objective-c background process application - iphone

I am doing the iOS timer application, but when I press the home button the timer will stop.
I would like to know if close the application, the program can keep working?
And go back the application can keep running.
I see some article How to write a background service in iphone application? said can't run in background.
Can some one help me?
Thank you.

If it's a timer you are doing, you can always keep the time when it started, through CACurrentMediaTime(), and if your application goes in the background, when it comes to the foreground again, in applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application, take another CACurrentMediaTime() poll, and display the difference between the numbers.
I believe this is how the Apple's bundled app works. No need to keep processing that number if the application is not used.

Related

Terminate xcode app due to time out

I have an app in Xcode which handles sensitive data. I would like to terminate the app / exit forcefully if there is inactivity for 5 mins. Can someone please tell me how to do this?
Thank you!
Click here for a tutorial on how to make a timer. Every action that the user takes, reset the timer. When the 5 minutes are up, you can use exit(0).
However, this method of programatically closing your app is discouraged by Apple, so use it at your own discretion.
Edit: In order to stop the timer, you need to store a pointer to the timer that you create, and then call:
[pointerToTimer invalidate];
pointerToTimer = nil;
Edit 2: An alternative to using exit(0) would be to make a almost blank screen except for some text that states:
You have been inactive for too long. Please exit and restart this application.
Make this screen appear once the timer gets to 5 minutes. Therefore, the user can't do anything on the app but look at the screen, or exit the app.
If you're writing an app to submit to the app store, you can't (according to the guidelines). See details in this note: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/ipad/#qa/qa1561/_index.html
If you don't care about the store or interface guidelines, it suggests that exit() is available.

how to catch the power button and home button on iPhone?

Today I went to job interview, I encountered three questions now.they hope i provide some Solutions or
Thinking.
1.when user press Home button,app don't go back the main interface or delay 5 seconds to go back the
main interface.
2. when the screen is black ,how to auto activation screen(how to catch power button press event) .
3.how direct launch my app when iPhone is start-up
My english is very bad, i hope everyone can understand what i said above.Thank you very much
None of these are possible on an iOS device, unless it's jailbroken.
Q1 and Q2: not possible
Q3: The closest you can get to desired behaviour is kiosk (store demo) mode of operation.
See more here:
Lock-down iPhone/iPod/iPad so it can only run one app
It's not exactly what you're looking for - it limits the device to use only certain app - but to my knowledge the only way to auto-start an app without jailbraking the device.
I know that this question is old, but there are easy work arounds for every question on here that work for at least iOS 7+, although there is no way to do question 2 without using private APIs. You can successfully answer questions 1 and 3 with public API answers (although they are admittedly hacky)!!
1. When user presses home button, how do you delay 5 seconds before returning to the main screen?
Oscar Gomez's answer was spot on. While you cannot delay the UI from returning to the home screen without blocking the core run loop (which will get you rejected from the app store), you can use some background process techniques if needed to get your extra 5 seconds, just not with UI.
2. How do you catch the Power Button presses?
This is for sure using a private API, and while you can PROBABLY get into the App Store, you probably won't last long once Apple gets wind of you doing this. It is also a hack. You cannot listen directly to the power button, but you CAN listen to the screen going on or off, or both at once. Here is a small code snippet that I have in an Enterprise App:
Inside UIAppDelegate
static int const DisplayOnOffObserver = 54321876;
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
...
CFNotificationCenterAddObserver(CFNotificationCenterGetDarwinNotifyCenter(), NULL, &PLDisplayOnOff, CFSTR("com.apple.springboard.hasBlankedScreen"), NULL, 0);
...
return YES;
}
static void PLDisplayOnOff(CFNotificationCenterRef center, void* observer, CFStringRef name, const void* object, CFDictionaryRef userInfo) {
...
DO SOME MAGIC
...
}
- (void)applicationWillTerminate:(UIApplication *)application {
...
CFNotificationCenterRemoveEveryObserver(CFNotificationCenterGetDarwinNotifyCenter(), &DisplayOnOffObserver);
...
}
Obviously you have to have the application ALWAYS running in the background (which can get tricky) or you have to only care to do it within the time that you ask for to run in the background (which isn't hard)
First step is listening to the darwin notification for the screen being toggled on/off.
Second step is implementing the callback.
Third step is stopping listening for the call back.
NOTE: DisplayOnOffObserver is a random number (not very random in my case)
3. How can you directly launch your app when the iPhone starts up?
Assuming that by directly launch, you mean launch in the background, there is actually an Apple supported way of doing this. You first have to enable Background Services for location. Second, you have to start listening for significant location changes. I don't know how well this is documented, but as soon as the iPhone boots, it tries to get it's location. When it does this, it goes from not having a location to having one (which is a significant change). Your app will launch in the background which includes calling the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method, where you can ask for more time and start other processes to permanently run in the background until the user kills your application manually. If you do permanently run in the background using this method, you do stand a chance of being rejected by Apple.
Hope any of this helps someone! If anyone needs more information, just leave a comment and I will update my answer.
When user press Home button,app don't go back the main interface or delay 5 seconds to go back the
You can't, unless you don't want your app in the appstore... The only thing you CAN do is ask for more time to save your data before your application is terminated, but the UI experience will still be the same - the iphone will go back to the main interface.
when the screen is black ,how to auto activation screen(how to catch power button press event) .
Not possible.
3. How direct launch my app when iPhone is start-up
I don't think you can do this even, with private APIs, and of course with your app not accepted in the appstore.

Running code in a timer while application is in the background

Is it possible for this situation to happen:
My application enters the background, I want a NSTimer to run in the
- (void)applicationDidEnterBackground:(UIApplication *)application
method, every two or so seconds. I know how to initiate the timer, however what I want to know is if I can run code every 2 seconds or whatever I choose in the background? Or is it once the application has entered the background code cannot be run. I know with android if applications are left open but minimised you can run code as they continue to run in the background.
You've doubted it correct. The application that enters background can not run. So, you can not execute your code while the app in background. I'd suggest you to go through the Apple's doc Executing Code in the Background. It begins with,
"Most applications that enter the background state are moved to the suspended state shortly thereafter. While in this state, the application does not execute any code and may be removed from memory at any time."
But the services audio, location and voip are allowed to run in background. For those services the background execution must be declared in advance by the application that uses them.
If you move your application to background and declare the application as audio it will run.

Ideal way to make NSTimer fire in the background, and check that it is still firing?

I have gotten a NSTimer to fire a selector every second correctly. However, I require it to continue firing even when it goes into the background. I have even tried the jailbreak tweak called Insomnia, which supposedly stops apps from sleeping in the background, but to no avail. So what would be the best way to achieve my objective?
Any help is very much appreciated!
There are only certain things you can do as background tasks in iPhone apps. The Apple documentation explains how it works and what you can do. The apps that use some of the background features don't continuously run - they are woken at 'appropriate times'.

App crashes on backgrounding because of SimpleAudioEngine

So I׳m trying to play some effects in my Cocos2D game using SimpleAudioEngine , but after I have added them my app crashes when it goes to background (multitasked).
I searched for this problem in the internet but all the solutions that I found didn't work for me. What I did find out is that this problem happens because my app is somehow trying to play sounds when backgrounded.
In console it shows me (which is the same error I found other people had):
sgx error (background gpu access not permitted):
And another thing, when I run my app on the simulator, or even on my device while debugging carefully (going line-by-line with XCode while the app is running) this doesn't happen.
I just had this issue. I resolved it by having a bool to check if the app is running or in background that I set to true when the app goes to foreground ( applicationWillEnterForeground ) and that I set to false when the app goes to background ( applicationDidEnterbackground ) . So using the bool you can tell if the app is in the background and if it is, I just exit out of drawView function in EAGLView (thus not doing any graphics rendering which was causing the error).
I am a very dodge programmer but that method has worked for me and I hope it works for someone else. I did not need to unload and reload my sounds or anything and my app now has Multitasking XD
I was experiencing this, on about 25% of the occasions that my application re-entered the foreground. Like you, when I removed the sounds, the problem went away. That is how I came across your question here.
I may have found a solution to this. I have made what appears to be an unrelated change, but the problem seems to have gone away. Now, when my app enters the background, I invalidate my main scheduled timer. When my app re-enters the foreground, I then re-schedule the timer (after reloading my sounds, which I completely shut down on entering background).
So far, the problem has not come back. I would be interested to know if this helps.
I just resolved this issue on my end. Here's what was wrong in my case and, from what I can tell from the other answers and comments on this page, many other people's case as well:
By default, when I started my project, CCDirector::sharedDirector()->pause(); and CCDirector::sharedDirector()->resume(); were both being called twice, once by (void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *) and (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *) respectively in AppController.mm, and once by AppDelegate::applicationDidEnterBackground() and AppDelegate::applicationWillEnterForeground() respectively in AppDelegate.cpp.
Make absolutely sure that these methods are only being called once, in AppController.mm. In AppDelegate.cpp, instead make sure that you are calling CCDirector::sharedDirector()->stopAnimation(); in place of CCDirector::sharedDirector()->pause(); and CCDirector::sharedDirector()->startAnimation(); in place of CCDirector::sharedDirector()->resume();.
Hope that's helpful to anyone else stuck in this crappy situation!
Are you sure it's related to audio? "background gpu access" sounds like it's using OpenGL.
I had the same issue in my application and spent some 4 hours to find out. Going background was OK the first time, but crash application the second time. With a short error message related to OpenGL. I had the same questions: how audio can crash graphics. But it wasn't a question of audio, but a question of notifications...
I discovered that going foreground was creating 2 timers in my custom level meter class.
I had registered UIApplicationWillEnterForegroundNotification and UIApplicationWillResignActiveNotification. Then, going background invalidated only one, since I registered only on notification... That was it!
One need's count its notifications!