Usage of UrbanAirship's handleBackgroundNotification - ios

Question

I am trying to develop an iOS app using UrbanAirship. I receive push
notifications but cannot get any delegate to be called when the app is in
the background. I (wrongfully it seems) assumed that the
handleBackgroundNotification API from the UAPushNotificationDelegate
class would provide me the functionality to execute custom actions when
receiving the notification when app is in the background.
This is what their documentation says:
"handleBackgroundNotification:
Called when a push notification is received when the application is in the background
- (void)handleBackgroundNotification:(NSDictionary *)notification
Parameters
notification
the push notification
"
- see https://docs.urbanairship.com/ios-lib/Classes/UAPushNotificationHandler.html#//api/name/handleBackgroundNotification:
Doesn't seem to work that way - sure seems the OS is keeping the notification
for itself - which is inline with Apple's documentation.
I am questioning the purpose of the function if the OS doesn't allow it. I use didReceiveRemoteNotification for receiving remote push notifications which works just fine!
However, since this is an enterprise application (i.e. not App Store),
if there are private APÏs and frameworks that would allow me to do this,
I would appreciate any assistance. There is no way this app would ever
make it to the app store!
The custom actions I am trying to execute include, for example, a
notification receipt sent to a server that would "prove" the recipient
app did indeed receive the notification, play a custom sound at maximum
volume (bypassing silence and do not disturb mode). These are some
requirements from the client.

Answer 1

This is what I use and its working just fine:
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo
{
if(!loggedIn) return;
NSLog(#"WOW: got notification! %#", userInfo);
// see this for fine tuning: http://fivelakesstudio.blogspot.com/2012/04/push-notifications-and-urban-airship.html
[[UAPush shared] handleNotification:userInfo applicationState:application.applicationState];
[[UAPush shared] resetBadge];
sharedApplication.applicationIconBadgeNumber = 0; // probably redundant
[self handlePushNotification:userInfo isBooting:NO]; // my common handler
}

Answer 2

-(void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo fetchCompletionHandler:(void (^)(UIBackgroundFetchResult))completionHandler {
UA_LINFO(#"Application received remote notification: %#", userInfo);
[[UAPush shared] appReceivedRemoteNotification:userInfo applicationState:application.applicationState fetchCompletionHandler:completionHandler];
NSDictionary *values = [userInfo objectForKey:#"aps"];
NSString *title = [values objectForKey:#"alert"];
}
process the notification received for all states in this block.
NB. you can monitor the application.applicationState value to note the state of the app when the notification is received.
Hope this helps