I'm looking for a way to send local notifications on the user device (with a pop-up) from my app running in background (with the location background execution mode which allow to keep running always).
In fact, this app have to check battery level and send local notifications when a certain level is reached.
I have some questions about it that I didn't found answers on the net because of the specificity of this app :
Where can I put my battery level checking method ? I know that the app can keep running with background execution mode but I don't know where to put the test and if I have to do an "if" statement or a notification center observer ?
I tried to put an "if" statement in the location update method (wrong place I guess), and when the app is in background and the battery level reached the level I'm wanting for, there is a notification displayed in the notification center, but there isn't pop-up displayed on the top of the screen, so the user have to go manually in the notification center to see it.
I hope to be understandable, thanks for your futur answers and have a nice day.
Related
Got 2 questions for the xcode experts :
- I would like to send a (repeating) local notification only to the locked screen but without having the screen turning on, it is possible ?
- I also would like to check whether the screen is on or off (for this very purpose) : is there any way with the current IOS version (IOS 7) ?
Many thanks for any help !
No this is not possible, frits it will be very hard to get you app running in background without misusing one of the background modes.
You cannot detect if the devices is locked and you will flood the notification center with messages.
If you do manage to get it working then there is good chance that Appel will reject your app for doing this.
You can check the screen by checking the applicationState property, which will be set to UIApplicationStateInactive when the phone is set to lock/sleep (as opposed to UIApplicationStateBackground).
As for the notification, you can set a push notification delegate (I've not done it from scratch, but I did it using Urban Airship and creating my own custom push handler class) and handle whether to post an alert or not there. I'm not sure, though, whether having the phone sleep will kick notifications to the OS level, which would default to showing a notification on the screen.
I am creating an alarm clock app that requires some user action within the app in order to turn the alarm off. Below is a picture of what another app, Sleep Cycle, does when you turn an alarm on and press the home screen (i.e. background the app).
Here is an image link (I can't post an image yet, no rep despite my many attempts to answer people's questions today) for the effect I want to re-create.
Those that have used iPhone's Personal Hotspot and connected a device will notice that it is the same effect, where a notification appears at the top of the UI - pushing everything down by around 20-40 points. This is highly desirable to an alarm clock app as it encourages the user to keep the app in the foreground so that the app can easily be entered when waking up (instead of relying on the 30 second sound window allowed by local notifications)
Does anyone have any ideas on how to implement this functionality. I assume that it must go somewhere in the:
- (void)applicationDidEnterBackground:(UIApplication *)application
tag within the AppDelegate, but I'm not sure what exactly I need to be reading up on. So if anyone has a link to some relevant Developer Docs that would also be extremely helpful.
Many thanks for your help,
Ryan
There are a handful of built in 'background modes' that change the status bar's appearance depending on what functionality an app provides whilst it's in the background. The one you've identified (a red status bar) is triggered when an app records audio whilst in the background. I presume Sleep Cycle must be acting as though it records audio just for this purpose. Other background modes include VoIP (which I think uses a blue status bar). Check out Apple's documentation on supporting these various background modes
In your case, you'd want to add audio to the UIBackgroundModes property in your Info.plist file.
But note that it wouldn't be unreasonable for Apple to reject an app during review if it pretends to perform one of these background tasks but doesn't. For example, there have been apps in the past that tried playing a silent audio clip continuously in order to stay awake in the background - needless to say Apple got wise to this and the app in question had to change its behaviour.
I am working on a app which need to check time after every minute when the app is in the background. I want to match current time with specific time, and if time matches then the app should show an alert (when app is in background).
You set a Local Notification and even the App is dead after going to background, the local notification will pop up. As in your example it will tell the user "Time to take your medicament" and if the user choose the "View Details" button, your app will be fired from the iOS
Another method how can you do this is to trick the ios (Apple :-) )
Apple allows you to stay in background without beeing killed if you do some specific tasks, such as Location
So what you can do is
in the info.plist add "Required background modes" and value Location
Info here http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/general/Reference/InfoPlistKeyReference/Articles/iPhoneOSKeys.html
Than Set up a CLLocationManager for scanning the location and obey the Apples advice and make it not very accurate (battery life saving)
Setup a timer and in the timer routine check the location (that saves the apps life) and than do whatever you want to do ...
This should also work.
First of all I hope don't repeat any topic, I have spent a lot of time reading on internet about this before ask.
I'm developing an app for iOS => 5 and I need get the user location, but I don't need always a great accurate position, so when the app goes to background I change the normal location mode to Significant Location Changes and when the app come to foreground I stop the significant location change mode and get back the normal location mode, that's all goes fine,
my problem is when the app goes to background mode or even the user KILL the app the GPS signal (the purple arrow) still appear ALWAYS, even after restart the device, the only way to make disappear it is un-installing the or disabling the significant location changes when the app goes to background, but I need this mode working when the user goes to background mode, maybe not when the app is killed.
I don't know how to stop the service when the user kill the app... because event "applicationWillTerminate" is not called if you have multitask ON.
My main reason because I don't want the purple arrow appear always, even the app is killed is because I don't want the user think the app is drying the battery... so the user won't want the app installed.
First question: Is normal that the purple arrow appear always, even the app is killed if the Significant location change is enabled for the app?
Second question: Is any way to change this, to stop the service at least when the app is killed to hide the purple arrow?
Thank you all.
Sorry for my english if something is wrong.
After few days researching to be sure about this service, seems like there is NO way to use significant locations change in the background without the arrow in the top bar. I have been testing with different apps and reading through internet and nothing to solve this.
The only ""way to solve"" this is disable multitask mode in the app and disable the significant locations change in the event "applicationWillTerminate" but don't make sense... I'm losing the background location always not only when the app is killed... so is not useful.
It's bad... is a really good service to get locations saving battery but as user and developer I don't want an app that make appear this icon ALWAYS even after the app is killed, as developer I don't want that people uninstall the app for this reason and as normal user I don't know what mean this icon if is normal GPS or Significant locations change and what mean this... if my battery is being drain or not.
The other option to get locations in background task but has a big impact over the battery....
I hope apple fix this in future versions... adding at least a new arrow or showing only when a new location arrive instad of always or allowing to stooped when the app is killed.
All this has been researched over iOS - 6.1
Thanks to all.
When you use the significant location change service, the OS keeps your app running. If the app is in the background and is killed, the OS restarts it, so the purple arrow will always show. When a new location is detected, the app is restarted. From the docs:
If you leave this service running and your app is subsequently suspended or terminated, the service automatically wakes up your app when new location data arrives. At wake-up time, your app is put into the background and given a small amount of time to process the location data. ... To stop the significant change location service, call the stopMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges method.
Hmmm, interesting. I've just seen that problem with another app - seeing the arrow still active made me want to disable location updates for that app so the problem is real. Best thing I can think of is to have some kind of timer to disable the location monitoring after a certain amount of time if that is appropriate for your app.
Can someone tell me a scenario when an iOS application directly enters the background state?.
Here I have quoted the lines from iOS Application Programming Document in multitasking section.
If your app is launched into the background instead—usually to handle
some type of background event—the launch cycle changes slightly to the
one shown in Figure 3-3. The main difference is that instead of your
app being made active, it enters the background state to handle the
event and then is suspended shortly afterward.
Added ...
In the iOS Application Programming Document if you see the figure 3.3 titled Launching an app into the background, the flow is like this User taps app icon -> main() -> UIApplicationMain() -> Enter background. Is there any chance when the app directly enters background when an user taps app icon. I interpreted the image like this. Is it correct?
Thanks.
One scenario for a background launch (App X)
X registered for location background mode in its Info.plist
X is run by the user, and registers for significant location changes while running
The user switches to another app Y, so X goes to background and is then suspended (it will be returned to background mode whenever there is a significant location change to handle, and then be suspended again)
The app Y eats lots of memory, so suspended applications (including X) get kicked out of memory
a significant location change comes in. Now X is launched into background.
Scenario
Lets say you had registered your application for Local/Push notification. Then your application will launch in background run some code which have written inside your applicationDidEnterBackgroud: delegate method and then it terminates immediately.
Check listing 2
Apple documentation
EDIT:
Applications might also find local notifications useful when they run
in the background and some message, data, or other item arrives that
might be of interest to the user. In this case, they should present
the notification immediately using the UIApplication method
presentLocalNotificationNow: (iOS gives an application a limited time
to run in the background). Listing 2-2 illustrates how you might do
this.