How to periodically wake and check status in iOS? - ios

I want my app to periodically wake and check a status, but burn minimal cycles between wake ups. Is the a Core call for this or an accepted design pattern?

Prior to ios7, apps could only ask for execution cycles in background for a handful of purposes (e.g. playing sound or getting location updates). While they added more options in ios7, like periodically fetching data from a server, I'm still not clear there is a way to do this. (It's also a bit difficult for me to imagine why your app cares about battery if it isn't running, but maybe that is my failure of imagination.) Recommend reading Background Execution and Multitasking in the AppleDocs.

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Execute a Task after specific time, even if app is in background on iOS using Swift

I have a VPN-Client app that asks the user to pause the connection for 5, 30, and 120 Minutes. The user probably leaves the application to do some work outside of my app in this period, therefore I need to Reconnect the app even if is in the background.
I tested these ways:
UIApplication.shared.beginBackgroundTask: It only leaves the app unsuspended for 30 seconds.
DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).asyncAfter: It waits to app enter the foreground to toggle.
Thread.sleep in Background Thread: This waits to launch as DispatchQueue
Local Notification: Unfortunately it does not support silent mode as APNS.
My problem with possible ways:
Using APNS and Scheduled Push Notification` to send a silent message: This way probably works, but I prefer to handle it without a server.
Using Background Fetch from Capabilities in Background Modes: I searched a lot about this, and I think it was used for background app refresh and cycling tasks that should be run every day, hour, etc. Therefore, my case can't be used, or it's not efficient at all.
Using Background processing from Capabilities in Background Modes: I searched a lot about this too, I didn't quite catch that it can be used once, or this should be used in a cyclic way as Background Fetch. and my task to reconnect is not that heavy and long to use this strict feature that many times apple mentioned using alternative ways if possible.
Apple only allows a very limited set of app types to run in the background:
Music streaming apps, turn-by-turn navigation apps, VoIP apps, and maybe one or 2 more. (I haven't looked at this in detail for a couple of years so my info is a little stale.)
They do support various tasks like background downloading that the system performs on your app's behalf, but you want your app to re-launch after the designated period and start running again. (Even if the user just locks their phone while your app is paused, the app won't get any CPU time and may be terminated without warning.)
In short, I suspect you are out of luck.
It seems like a VPN app is another class of app that should get "always running in the background" status.
If you are a licensed Apple developer I suggest using one of your pre-paid support tickets to ask about OS support for what you are trying to do, but I have a feeling the answer is going to be "no dice."

Doing background process even if app is terminated

I want to check the time even if the app is terminated. I have read about Background modes but I don't quite understand it. Can someone give me steps?
Apple has restrictions in place for the use of background operations in an effort to improve user experience and extend battery life. Your app is only allowed to keep running in the background in very specific cases. For example, these include playing audio, getting location updates, or fetching the latest content from a server.
If your task does not fall into these categories backgrounding may not be for you. You may even find yourself with an App Store rejection if you try to cheat the system by using background modes outside the realm of their purposes, so consider yourself warned!
More Info:
https://github.com/NativeScript/sample-ios-background-execution
https://www.raywenderlich.com/143128/background-modes-tutorial-getting-started

Keep an app active in the background?

I have a volume control app in the iOS store, but one problem that my users have frequently is that the device kicks it for memory control. Is there any way to either force it to stay active (by permission) or to at least alert the user when its no longer active or in danger?
All the answers are under Background Execution in the iOS Developer Library.
Of course, here's the philosophy:
Always try to avoid doing any background work unless doing so improves
the overall user experience.
See Table 3-1 for the types of background execution. There's a category for audio but it requires audio to be played from the app. It does not sound like your app fits in here. So you'll want to look at notifying the user.
You could send a notification to the user when the app falls to background with applicationDidEnterBackground(), or just before it quits with applicationWillTerminate(), supposedly time-permitting.
Running in the background is permitted. I have an app that does it and while the rules have changed and adapting to it has been gut wrenching at times, it is pretty straightforward. In your case, I would think that you could setup to be notified and then just disappear, no? waking from a notification is part of the state changing protocol and you should be able to do that.
As a point of comparison, in Android, background operations like yours would be implemented as services and would have no fear of being terminated. The strangest thing about the way ios chooses to allow background activity is that you are applying for status one time. In Android, I was able to indicate that a single activity should be kept alive when the app is backgrounded, all others could be terminated. There is no way to do that in ios.
I take it my disappear and wait for notifications is probably not going to work for you because there is no way to be notified of volume changes. You must be polling? In which case, you probably are going to have to ask to be kept alive. Would be nice if you could just piggyback on other services, e.g. keep me alive while music is playing.
To answer your other question, yes you will get notified if/when you really are going to get termed, so you could send a notification at that point.

Background fetch alternatives

I want to my app do some computations and then communicate with external server via HTTP. I would like to perform this operations both in foreground and background. It seems that Background fetch mode is best choice for me but I have some concerns related with this. What is the minimal time interval between fetches? I read somewhere this is 10 min, is that true? I read also that when user force quit fetches are no longer invoked. Is there any walk around to this? Finally, is there any alternative to background fetch? I saw there is Newsstand mode what looks promising. Can I use it for my purposes?
If you use background fetch or another background mode and don't really use it for the intended use, iOS will detect that an kill your app. (the most promising mode for that would be VOIP, but this would't make it into the App Store, as it's a cheat either)
You can start a background task, when your app enters background, what gives you 3 minutes time (iOS 7 and above).
As I did it before, you can schedule a local notification and use it to remind the user, that he should bring the app back into the foreground for more calculations, if he likes.

swift/ios refreshing app data when in background

I'm writing a iOS/Swift application which reads data from a REST service each X minutes and updates the UI accordingly.
Now I would like that when the app is put in the background, a task keeps being invoked at X minutes intervals reading from the REST service and, in case the data just read satisfies a given condition, show a notification prompting the user to bring the app back to the foreground.
In my searches I've read that during applicationDidEnterBackground event, I should start a task with beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler.
The problem is that, if I've understood correctly, this allows a maximum of 10/15 minutes after which the app is terminated if the task is not stopped with endBackgroundUpdateTask, while I want the task to keep polling the service indefinitely (at least until the user disable it from the app's settings)
My question is:
How is this kind of functionality performed normally? Do some common solutions or best practices exist for the solution of such a problem?
Use iOS Background Fetch feature where you can specify minimum background fetch interval. But actual interval between successive invocation of your code will be determined by iOS framework. For details checkout this link: http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/ios-7-sdk-working-with-background-fetch--mobile-20520
I use this approach in my app and I think it is a preferred way of doing.
You can use a local notification that can be presented from the background in case your condition is met.
Correct, iOS will eventually shut down the background process, you can't enforce continuous background activity. Use the backgroundTimeRemaining property to check how much time your application has left and try to handle it as gracefully as possible by calling endBackgroundTask so that iOS does not force kill your app.
As a solution, you could think about using remote notifications with with content-available : YES, which runs the didReceiveRemoteNotification
Have a look at the Parse.com Their local datastore is an abstraction for what you are trying to acheive.
By the way, is it really necessary to refresh in the background. If call is relatively quick, there is no need to refresh until the user open's the app. Background processes like that, using the net can be quite battery consuming when the user are not on a Wifi. So consider the use case carefully!

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