Situation: My iPhone communicates to an external device through Wi-Fi. The app has also the ability to set up a schedule. This means that on a specific time the device should turn on and do some stuff. Now for this to happen there should be a timer on the external device or the iPhone should send a command to the device on a specific time.
Question: Is it possible to send a command to the external device while the app is in the background? Or does the app have to be in the foreground? Is it possible when the external device is an accesory? Cause I have read that apps are allowed to run in the background when they need to communicate to accessories??
Thanks in advance!
No you can't do this, you are only able to run an app in the background if its stream audio, a VOIP client or track user location. If you are in the accessories program (which means you can make hardware that works with the dock connector, then your app can also run in the background. but only if the accessories that is respons to is connected.
There is no way the schedule any operation to be triggered at a set time.
You can schedule a local notification, but the user wil have to view (open you app by click in the notification) before you app get informed about it.
Do you actually have the devices communicating? If not, you should take a look at Apple's MFI (Made for iPhone) program. Sending data or communicating from your iPhone to an external accessory through bluetooth falls under it. They provide you with certain protocol specifications that allow you to communicate with external accessories. It's difficult to do something like this if you are an individual developer though. Here's the link: https://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/.
Related
I am in process of making an app where, where when the first time app is launched the user enter the device they want to connect. Once connected, the user leaves/closes the app.
Now every time that same bluetooth device is connected or disconnected, I want a function to be called in the app. How can I achieve this?
I am using Corebluetooth currently to get names of devices etc. but cannot find a way to achieve this. Any suggestions? TIA!
I want to write a tracking application, which reacts/record when users get in a car and phone automatically pair with Bluetooth hands free. I need also Id of the hands free device.
On Android it is easy, using Broadcast Receiver your app listen to broadcasts that device had been paired with phone. It is working even after phone had been restarted and App did not run after restart.
Is it possible on iOS(7+) ?
You can do it by reading the "Performing Long-Term Actions in the Background" part of this docs
Essentially, using state restoration, the system takes note of what your app was doing when it was killed.
If the app is searching for a bluetooth device and is killed by the system, the system will take care of continuing this research and wake up the app again when the bt device has ben found.
Note that this will work only if the app is killed by the system, not by the user (using the multitask bar). This behavior has changed since iOS 7.
Alternatively, If your BT hardware can be programmed to send advertisements using the ibeacon protocol, your app can be "awakened" by the corelocation/ibeacon api. After that prompt then maybe the corebluetooth pairing code could be initiated.
I want to develop an application which sends a Message from iPhone to other iPhone over the internet, I want to receive the Message from other iPhone even if my iPhone is running in the background.
I have seen the WiTap application, but socket will get disconnect when application is closed or if there is screen lock.
So is that possible to develop the application so that I can receive the message even if my app running in the background forever?
From my little Knowledge, You can't do it through WiFi.
When a screen lock happened, device will automatically OFF the wifi connection for increasing battery life.Thats why socket connection getting disconnected.
In iOS, apps can’t do a lot in the background. Apps are only allowed to do limited set of activities so battery life is conserved.
But what if something interesting happens and you wish to let the user know about this, even if they’re not currently using your app.
For example, maybe the user received a new chat. Since the app isn’t currently running, it cannot check for these events.
Luckily, Apple has provided a solution to this. Instead of your app continuously checking for events or doing work in the background, you can write a server-side component to do this instead.
You can do it using Apple Push Notification Service.
It uses push technology through a constantly open IP connection to forward notifications from the servers of third party applications to the Apple devices; such notifications may include badges, sounds or custom text alerts. In iOS 5, Notification Center enhanced the user experience of push and local notifications.
More details are here
Note: details and screen shots are taken from raywenderlich website/blog.
Lets consider that I am connected to internet through 3G in my App. When a wi-fi hot spot seems to be appearing, can I programmatically switch to the wi-fi. Is this vice-versa condition possible?
iOS does this automatically by itself!
If no known WiFi network is found, it uses cellular data. If it finds a known WiFi-network, it connects to and uses that network instead.
If any WiFi-network is found, and your application requests access to the internet, iOS (usually) automatically presents an alertView and lets the user log in to a WiFi-network. If the user does not log into a WiFi-network, it stays on the 3G-network. When iOS 7 comes, iOS may connect to Hotspot 2.0 networks automatically as well.
Apple keeps individual apps on a tight leash, and so they do not let apps control things like this.
I need to be able to ensure that the iphone is always connected to a network. If it loses reception I need to be able to warn the user. Since the only way I see this working is using a background process is it possible to use private APIs so that the app can run in the background.
I know it can be done with Jailbroken phones but I would rather not Jailbreak the phones.
If you mean having this behavior while running an app; check out the Reachability sample.
If you mean having this behavior while not running an app; check out Android.
There is currently no way to run a background process.
You can send notifications to the phone while it is connected to a network, but obviously there is no way to send a notification when it is disconnected.