I have a icon badge number update requirement. The app tracks tasks. I want the app to have a badge displaying the number of tasks due on each day. There are basically two cases when the badge number needs to be updated:
Midnight every day.
If new tasks are added or tasks are removed.
I know how to handle the second case. I can set badge number in the applicationResignActive func. However, the midnight automatic update is trick for me. To update the badge number, I need to call a func of the app to count the tasks that due on the day. However, in midnight, the app may be in all possible situations: foreground, background and not running. How can I do this? Thank you.
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To be clearer with my requirement, I would like the badge number to be updated everyday correctly, even the user never opens the app for a whole day or for consecutive several days. Also, I would try to avoid server side support because the app is a standalone app so far. Much appreciated for any help.
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Final update: I accepted Vitaliy's answer. However, his answer requires the app to be opened at least once every day. Otherwise, the event won't fire and the badge number cannot be updated.
Also, in my case, every time the app enters background event fires, I have to remove the existing notification and schedule a new one, with the up-to-dated badge number recalculated.
I am still interested in some way to handle the case that the app is not opened every day, how can you make sure the badge number is correct. So far, the easiest way is to setup some server and let it push notifications to the app regularly.
You can achieve it with UILocalNotification:
When app goes to background, calculate exact badge count number for nearest midnight
Schedule UILocalNotification at the nearest midnight with your calculated badge count
You will get notification at midnight, and app's badge count will be updated
Example code:
- (void)applicationDidEnterBackground:(UIApplication *)application {
// Calculate nearest midnight or any other date, which you need
NSDate *nearestMidnight = [self nearestMidnight];
// Create and setup local notification
UILocalNotification *notification = [UILocalNotification new];
notification.alertTitle = #"Some title";
notification.alertBody = #"Some message";
notification.fireDate = nearestMidnight;
// Optional set repeat interval, if user didn't launch the app after nearest midnight
notification.repeatInterval = NSCalendarUnitDay;
// Calculate badge count and set it to notification
notification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = [self calculateBadgeCountForDate:nearestMidnight];
[application scheduleLocalNotification:notification];
}
Related
I'm working with local notification on iOS, but I'm having some problems when iOS tries to create the notifications. Some of them are created and some won't.
After reviewing my code a lot, I found that it was failing at the point where it was creating the local notification.
UIApplication.sharedApplication().scheduleLocalNotification(notification)
The only reason I could think of was that creating the notifications inside a loop, around 50-60 notifications, was too much for iOS to process. I'm doing it this way because all the notifications have a different time and different day, and belong to different things.
This is my block to create the local notifications:
let createdUid = self.generateNotificationUUID()
// create a corresponding local notification
let notification = UILocalNotification()
/* Time and timezone settings */
notification.fireDate = self.buildTime()
notification.repeatInterval = NSCalendarUnit.WeekOfYear
notification.timeZone = NSTimeZone.systemTimeZone()
/* Information settings */
notification.alertBody = "Sector \(notificationData["sector"]!): located at \(notificationData["name"]!) closes in 15 min."
notification.alertAction = "Open"
/* Badge settings */
notification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = UIApplication.sharedApplication().applicationIconBadgeNumber + 1
notification.soundName = "ring.caf"
notification.userInfo = ["UUID": createdUid, ]
/* Schedule the notification */
UIApplication.sharedApplication().scheduleLocalNotification(notification)
And all this code is inside a loop. The same loop before calling the notification creation, dynamically builds the notificationData array.
The notification data array contains the sector, the name, and the time and day.
Time and day is used to calculate the notification fire date.
Sector and Name are used for the alert body.
And all the four values are used to generate the UID (UUID).
If I put a print and remove the UIApplication.sharedApplication()... all the data looks good and what it needs to be.
I've tried, to solve the problem, using
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {...}
and
dispatch_sync(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {...}
But with async I received the same result that I had without it, and using sync my screen freezes.
I kind of lost with this, I'm sure that my issues are because iOS doesn't process in time all the notification creation, but I dunno how to fix it.
I hope someone can help me, I'm using XCode 7.3.1 and Swift 2.2
From the documentation: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iPhone/Reference/UILocalNotification_Class/
An app can have only a limited number of scheduled notifications; the
system keeps the soonest-firing 64 notifications (with automatically
rescheduled notifications counting as a single notification) and
discards the rest.
Main question: Should I be using local notifications, alarms, or reminders if I want attach due dates to tasks in my app? I want them to get a notification even if the app isn't running when the deadline arrives.
I found this tutorial on using UILocalNotification which it says can:
gives us the ability to cast notifications to a user without running the application
However, it was written six years ago and also states that this was introduced in iOS4. I know that a lot changes over 5 iOS versions.
I also read, alternatively, that I could use Event Kit. However, that seems more complicated than UILocalNotification.
Lastly, I could use probably take the current date/time and reminder date/time and create a timer to countdown.
So if I just want to attach due dates to tasks in my app (they don't need to show up in reminders or in the calendar), what's the best method and why?
I found following chunk of code here. This is also a good tutorial for how to create event in application.
var notification = UILocalNotification()
notification.alertBody = "Todo Item \"\(item.title)\" Is Overdue" // text that will be displayed in the notification
notification.alertAction = "open" // text that is displayed after "slide to..." on the lock screen - defaults to "slide to view"
notification.fireDate = item.deadline // todo item due date (when notification will be fired)
notification.soundName = UILocalNotificationDefaultSoundName // play default sound
notification.userInfo = ["UUID": item.UUID, ] // assign a unique identifier to the notification so that we can retrieve it later
notification.category = "TODO_CATEGORY"
UIApplication.sharedApplication().scheduleLocalNotification(notification)
I'm trying to develop am iPhone application doing the following tasks:
user stores his movies time and date in plist .
before the movie starts, e.g. 30 minutes before start, the application will give him notification
Now I'm asking for two points:
there is only date field on plist how we can store full time and date at once
how we can keep application compare the current time with movies time on plist even in background
if possible tell me with small example . ( to keep application comparing in background )
example :
Movies.plist
- id
- movie_name
- showing_time
if i have record
id : 1
movie_name: Games B 2
showing_time : 2014-05-22 2:00AM
today is 21-5
i want the application send notification at : tomorrow at 1:00 AM
there is no problem with notification code i know it's like this
UILocalNotification *localNotification = [[UILocalNotification alloc] init];
localNotification.fireDate = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:2];
localNotification.alertBody = msg;
localNotification.timeZone = [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone];
localNotification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] applicationIconBadgeNumber] + 1;
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduleLocalNotification:localNotification];
the problem is how the application will send the notification in the specific time and date
for your information this things is not only for one record in plist , maybe the user will store 10 movies in different days and time .
another example :
**if i open the application and i go to Save New movies i enter 3 different movies name and showing time
and i click save
all the details will saved in Movies.Plist
and i closed the application . now the application should give me local notification before any of Plist Movies start .
this is whole idea .**
NSDates store the date and the time. For example, the current date and time could be represented as: 2014-05-21 17:19:13 +0000.
As for the background process, it'll be unnecessary. When the user sets the movie time, schedule a notification for 30 minutes before the set time. There won't be any ongoing comparison, the notification will fire when the correct time is hit..
You don't need to store something nor to do some background checks, if you want notify user in specific time - just use UILocalNotification, here's the link to Apple documentation on local notifications UILocalNotification
My app schedules UILocalNotifications to be delivered to its users at varying times of the user's choice.
I'm running into a situation with how to manage the applicationIconBadgeNumber in this scenario.
As we know, you have to set the badge number at the time you create the notification. My problem is that the state of the number of badges can change at any time. Consider this scenario:
1) User gets 3 notifications.
2) User creates a new notification to alert her at a given point of time in the future. This notification carries the value of 1 plus the current value of the application badge (3).
3) User goes about their business. In the process of their business, they clear all 3 notifications (and, thus, badge numbers) they currently have by viewing them or otherwise using the app.
4) After the given amount of time passes, the notification appears in iOS, along with its previously calculated value (4, if you don't remember).
5) The application badge is now, 4 even though the user only has one actual notification.
I have searched up and down, but I cannot find an answer to this question which almost certainly has a simple answer I'm completely missing. How do I solve this quandary?
Since your app cannot look in the future, and know which events you'll handle immediately, and which ones you'll leave 'pending' for a while, there's some trick to do :
When notifications are handled by your app (by tapping on the notification(s), icon, ...), you have to :
get a copy of all pending notifications
'renumber' the badge number of these pending notifications
delete all pending notifications
re-register the copy of the notifications with their corrected badge
numbers again
Also, when your app registers a new notification, it has to check how many notifications are pending first, and register the new notification with with :
badgeNbr = nbrOfPendingNotifications + 1;
Looking at my code, it will get clearer. I tested this, and it's definitely working :
In your 'registerLocalNotification' method you should do this :
NSUInteger nextBadgeNumber = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduledLocalNotifications] count] + 1;
localNotification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = nextBadgeNumber;
When you handle the notification (appDelegate), you should call the method below, which clears the badge on the icon and renumbers the badges for pending notifications (if there are any)
Note that the next code works fine for 'sequential' registered events. If you would 'add' events in between pending ones, you'll have to 're-sort' these events first. I didn't go that far, but I think it's possible.
- (void)renumberBadgesOfPendingNotifications
{
// clear the badge on the icon
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber:0];
// first get a copy of all pending notifications (unfortunately you cannot 'modify' a pending notification)
NSArray *pendingNotifications = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduledLocalNotifications];
// if there are any pending notifications -> adjust their badge number
if (pendingNotifications.count != 0)
{
// clear all pending notifications
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] cancelAllLocalNotifications];
// the for loop will 'restore' the pending notifications, but with corrected badge numbers
// note : a more advanced method could 'sort' the notifications first !!!
NSUInteger badgeNbr = 1;
for (UILocalNotification *notification in pendingNotifications)
{
// modify the badgeNumber
notification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = badgeNbr++;
// schedule 'again'
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduleLocalNotification:notification];
}
}
}
Credits to #Whassaahh
I have a set of UILocalNotifications that I am scheduling. They are firing on time and seem to be working fine. However, on occasion, when a NEW notification fires there are multiple (sometimes only one) OLD notifications that fire along with it.
For example, I schedule a UILocalNotification to take out the trash on Monday at 5pm with no repeat interval. It fires no problem and on time. On Tuesday, I have a UILocalNotification to bring in the trash bins for Tuesday at 5pm, again with no repeat interval. When that one fires, I will see the correct notification for NOW, but also below the current notification will be another notification to take the trash out 1 Day Ago. I have not rescheduled this notification. It appears to be the notification from yesterday.
It is very bizarre and I cannot reproduce it on any sort of consistent basis. I thought that maybe there were some old notifications being added somehow so I added some logic to run through all scheduled notifications and remove any that had a fire date that was in the past but that did not help. Anyone else ever see this problem? Is there some manual clearing of a notification that I need to do when one fires?
EDIT: Added some of the scheduling code
//only schedule if the alert date is later than now
if ([AMDateUtil isNowEarlierThanDate:alertDate]) {
//create the notification and setup some properties
UILocalNotification *localNotification = [[UILocalNotification alloc] init];
localNotification.fireDate = alertDate;
localNotification.timeZone = [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone];
localNotification.alertAction = nil;
localNotification.soundName = UILocalNotificationDefaultSoundName;
//add the local notification
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduleLocalNotification:localNotification];
}
We had the same issue, but managed to fix it by batching our calls to the API. Instead of calling scheduleLocalNotification each time, instead build an array of all notifications you want to be scheduled. Like this:
NSMutableArray *notifications = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduledLocalNotifications] mutableCopy];
// add notifications to the mutable array
// same goes for removing notifications
[[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setScheduledLocalNotifications:notifications];
Also make sure you are calling it from the main thread.
Our problems seem to have gone away after doing this.
The first thing that I can think of is to check the repeatInterval of your notifications. It seems that you may want your repeatInterval to be weekly, but the interval seems to be set to daily. To set the repeatInterval to weekly use:
localNotification.repeatInterval = NSWeekCalendarUnit;
Perhaps in some places you may be accidentally using
localNotification.repeatInterval = NSWeekdayCalendarUnit;
which repeats once a day.
If that is not the issue, then perhaps if you post some of your code where you schedule the notifications someone could help you. If a notification has a repeat interval of 0 (or not repeating) then you should not have to manually clear it. If the repeat interval is not 0 then you will have to manually clear it to get it to stop repeating.