I am developing an Apple Watch2 App. My app stops running after a few seconds the screen turns into black but I want my app to run on the screen even after the screen turns into black. So that the user can see my app anytime on the screen by not tapping to the app icon again.
I tried to add a timer and then an animation and also made dynamic UI changes to avoid my app to stop running but it didn't work - after a few seconds the screen turns into black, the app stops and the main watch clock screen comes into display.
I saw that it is possible to do this functionality in "Apple Workout App". When the user starts a timer, even if the screen turns into black, the app doesn't stop running so the user checks the timer anytime she/he wants. So please let me know how I can get this functionality?
Thanks,
E.
You can't control this from your app; The user selects the behaviour for their watch using the Apple Watch app on their phone. They can select "Show watch face" (the default) or "Resume Last Activity". They can also select how long the display stays on for on a tap; either 15 or 70 seconds.
Some Apple apps such as Maps, Remote and Timer can override this setting and if a fitness app has an active HealthKit workout activity then the watch will also resume the last activity on wrist raise/face tap. If your app isn't using HealthKit for a workout activity then you have to live with the behaviour the user has selected.
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I’m putting an app into background.
Assuming that I’m not doing anything to keep the app alive in the background, then the app goes through suspended state in a matter of 5 seconds. Right?
What happens if I then tap on the app icon? That’s not suppose to trigger a didFinishLaunch right? It will just bring me back to the last screen I was at and also trigger didbecomeActive & willenterforeground notifications. I won't be getting any other callback. Right?
Assuming there is no restart of the phone, point 2 is true even if there are hours between me tapping home and then tapping back the app icon. Right? Does it also persist device restarts but not force-restart?
The only time I won’t be brought back to the screen I was at (before hitting home) is if the device receives a memory warning and my app is flushed out of suspended state. At this point tapping on the app icon will result in didFinishLaunch. Right?
(I’m asking all of this because sometimes after putting the app in the background and tapping the app icon again (e.g. 10 minutes later), the app is going through it’s launch phase. Most of the time it just goes back to its previous screen)
I've already seen Will ios terminate the app running in background after a specific time? but that doesn't address all aspects I want.
It will just bring me back to the last screen I was at and also trigger didbecomeActive & willenterforeground notifications.
Right, if your app was not terminated in the background.
I won't be getting any other callback.
Not necessarily true. If you were summoned to the front by a local notification, for example, you'll also get an event about that.
Assuming there is no restart of the phone, point 2 is true even if there are hours between me tapping home and then tapping back the app icon.
Not necessarily. The app might well be terminated silently in the background.
Does it also persist device restarts but not force-restart?
Absolutely not. How can the app run when the device is off? Shutting down the app terminates every app.
I’m asking all of this because sometimes after putting the app in the background and tapping the app icon again (e.g. 10 minutes later), the app is going through it’s launch phase
It's not a matter of time. The watchdog process is constantly combing the suspended apps looking for the ones that take up too much memory so that other apps can run. You must not be surprised if yours is one of them.
You can come back to the front launching from scratch or by coming back to life from suspension; it's the most basic fact of iOS app life! You just need to accept it.
But there are lots of things you can do to reduce your chances of being terminated in the background. Giving up memory-consuming objects as you background is first on the list.
I'm new to programming and have been using this site for a while now but everything I've had to ask has been answered somewhere but I couldn't find an answer to this:
I am programming a game for the Apple AppStore using Xcode and test it on the iOS Simulator. When I "Build and Run the current Scheme" (the play button on Xcode), I can test out my game, and when I am done I can hit the "Stop the running scheme or application" (the stop button on Xcode), and of course it ends my game.
However, on the iOS Simulator, an icon for my game appears on the main screen along with apple programs such as "safari". When I click this, it enters my game and I can play it fine. However when I click the "Home button" or the "lock button" and re-enter my game, the game is continuing from where I left off; I want the game to end so when I re-enter my game it goes back to its original state.
I was wondering if anyone had a solution to this problem? Thank you in advance for your time and help!
When you hit the Home button on your device or simulator, you are simply "backgrounding" the app. That is, you are not quitting or killing the application, you are simply sending it to an 'idle' sort of state.
iOS will automatically kill/quit applications that are in the background if it needs memory, but what you are probably seeing is that you background your app (hit the Home button), and then you tap the game's icon to open it again. This will resume the game where it left off.
When you hit the square (stop) button in Xcode, you are killing/quitting your application. If you run your application from the simulator (not by hitting the play button in Xcode) and you want to quit the app entirely, hit the Home button twice or use the Command+Shift+H shortcut twice to show the app switcher, and then just drag your application's card up.
This will quit the app and make it launch from scratch when you tap the icon in the home screen again.
Return your game to the original state using this method in the AppDelegate.m:
- (void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
// Sent when the application is about to move from active to inactive state. This can occur for certain types of temporary interruptions (such as an incoming phone call or SMS message) or when the user quits the application and it begins the transition to the background state.
// Use this method to pause ongoing tasks, disable timers, and throttle down OpenGL ES frame rates. Games should use this method to pause the game.
}
Now when you hit the home button and start the app next time it will be in the state you left it (however you want this to be).
I have an iOS app that automatically prints a receipt to a thermal receipt printer when an order comes in and works great. However, if the app is in the background, it does not print. Is it possible to allow it to print while running in the background?
There are only a few occasions you are allowed to run certain tasks in the background. See the Apple documentation: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iphone/conceptual/iphoneosprogrammingguide/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007072-CH4-SW20
For example: playing audio, fetching the user location, sending notification or certain data from network in the background is allowed. Running your own logic during a background service is, as far as I understood, not allowed (like running it one hour after your app is gone to sleep/background mode).
The only thing that is perhaps an option, is to utilize the time your app has to finish an task after the home button is pressed. There is a timelimit however of 10 or 15 minutes.
I don't know if this is suitable for your situation?
See this stackoverflow question: iOS application executing tasks in background
And this particular piece of code to run the task in the background: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11809211/2740112
Another option is to use Guided Access, which is introduced since iOS6.
With it, you can prevent exiting the app. It's only usefull when using only the app on the device that needs to be used.
Information below from http://www.assistiveware.com/support/faq/page/136:
To turn on Guided Access, do the following:
Go to the Settings app on your device's home screen.
Tap General.
Tap Accessibility.
Under the Learning section (scroll down if necessary), tap Guided Access.
Toggle Guided Access to ON.
Tap Set Passcode and enter a four digit passcode. You will be prompted to enter it again.
(Optional) Toggle Enable Screen Sleep to ON if you want to be able to put your device to sleep with the Power button, otherwise the Power button will be disabled.
To start Guided Access for an app and prevent it from being exited, do the following:
Open the app that you want to lock in.
Quickly press your device's Home button three times to bring up the Guided Access menu.
Tap the Start button in the top right corner of the screen to activate Guided Access. A message stating "Guided Access Started" will briefly appear.
To end Guided Access for an app so it can be exited, do the following:
Quickly press your device's Home button three times to bring up the Guided Access menu.
Enter your four digit passcode when prompted.
Tap the End button in the top left corner of the screen to end Guided Access. A message stating "Guided Access Ended" will briefly appear.
Here's the knowledgebase article of Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5509
Very difficult issue to figure out...this only happens on a real device not plugged in. When my app loads up to the main view, i show a wait dialog while a few background threads fire off and search for products. this takes about 5-7 seconds. If I load the app and about 1-3 seconds in, i close the app and go to another app, then come back to my app, the screen dims around the edges and the app just freezes.
I did a few google searches for this screen dimming and couldn't find anything
The app never crashes.
How is it possible to wake the application from code?
I am writing a simple timer and when time goes out it displays picture on main activity. But this means that application should stay on screen all the time. If user switches to another app (or simply presses Home) my Activity is no longer visible and I need to show it on screen again (switch back to my application) in the way similar to standard Android Phone or Timer pops up.
So there actually are 2 questions:
How to get application on "top" of screen?
How to correctly display application when screen is locked?
For that you would need a service that starts your activity when that timer triggers.
You can take a look at the Android Alarm Clock source code for how to have an Activity Shown even on the lock screen: https://github.com/android/platform_packages_apps_alarmclock/blob/master/src/com/android/alarmclock/AlarmAlertFullScreen.java
Note especially lines 85 to 90, here flags are added so that it is allowed to be shown on the Lock Screen. This should of course work with Mono for Android as well.
There is also a nice answer here to your questions: Wake Android Device up
It should be fairly easy to port to Mono for Android.