Executing a function daily in background in Swift - swift

I'm building a weekly todo list app where users can check off items once completed. And I need the list(table) to refresh daily to get rid of the checkmarks. How could I go about creating a function that goes off at a certain time every day?
I'm currently using UserDefaults to store the list items, etc.
Thank you,

Sounds like you need a Cron Job or a process to be executed every day at midnight. It depends on which computer/operating system you are using.
Unless its just a UI thing you can do
if (checked_at + 24hours > now) then uncheck

Related

Restrict user to use only network provided time

I made an attendance app in Flutter in which I want to restrict employees to use only network provided time so that employees won't be able to temper the date and time.
Is there any option or solution to implement this in android and iOS as well?
Using this package datetime_settings we will get the settings of Automatic date & time of mobile so when automatic date & time is on mobile will give us an accurate network time otherwise we will show an error to turn on the automatic date & time in settings. That's how I used to restrict users to use only network-provided time.
I'll tell you what worked for me. Hope this can help you. I don't know if it's the most optimized way to do it, but it worked very well for me:
You need to create an internal clock for your app, and from this, use it instead of the DateTime.now() function. For this, you must take the server time when opening the app, and keep it updated with a timer that runs every 1 second.
Please note that the app goes to sleep (or closes) when the device is locked or the app is minimized for a certain amount of time (this depends on the operating system and battery saver settings), thereby stopping the internal clock, and consequently, it is delayed when the app is activated again. In my case, I got around this problem by using a foreground service that I designated to perform this task (I used flutter_foreground_task). Another advantage of using a foreground service, is that the user can close the app and the clock keeps running (and in my case, I also perform other simple tasks periodically).
If the user does not manipulate the system time, the difference should never reach 1 second.
Optionally, you could check when retrieving the server time, the difference with the device time, and if it is greater than a certain gap that you determine, warn the user, so that he can correct it if he prefers, so that he does not see a discrepancy with the time recorded and displayed by the application.
Regards.

Recurring function at date/time

I'm trying to call a function when my macOS application is in any state, including terminated. Here is what i'm trying to accomplish:
Schedule a function (much like DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter()) to run daily at a given time (let's say 9AM). I would like to add a feature to my application that allows a user to pick a time of day, and have an Alamofire POST request run at that time every day.
I have tried using a Runloop, and more recently Grand Central Dispatch:
DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(wallDeadline: DispatchWallTime.now() + .seconds(60)) {
//Alamofire
}
I can easily accomplish this while the application is running with a timer, but have yet to find a way to accomplish this in the background, with the app running.
This may be pretty heavy to implement (i.e. not straightforward), but if you want a task to run even if your app is terminated, you might need to consider writing your own LaunchAgent.
The trick here would be for the agent to be able to interact with your application (retrieving or sending shared information).

Count down timer in microsoft word

Microsoft word allows us to add datetime stamp which will update datetime and sync up with system datetime. I am looking for a similar item. Is there a countdown item available?
Usage: When I send a document to my colleague I mention this event will happen in 5 minutes.
Ex: I will kick the build in 5 minutes.
I am trying to express the same in the following way
Build will happen in 5:00 Minutes
after a second
Build will happen in 4:59 Minutes
after five minute
Build will happen in 0:00 Minutes
or
Build happend
Does MSword capable of doing this?
Thanks,
Esen
There is no count down timer control kind of thing available. You have to write a macro to do that for you. Even if you use macro, unless the receipt user enable its content he wont see it. I would suggest use a javascript and send email with html body

Implementing a persistent clock

I'm currently working on a new game for iOS using Cocos2D. The game needs to advance states after x amount of time since the first launch. So for example:
State - Time
initial launch
24hrs
48hrs
My first idea was to just get the data and time on first launch and save it to a file. Then I could check it ever now and again to see how much time has passed. The problem with this is I need it to be in realtime so that the changes will take effect immediately once the state is reached. It also needs to continue when the user is not using the app. The functionality I'm looking for is kind of similar to how the iOS strategy games work where you build structures that take x amount of time.
Anyway my question(s) is; is there some sort of library that can accomplish this and how can I get it to continue after the user exits the app?
It can't. There is - apart from kind of misusing video/music playing etc. no way for your app to do work while it is not running.
You have two things you can do to simulate that behavior (and I suppose the strategy games do this, too):
You can calculate at any time while a user is still running your app the points in the future when something should happen (eg a housing structure is finished). When the user leave your app, store these future times as local events - then the user will get notified that something has happened in your game (eg message "The church has been built. Do you want to go to church now?)". Pressing yes will open your app, and you can do whatever is necessary to indeed build the church. So in fact you don't do it at the time when it occurred, but when the user opens your app the next time.
Like 1, but without notification. Just remember when the user leaves the app (eg in your settings, I would use a property list; set it when the app delegate gets the appWillResignActive event), and the next time he starts do whatever would have been done in the meantime - he won't be able to tell the difference :-).
It's all about make believe here :-).

iPhone games that continue even when you're away

Let's say, Tiny Tower. On this iPhone game, you can have shops in your tower. You can suspend or turn off the iPhone, but when you return to the game, you will be reported about the shop winnings during your time away.
There are also push notifications when a building is complete etc.
I fear I do not understand how that works, exactly. I'm not asking for the exact solution, I just need to know where to begin researching. One idea I had some time ago was like calculate the amount of seconds the user was away (current time minus the time when you left) and then calculate shop processing for every one of these seconds. But I'm not sure of that.
A better way would be to calculate before you close the app.
Figure out what time it is, then calculate when in the future certain tasks will be completed. This way, you can schedule push notifications to the server ahead of time.
If you calculate after you have re-opened the app, and you can't run processes with the app closed, how will it know when to push?
Take a look at this article about push notifications to understand a little bit better how they work.
http://blog.boxedice.com/2009/07/10/how-to-build-an-apple-push-notification-provider-server-tutorial/
For offline games you add temporal logic to your items and recalculate when game is launched. For online games you retrieve game state from the server, which is constantly recalculating for all users, even disconnected ones.
Game most probably does not actually process in the background (most apps are not allowed to do anything while in background). When you relaunch the game, it calculates how much time has passed, and then processes all the events that would have happened in the meantime.
Additionally, as Paul.s mentioned in comments below, as well as other people in other answers have suggested, on iOS4 you can use local push notifications scheduled before close.
It is either server side execution of the game or if it is a game of chance or something like Farmville where it's determined by time duration.
If you were to make a server and/or game like this then you would need to decide which route to take.
If it will be something where the user has good days and sometimes bad days then you'll need a lot more server power. however, if it's something like time based then you would be able to tell the last time they were logged in and the next time that they should be awarded. you can also take this idea and for each variable that you store, you store how long it takes to be complete and the start time. Then you would do a simple If then o see if the item is ready. The same thing can work for a number of visitors. Where you have 10 visitors per item per hour. If you have two items then each hour you will receive 20 visitors.