I have noticed that when a local notification is being received in an ios device, the notification appears in the Notification Center but the app badge number is not updated when the app is closed.
I need to touch the notification in the Notification Center for the local push message to be transferred to the app.
Is this the normal behavior? Can this be solved by using remote push notifications?
You can utilize the applicationIconBadgeNumber parameter in a UILocalNotification object.
Basically:
localNotificationObject.applicationIconBadgeNumber++;
Example:
UILocalNotification *localNotification = [[UILocalNotification alloc] init];
localNotification.fireDate = [[NSDate date] dateByAddingTimeInterval:20];
localNotification.alertBody = #"Some Alert";
//the following line is important to set badge number
localNotification.applicationIconBadgeNumber++;
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduleLocalNotification:localNotification];
But the issue with this is that the badge number doesn't increment on subsequent (multiple) local notifications (there's a scenario here but for simplicity sake, lets just say the badge stays 1 even after 2 or more, back to back, local notifications).
In this case, Yes... Push Notification seems to be the way to go
(but be aware that Push Notifications aren't always reliable... check: link)
Well... to use Push Notifications for proper badge number updates, you should know that you can send a badge count in the Push Notification's payload.
When this push notification is received, the badge count is changed by iOS to the badge count specified in the Push Notification (& the app need not be open for this).
Example (continued):
Set applicationIconBadgeNumber to 0 as it helps in certain scenarios (optional)
- (void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application {
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber:0];
}
- (void)applicationWillTerminate:(UIApplication *)application {
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber:0];
}
Extra:
You can also manually set the badge number when you terminate/close or resign the application.
Generally... in any or all of the following methods:
-applicationWillResignActive
-applicationDidEnterBackground
-applicationWillTerminate (set badgeNumber when app closes)
Example:
- (void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application {
//Called when the application is about to move from active to inactive state.
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber:[[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduledLocalNotifications] count]];
//...
}
- (void)applicationWillTerminate:(UIApplication *)application {
// Called when the application is about to terminate.
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber:[[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduledLocalNotifications] count]];
//...
}
iPhone: Incrementing the application badge through a local notification
It is not possible to update dynamically the badge number with local notifications while your app is in the background. so You have to use push notifications. You can only increment badge while application is running in foreground and look for alternative solution you can go with here
iPhone: Incrementing the application badge through a local notification
I want to clear all push notifications of my application, once user selects one of the push notification.
I have seen other threads here which says it's not possible in iOS.
but I have one application downloaded from app store, which does the same thing.
If it is a local notification then to remove badge icon you have to do it like this
UILocalNotification *localNotification = [[UILocalNotification alloc] init];
localNotification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = 1;
If it is push notification the you can do it by code written below
[UIApplication sharedApplication].applicationIconBadgeNumber=0;
You may call these methods anywhere you want. For example if you want to clear notification at the moment when the app is launched then write it in
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
if your app doesn't use the badge number you have to first set, then reset it to remove it from notification centre.
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber:1];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber:0];
All you need to do is
application.applicationIconBadgeNumber = 0;
in
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions.
EDIT
If you are not closing your app but just sending it to background. Then add this in your below function as well.
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo
{
if ( application.applicationState == UIApplicationStateInactive || application.applicationState == UIApplicationStateBackground )
{
//opened from a push notification when the app was on background
application.applicationIconBadgeNumber = 0;
}
}
I would like to know, if it is possible to somehow "wake up" a task that is in the background, to quickly check something on the network.. I think that this could be done with UILocalNotification, however, no matter what I tried, I could not get the didReceiveLocalNotification to do ANYTHING when the app is in the background.. After starting up, I immediately close the app by pressing the Home button (there is a 10 second delay for local notification to fire). This code works PERFECTLY when the app is in the foreground, and just kind of sitting there...
In app delegate header file:
UILocalNotification *localNotif;
For testing, I set up local notification to fire quickly in the appDelegate startup.
localNotif = [[UILocalNotification alloc] init];
localNotif.fireDate = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:10]; // the date you want the notification to fire.
localNotif.timeZone = [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduleLocalNotification:localNotif];
NSLog(#"setup the timer for 10 seconds");
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveLocalNotification:(UILocalNotification *)notification {
UIApplicationState state = [application applicationState];
NSLog(#"getting kicked");
if (state == UIApplicationStateInactive) {
// Application was in the background when notification was delivered.
NSLog(#"INACTIVE..");
} else {
NSLog(#"ACTIVE..");
}
}
The user has a couple of choices: #1) Do they want to see a notification for your app. #2) If notifications are enabled for your app, do they want to click on your notification to launch your app. If they do accept notifications and open your notification while your app is in the background, application:didReceiveLocalNotification is called. To be clear, the user has to accept the notification (such as sliding the slider underneath the notification)... otherwise NOTHING is called.
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveLocalNotification:(UILocalNotification *)notification {
NSLog(#"%#", notification);
}
If your app has been terminated application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: is called -
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)
application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:
(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
UILocalNotification *theNotification =
[launchOptions
objectForKey:UIApplicationLaunchOptionsLocalNotificationKey];
NSLog(#"%#", theNotification);
return YES;
}
Can I find out which event launching the application on iOS ?
I need to distinguish between the followings:
Icon tap
Banner notification
Alert notification
Alternatively, can I view the application local settings (set for Banner or alert notification)?
To determine if the app was launched from the using pressing a notification, you need to implement 2 methods.
First, in application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions, do something like:
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
if ([launchOptions valueForKey:#"UIApplicationLaunchOptionsRemoteNotificationKey"]) {
// Handle notification
}
Second:
-(void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo {
if (application.applicationState == UIApplicationStateActive) {
// The app was open when a remote notification was received...
} else {
// The app was in the background and just came to the foreground in response to the user pressing the push notification
}
}
You can view which notification types have been enabled using:
UIRemoteNotificationType notificationTypes = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] enabledRemoteNotificationTypes];
However, you can't distinguish between Banner or Alert notifications.
I've an iOS application where some Push Notification are sent to. My problem is, that the messages/notifications stays in the Notification Center in iOS after then are tapped. How can I remove a notification for my application in the Notification Center next time the application opens?
I came across posts where people are calling setApplicationIconBadgeNumber to a zero-value to clear the notifications. That's seems very weird to me, so I believe that maybe another solution exists?
EDIT1:
I'm having some problems clearing the notifications. Please see my code here:
- (void) clearNotifications {
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] cancelAllLocalNotifications];
}
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
if (launchOptions != nil)
{
NSDictionary* dictionary = [launchOptions objectForKey:UIApplicationLaunchOptionsRemoteNotificationKey];
if (dictionary != nil)
{
NSLog(#"Launched from push notification: %#", dictionary);
[self clearNotifications];
}
}
return YES;
}
- (void)application:(UIApplication*)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary*)userInfo
{
NSLog(#"Received notification: %#", userInfo);
[self clearNotifications];
}
I'm running the App through Xcode. When the App is minimized and I start the App using the notification in the Notification Center, I can see in the log, that the didReceiveRemoteNotification is called and using breakpoints I can see, that the clearNotifications has ran. But still the notification hangs in the Notification Center. Why?
Most likely because Notification Center is a relatively new feature, Apple didn't necessarily want to push a whole new paradigm for clearing notifications. So instead, they multi-purposed [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0]; to clear said notifications. It might seem a bit weird, and Apple might provide a more intuitive way to do this in the future, but for the time being it's the official way.
Myself, I use this snippet:
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] cancelAllLocalNotifications];
which never fails to clear all of the app's notifications from Notification Center.
Just to expand on pcperini's answer. As he mentions you will need to add the following code to your application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method;
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] cancelAllLocalNotifications];
You Also need to increment then decrement the badge in your application:didReceiveRemoteNotification: method if you are trying to clear the message from the message centre so that when a user enters you app from pressing a notification the message centre will also clear, ie;
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 1];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] cancelAllLocalNotifications];
It might also make sense to add a call to clearNotifications in applicationDidBecomeActive so that in case the application is in the background and comes back it will also clear the notifications.
- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
[self clearNotifications];
}
Update for iOS 10 (Swift 3)
In order to clear all local notifications in iOS 10 apps, you should use the following code:
import UserNotifications
...
if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
let center = UNUserNotificationCenter.current()
center.removeAllPendingNotificationRequests() // To remove all pending notifications which are not delivered yet but scheduled.
center.removeAllDeliveredNotifications() // To remove all delivered notifications
} else {
UIApplication.shared.cancelAllLocalNotifications()
}
This code handles the clearing of local notifications for iOS 10.x and all preceding versions of iOS. You will need to import UserNotifications for the iOS 10.x code.
If you have pending scheduled local notifications and don't want to use cancelAllLocalNotifications to clear old ones in Notification Center, you can also do the following:
[UIApplication sharedApplication].scheduledLocalNotifications = [UIApplication sharedApplication].scheduledLocalNotifications;
It appears that if you set the scheduledLocalNotifications it clears the old ones in Notification Center, and by setting it to itself, you retain the pending local notifications.
If you're coming here wondering the opposite (as I was), this post may be for you.
I couldn't figure out why my notifications were clearing when I cleared the badge...I manually increment the badge and then want to clear it when the user enters the app. That's no reason to clear out the notification center, though; they may still want to see or act on those notifications.
Negative 1 does the trick, luckily:
[UIApplication sharedApplication].applicationIconBadgeNumber = -1;
In Swift I'm using the following code inside my AppDelegate:
func applicationDidBecomeActive(application: UIApplication) {
application.applicationIconBadgeNumber = 0
application.cancelAllLocalNotifications()
}
Maybe in case there are scheduled alarms and uncleared app icon badges.
NSArray *scheduledLocalNotifications = [application scheduledLocalNotifications];
NSInteger applicationIconBadgeNumber = [application applicationIconBadgeNumber];
[application cancelAllLocalNotifications];
[application setApplicationIconBadgeNumber:0];
for (UILocalNotification* scheduledLocalNotification in scheduledLocalNotifications) {
[application scheduleLocalNotification:scheduledLocalNotification];
}
[application setApplicationIconBadgeNumber:applicationIconBadgeNumber];
When you have repeated notifications at future, you do not want to cancel those notifications, you can clear the item in notification center by:
func clearNotificationCenter() {
UIApplication.sharedApplication().applicationIconBadgeNumber = 1
UIApplication.sharedApplication().applicationIconBadgeNumber = 0
}
You cannot clear notification when your app is open in the foreground by calling the method below immediately after receiving local notification, otherwise you will receive tens of hundreds of notifications. Maybe because the same notification apply again, and now is the time to fire, so you keep fire, apply again, fire, apply....:
[UIApplication sharedApplication].scheduledLocalNotifications = [UIApplication sharedApplication].scheduledLocalNotifications;
When you logout from your app, at that time you have to use a below line of code on your logout button click method.
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] cancelAllLocalNotifications];
and this works perfectly in my app.
You need to add below code in your AppDelegate applicationDidBecomeActive method.
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0];
Got it from here. It works for iOS 9
UIApplication *app = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
NSArray *eventArray = [app scheduledLocalNotifications];
for (int i=0; i<[eventArray count]; i++)
{
UILocalNotification* oneEvent = [eventArray objectAtIndex:i];
//Cancelling local notification
[app cancelLocalNotification:oneEvent];
}