I have an idea for a unique alarm application on the iPhone. But at the moment the only way I can see of initiating the alarm is by leaving the app running all night getting it to poll for the current time. Is there anyway to make an app "wake up" or initiate at a certain time. I know I can use push or local notifications but they require user input before loading my app. Thinking about it I could leave my app on all night, but literally doing nothing (saving battery if not being charged) and then subscribe to a local notification for the alarm itself.
Alternatively, can I make the iPhone run my app when an alarm sounds so I don't have to deal with alarm settings at all?
No, your only option is to use either Local or Push notifications.
I think using event kit framework add event in default iPhone calender.
Related
I am writing an alarm clock app for iphone, and I want it to turn on the phone(from standby mode) approx 1hr before the alarm is supposed to go off.
Then I want the app to be active, so I can stream content live without the user having to put the phone in an active-mode.
Any way for an app to switch out of standby?
Without using private api an application can only present alertview (via local or push notification).
And only when user taps "view" button this application can be activated. You can see that in the link you provided - (second to last screenshot)
True, you can always add sound to this notifications - so alarm app can work (and there are many out there) but it can't send itself in the foreground.
Nope that cant be done, once the app went to the background state you lose control on it, and cannot bring it back
There might be a way using notifications. Check this SO question for more info:
Alarm Even Application Closed in iPhone
I'm wondering if it's possible to make an iphone app give the user an alert in a certain time without being run in the background or using notifications?
I see it happening in an app called iPray Pro. It gives an alert for the prayer time even though it's not running in the background or using notifications. I checked under the Setting-Notifications and the app is not there at all.
How is it done?
Scheduled local notifications will trigger even if the app is closed. iPray probably schedules notifications for a given time which are then triggered by the OS without the app having to be open.
Look for Local Notifications in the iOS documentation. They are like push notifications, but don't require a server. They are quite simple API to use too; make a UILocalNotification and use the scheduleLocalNotification: method on UIApplication to add the notification onto the system.
It will then fire in accordance to the fireDate property of the local notification you scheduled.
Local Notifications require iOS4.0 or later.
It is using Local Notifications, not Remote Notifications.
I have noticed that some apps e.g. Skype run in the background.
I would like to have my app run in the background also, waking up every 1 seconds to update some data and then going to sleep again.
How can I do this?
I gather that NSTimer's do not work in the background.
You can't. Voice-over-IP apps get a special exception for this, basically the system manages a network socket for them and wakes them up if there's data. There's no way to do the same with a timer.
By the way, waking your app every second, your battery wouldn't last half a day.
See Executing Code in the Background
You would need to use push notifications to push information to the app (like the Facebook or Skype app). See this documentation from Apple on how to use push notifications.
Not every second though, that would drain the battery. Other than that, there isn't really a way unless you are running a VoIP app.
I want a timer to keep executing in background even when the application is not active. And depending upon some conditions I want to fire a local push notification. How can I achieve this?
Thanks
Pankaj
it seems that is not possible.
first, you register the local push notification and its fire date when your app is active and you can not do it when your app is not active.
second, when you register a local push notification the iphone os is in charge to fire it and not your app.
third, background activity is permitted only for 3 things - music, VOP and navigation, thats all.
if you can explain exactly what you want to achieve we might try to help you in other ways.
hope it will help
shani
I want to make a special calendar app, but I am afraid it's not possible to safely schedule an alert for an event.
For example: I set up an alert for an event which starts in 3 months. I want to get notified 2 days before the event starts. In iOS 4 there is multitasking, so my app could run in the background all the time.
But now lets imagine it's a hardcore iPhone user who plays huge memory-intensive games all the time. At some point, iOS might kill my background app. Or the user might restart the device and forget to launch my app. So it could happen that the alert never happens. Bad thing.
Is there a safe way to ensure that an scheduled alert is thrown at the user, just like it is the case with the built in alarm clock app or the calendar app?
I'm going to bring back the EventKit notification - use event kit to schedule a calendar entry with an alert, and embed in there a URL that will open your app.
You could also use local notifications but this way the user will be able to see the upcoming event when reviewing the calendar, and even modify slightly if need be. They can't mess with a local notification once it's in place...
You want to use UILocalNotification for this.
EventKit will make it pop up in the user's calendar, maybe not what you want here.
BTW: Multitasking is really more "fast switching" than backgrounding in iOS... you won't be able to run arbitrary code in background, and you should expect to be killed anytime.