I'd like to create a flutter IOS app which stores data and allows to edit it within the iOS app.
Then the iOS app be able to provide a webserver [start an internal webserver e.g. using jaguar] and serve a WebApp, which operates on the same data on the iDevice.
Idea: Make the iDevice the only data store. And allow a e.g. windows client to access the data on the iOS device using a web interface [and not require it to push it into a cloud].
I have used Flutter jaguar to make it work, have you tried to run the example ?
I think what would be very challenging is that IOS kill background processes, so to use your IOS app as a (reliable) server in the background would be impossible (if reliability, and it should, is a concern), only audio streaming apps would not be killed. So it means you will have to run your server at all time in the foreground
And not to mention that if your phone is out of battery it would also stop working (but of course, you are aware of that, and that's true that if connect to charger, it could perfectly act as a server, as I have tested myself!).
NB: If it's for some serious project, not a fun personal project/challenge, I advise you to reconsider and what you could still do is to manage your server data from the IOS app (meaning that you would send data on on-premise or cloud server like Firebase). But as you stated in your question you are looking to make it work on the Iphone device.
Related
I am developing an app that should fetch an API periodically (every 15 or 30 minutes). I am using Flutter for the frontend development. The app should be available for both Android and iOS devices.
The background task includes a call to the backend. In the backend, a worker is determining certain data (this can take up to one minute) and sending it then back to the frontend. The task has to be (at least partially) initiated by the frontend, as an decryption key is passed to the backend.
I had the idea to use Firebase Cloud Messaging to push the requested data to the devices. Unfortunately, it seems to be necessary to have the Apple Development Program enrolled to use it. As the app is an university project, and I'm not even sure, if the FCM approach is the best one, I don't want to pay the 99€ for the enrollment.
Beside the FCM approach, I found some flutter packages like "background_fetch", to pull the data instead of pushing it, which wouldn't be a problem for me. But all packages I found have the problem, that they work differently on iOS and Android, and are also not very reliable in terms of background task management by the respective operating systems.
Is there any "simple" solution for this problem, like a flutter package allowing me to schedule periodic background tasks on both iOS and Android, which is mostly reliable in that the time periode is respected at least roughly and the background task is not killed while waiting for the response? Or will I have to implement an own server-side Push-Service to avoid the costs for the Apple Developer Program?
Thank you in advance!
Here is the use case:
the user launches the app and grants permission, the app connects to the server
at some point in the future, the server sends a request to the app
the app
regardless of whether it is running or not in the foreground or background, wakes up to run this code
Here are some options I have explored which I am unsure about:
server sent events
websockets
push notifications
Is there a reliable and safe way to do this on android, whether it's Kotlin or Flutter? Can you provide examples or documentation?
Thanks!
Turns out that the best way to do it is with push notifications!
Websockets and server sent events are better suited for other use cases. Persistent connections to a server are resource consuming, and both Android and iOS have mechanisms in place to terminate apps running in the background to save memory etc. So we would probably lose the connection and not be able to receive anything from the server if we minimized the app or locked our phone screen.
Push notifications are basically built for this exact use case because, even though they work differently on Android and iOS, they are built to receive messages from a server regardless of whether the app is in the foreground, background, or not even currently running.
I used Firebase Cloud Messaging to build my app since it's primarily an Android app. It worked like a charm.
I'm working on a project that will need to be inside an iOS app as well as a website. It will need to run inside the app since it will must be accessed without a wireless connection.
Is it possible to run my web files inside the app without using something like phone gap?
What is the web connection for? Is it for user authentication? Is it for parsing data from a website? It really depends what you need an internet connection for, if you need some external data from a website or database then you would need to internally create some stores/sqlite db's to hold the data and sync that data when there is a connection.
If you are just running a client side app that you decided to create in HTML then I'd still use Sencha Touch, then Cordova to get it to compile natively.
You can always "Add to home screen" from Safari, to make it run locally. To do this, just visit the webpage when you have internet then add it to the homepage, it will run fullscreen without an internet connection; it will work fine offline IF AND ONLY IF you don't need to connect for any data.
Is there any good advice on uploading files to the device? I've seen many apps create a http server on 80 or 8080 to upload files. Does that mean I have to implement a server too?
Are there any 3rd-party libraries? (Preferably open-source and non-GPL)
EDIT: I am going to upgrade files in the app for specific devices in a corporate environment, so the ipad pulling files from a central server is also an alternative. But I would have to send messages to these ipads to tell them to fetch those files.
But I would have to send messages to
these ipads to tell them to fetch
those files.
Push Notification Programming Guide
Or mail with custom URL scheme for launching your application.
iOS Application Programming Guide - Implementing Custom URL Schemes
I assume what you want is a kind of automatic update. An app do something by order from server without user's manual operation.
I don't know enterprise-license specific feature of iOS. But I believe there's no such enterprise-specific APIs. And as I know, automatic update is almost impossible. Because,
There is no system-level support for automatic update. (yet?)
So messaging and fetching feature should be implemented in app.
But no app is guaranteed to run in background for long time.
And also user can turn off any app at any time.
There is no way to send message to an app which is not running.
Even you can send, there is no way to address each client form the server.
If your app is running, sending message or commanding them to fetch or do anything is just a simple work. The problem is there is no regular way to force them always keep alive. Even under situations like OS reboot or abnormal termination.
However there is an alternative. Just registering app as VOIP app like Skype. OS does not keep the app running too, but will monitor specific socket port, and will wake your app when the socket receives some message. For more details, see here: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iphone/conceptual/iphoneosprogrammingguide/BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007072-CH5-SW15
In AppStore, an app using VOIP for other purpose like automatic update will not be passed, but you have no need to concern about it.
And other way to send message to device without running app is push notification. This is a feature supported in system-level. But this is not designed to commanding app. This is designed to send textual message. So If your app is not running, the message will be displayed to user. However, you can guide the user to start the app by sending push notification.
As a final option, you can request some feature to Apple for enterprise environment. If your company is big enough to get an enterprise license, Apple will consider your feature request seriously.
If you decided to use VOIP method, I'm sorry I can't help you any more. I have no experience of implementing this kind of app. But it should not so hard.
However hard part is server. It definitely require custom server program which keeps TCP/IP connection. Regular HTTP server cannot be used. Because HTTP itself is designed as not to keep TCP/IP connection. You have to build this kind of server yourself from scratch. You'll have to handle lower level TCP/IP transmissions.
There are a few solutions(both of free/commercial) for this kind of server, but none of are popular because this kind of server regularly needs full customization. So there's nothing to re-use or share.
However I believe this is most suitable implementation for your app.
If you can satisfy automatic update only when the app is running, you can archive it by polling server status from the client periodically.
This is easy to implement because you can use regular HTTP servers for this. Client connect and download recent updates from central server periodically. If there is a new update, just fetch and do what you want. And the app is launched, just check the update at first. Prevent all operation until update applied.
This is regular way. Most of applications are built with this method. In this case, you have no need to implement server or hard thing.
However applying speed of update is depend on polling period.
(Edit)
I couldn't care about private APIs. Because your app is not for AppStore, so you can use private API's freely. (This is different thing with jail-breaking. There are so many hidden features by excluded from documentation) I don't know about private APIs, but it's possible there is some API which enable the support for keep-alive of the app.
However, this reverse engineering work is so painful unless you're born to hack.
You may try to use the following open-source in your project:
http://code.google.com/p/cocoahttpserver/
https://github.com/robin/cocoa-web-resource/wiki
Apple has some sample code on their website that details exactly what you're looking for:
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/samplecode/CocoaHTTPServer/CocoaHTTPServer.zip
So you have a couple options:
You could distribute your app wirelessly within your organization and push new content out as app updates. Apple provides this option to their Enterprise Developers.
Wireless App Distribution
iPhone enables enterprises to securely host and wirelessly distribute in-house apps to employees over Wi-Fi and 3G. Apps can be updated without requiring users to connect to their computers. In-house apps can be hosted on any web server accessible to users. Users simply tap on a URL to install apps wirelessly without needing to connect to their computers.
The alternative is you configure the app to fetch the updated data. You describe adding an HTTP server to the iOS device, but there's no way the server can receive data when the app isn't running. Given your needs, it would probably work better to embed a web client in your app instead.
If I was in your shoes (and option #1 didn't work), I'd use ASIHTTPRequest to check with a server at launch/daily. If there are new updates, the app could then either prompt the user that there are new data files to download, or it could just silently download them in a background thread.
UPDATED: Perhaps I should have been more explicit about how to do #2. You can configure the download so it isn't interrupted when the user quits the app (you don't need to do a Voip hack). Check out the Completing a Finite Length Task in the Background section in the iOS Programming Guide.
There are http server sample codes from Apple and open source community such as cocoahttpserver TouchHTTPD.
You can upload file to the http server on iphone.
Here's a blog and screen-shots about running cocoahttpserver and upload file to iphone.
The Python CGIHTTPServer allows you to create a server in 0 lines of code:
jcomeau#intrepid:~/rentacoder/bin2txt$ python -m CGIHTTPServer
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ...
Actually implementing a script to parse the input and save the file would take a little more effort.
[later]
OK, so forget about that, Apple doesn't allow it. See Local server on iPad for the iPad at least.
I want to run two app simultaneously, I am using jailbroken phone and dont want to upload that app to the app store.
Is there any way so that I can log phone call time, this can only be done if my "logging app" is running in background.
Please suggest me, how can I do this on jailbroken phone.
Some thing like:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms884959.aspx (its for windows)
Is this actually a programming question, or are you asking for an app that logs call times?
Assuming the former, you would write a iPhone program that hooks into current phone conversations some way (private APIs? Not sure if this is indeed possible, just assuming.) You would then run your app via Backgrounder or some other wrapper that provided an interface for multiple applications to run at the same time. This usually comes at the cost of increase battery life, depending on how much CPU (and maybe memory?) the backgrounded app consumes.
Backgrounder is available via Cydia, I believe.
Need to include CoreTelephony, will solve the issue