I have a problem guys.I have requirement where my app should detect if the device is idle without any application running or without any user interaction from my application or at-least to know if the device is in home screen.What i am asking may be stupid but this is my requirement.Is there a way to achieve this. Help me
OK, enterprise apps are different. I think this can be done.
Have your app record whenever it's launched by the user (the app delegate receives events when the app enters/exits the foreground).
Then setup a "local push notification" several times a day that launches your app in the background and checks the log to see if the last entry is a "did leave".
If it is, then load up the URL to your itms services URL to install the new version of the app.
Related
As of the new 3D Touch capabilities with the new iPhone 6s/6s+, I'm trying to add some home screen quick actions to my app.
I was able to implement the normal flow of force touching the app's icon in the home screen -> choose one of the quick actions available -> taking care of it properly in all possible app states.
My question is: Is it possible to create a silent action among the available quick actions? By silent I mean that a certain action will take place, yet the app won't complete its launch? Or alternatively launch but won't be in foreground?
UPDATE
I'll elaborate on what I'm trying to achieve - I want to have similar behaviour to the one HealthKit offer with its background delivery - where upon a change in the store, HealthKit wakes my app and give me a chance to do something in the background (with HealthKit example - query for the new data in the store).
After reading much of Apple's documentation on the topic I have the feeling it is not possible with the current API available - but I hope someone will surprise me...
Nope. The user invoking a home screen Quick Action always activates the app.
If your app was already running and is suspended, it comes to the foreground and your app delegate gets the application:performActionForShortcutItem:completionHandler: message. If your app has not been running (i.e. has not been run since install, or was previously backgrounded/suspended but later purged from memory), it launches and your app delegate gets the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: message and then the application:performActionForShortcutItem:completionHandler: message. (So, your did/willFinishLaunching handler needs to check the options dictionary for the possibility of launch via quick action.)
Either way, your app comes to the foreground.
First of all i need to describe what i am going to do: when user launch my application the app start collecting statistics about the user activities and behavior, once the the user close the app (app enter background) the application upload all statistics to server.
the problem if the user presses home button twice and removes application from multitasking screen. then the application may not succeed to send statistics to server. because it will be terminated.
my solutions:
enable Background fetch , in background modes. but I don't think that will help because according to apple: the system does not relaunch apps after they are force quit by the user
using Executing Finite-Length Tasks , i tried it , it won't send the data if user remove the app from multitasking screen.
using NSURLSession to Downloading Content in the Background, but according to apple If the user terminates your app, the system cancels any pending tasks.
so all above solutions will not work if user terminate the application, any solution ?
I noticed that if i terminate the appstore app (remove it from multitasking screen ) while there is an application being downloaded , the application will continue downloading normally. is this just for appstore app ?
If the user terminates an app, the app terminates. There is nothing you can do about this. iOS devices are meant to be controllable by the user.
Depending on what you are trying to achieve, you might add all the statistics to a queue on disk, and empty that queue only after the app has successfully uploaded the data to the server.
If the user doesn't force-quit, this will work at once, in just the way you want.
If the user does force-quit, the data will not be uploaded and the queue will still be present on disk. When the app is started, it can check the queue and upload it immediately.
You ought to be doing something like this in any case, to deal with cases like the user going underground for an hour, or taking a long-distance flight.
I suspect that the App Store app does not install apps, but tells a system process to install them.
As of the new 3D Touch capabilities with the new iPhone 6s/6s+, I'm trying to add some home screen quick actions to my app.
I was able to implement the normal flow of force touching the app's icon in the home screen -> choose one of the quick actions available -> taking care of it properly in all possible app states.
My question is: Is it possible to create a silent action among the available quick actions? By silent I mean that a certain action will take place, yet the app won't complete its launch? Or alternatively launch but won't be in foreground?
UPDATE
I'll elaborate on what I'm trying to achieve - I want to have similar behaviour to the one HealthKit offer with its background delivery - where upon a change in the store, HealthKit wakes my app and give me a chance to do something in the background (with HealthKit example - query for the new data in the store).
After reading much of Apple's documentation on the topic I have the feeling it is not possible with the current API available - but I hope someone will surprise me...
Nope. The user invoking a home screen Quick Action always activates the app.
If your app was already running and is suspended, it comes to the foreground and your app delegate gets the application:performActionForShortcutItem:completionHandler: message. If your app has not been running (i.e. has not been run since install, or was previously backgrounded/suspended but later purged from memory), it launches and your app delegate gets the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: message and then the application:performActionForShortcutItem:completionHandler: message. (So, your did/willFinishLaunching handler needs to check the options dictionary for the possibility of launch via quick action.)
Either way, your app comes to the foreground.
We have a customer who wants us to have our iOS app check for new data posted every night and download it if it is available. As far as I can tell this is only possible if the app is already open or if they have someone physically accept a notification or initiate the process themselves.
Is this correct? I can't imagine Apple wanting to allow launching of an app and downloading data with no user interaction at all.
Yes, generally you can only download data at exactly specified times if the app is actually running in the foreground, that is correct. It wouldn't matter if the app was open already or the user opened it from a notification, the point is that user interaction is required. So, the client can't have exactly what they want.
Look at background downloading (fetch) from iOS7+ where you can register the app to perform background downloading in advance of usage. iOS is fully in control of this and it may choose to run the app and it may not. iOS will monitor when your app is usually used by a particular user and, if appropriate, it will allow the app to run in the background to do some downloading before the user is expected to use the app.
In particular you're looking at setMinimumBackgroundFetchInterval: and setting the UIBackgroundModes key with to fetch in the Info.plist.
As an aside, here's an idea based on your expanded information:
Use idleTimerDisabled to prevent the app from sleeping during main usage and keep a track of the time
After the main usage period of the app is over, start your downloads
After the downloads are done allow the screen to sleep
On the next day, if a user opens the app, repeat
It isn't perfect, but it's an approximation
I am creating a private distribution app and I am wondering if it is possible, using any methods or private API's, to open my app when a bluetooth connection has been made.
What I have discovered so far is that with iOS 7 and the ability to use iBeacons you can enter into bluetooth proximity and you can have your app send a notification to allow the user to then open the app.
What I am hoping to do then is have the app running in the background and listen for an iBeacon connection and, if one has been made, actually launch the app without the users control instead of just sending a notification.
I realize this would never be allowed publically, however is there anything private I can look at to achieve this without jailbreaking? I know to launch some apps you can do [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:url]]; however I want my app to listen for an iBeacon and then open itself up.
Is there any way or work around to achieve this?
Moving app from background to foreground without user interaction is pain in the ass. Sorry, don't have a solution, just want to share some information:
I asked the same question here and posted a bounty on it and got no good response:
Show some UI from background in audio player or VOIP app on iOS
At some moment I found a solution with the help of another person. It was based on usage of GSEvent (sending clicks to UI). You can look following questions. However, as I know, in iOS 7 these API became protected by entitlement. So, this method is dead (most likely).
Using GraphicsServices.h/GSEvent as well as compiling CLI iPhone tools with Xcode
Use GSEvent to send touch event,but it's invalid.
Simulating System Wide Touch Events on iOS
iPhone, how to fire a button event in programmatically
Apps can use region monitoring to be notified when the user crosses geographic boundaries or when the user enters or exits the vicinity of a beacon. While a beacon is in range of the user’s device, apps can also monitor for the relative distance to the beacon.
In iOS, regions associated with your app are tracked at all times, including when your app is not running. If a region boundary is crossed while an app is not running, that app is relaunched into the background to handle the event. Similarly, if the app is suspended when the event occurs, it is woken up and given a short amount of time (around 10 seconds) to handle the event. When necessary, an app can request more background execution time.
For detailed info:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/LocationAwarenessPG/RegionMonitoring/RegionMonitoring.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009497-CH9-SW1
There are two scenarios: you either want users to be able to do something with your device other then use your app, or you want them to always be locked into your app.
In the former case you should trust user. Just show the push, timer or location notification and let them decide to launch the app or not.
In the latter case just lock the device using guided access mode.