etc?
Edit: Jailbreaking the device is not really an option for us. We have to keep the devices as they are.
Backgrounding
There are several methods to get permanent background execution:
a) Silent audio which is mentioned by JRG-Developer
b) Usage of beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler + turning location manager on/off (it will reset remaining time to 600 seconds)
Making app invisible
You can use SBAppTags in Info.plist (take a look at this: How to remove app icon programatically from jail broken iPhone app?)
It will make your icon not visible on Home screen.
I've no idea how you can tackle the not be visible on the home screen criteria, but there are certain services that are allowed to be run in the background continuously, notably:
Background Audio (even silent audio)
While this is indeed very hacky, short of jailbreaking the devices, this may be your best bet.
While it's unlikely / very difficult to get past the review process, in the event for some reason you do need to (attempt) to publish this app to the App Store, some apps are even available on the App Store which take advantage of this hack, such as PasteBot.
You should definitely read their write-up here about getting their app's Cut-and-Paste functionality to work while in the background:
http://tapbots.com/blog/pastebot/pastebot-music-in-background
Another out-of-the-box idea, why not use Android devices instead, which do support multitasking?
Two methods:
Jailbreak. A jailbroken iPhone is essentially a Mac and you can use all Mac UNIX programming tricks - spawn a daemon (you can even ask launchd to do that), or something. You can set up enteprise-wise Cydia source. Refer to saurik's website for a walkthrough and set up an experimental server using Ubuntu (which used apt too)
A non-jailbreak way may be possible, but it will depend on what your app is doing. You can try use enterprise-wise push notifications.
Given that this is impossible to do on non jailbroken phones, I'd suggest the following:
develop a directory app, or a phone list app, something that is specific to your company.
have it connect to a web service once a day to register the device ID (so you know the user has not deleted the app)
tell users they need to keep the app open at all times (and if a user's device does not register one day, send them an email asking them to launch the app).
Now you can send back whatever you want with the app. If they kill it, you'll know the next day when you have a script look at the logs.
If you think this is a terrible idea, it is, but its the best you are going to get on iOS right now.
EDIT: you could send a notification every day - say in the AM - to make sure the user opened the app if it wasn't running.
From my experince, this kind of behaviour cannot be achieved on iOS. When an app enters into background, it is active only for a small particular amount of time. After that, it goes into hybernate state. It stops working. So the behaviour you said can not be achieved without abusing iOS workflow. Thats why some call iOS's multitasking as not true multitasking. Only jailbreaking might help your case. That was for one case. The second one where the app cannot be seen on home screen is again, impossible. It has to be on springboard to run.
I'm developing a business app for iOS which will be used by customers in a cafeteria for ordering various products available.
Whenever iPad is screen unlocked by the customer, the custom business app should open up even if the previous customer open a different app.
So basically open this business app after every screen unlock, is it possible to get this done and how?
no it's no. it's the default iOS behavior. Only in a jailbroken iPad you'll manage to do this.
Definitely not.Its not possible and the other thing if you do so user gets irritated by seeing it again and again..As per my knowledge its not possible as well as not a better idea to do it..Think from user perspective..
I think it's not possible to do, not possible to do that scenario
I'm looking to write a custom lock app to replace the default PIN lock on iOS.
As there are no apps like this available on the App Store currently, its clear that either Apple rejects these types of apps or its just not possible with the currently available APIs.
The app is just for personal use, but I'd just like to know if it's possible before starting. Anyone know which is the case?
Thanks
You can't replace the standard lock screen or PIN entry keyboard EXCEPT on jailbroken devices. First, there's no way to do it with the official SDK. Secondly even if there was Apple would not allow you to modify any of the system applications. If you're serious about doing it though for "personal use" and are OK with voiding your warranty (and/or possibly bricking your device) you could look into jailbreaking and the tools available. A hint in the right direction would be to learn as much as you can about SpringBoard and mobile substrate. Hope that helps.
It's not possible with the current APIs. As soon as someone pushes the home button your app will be sent to the background or terminated depending on how it is configured.