I am developing an iphone app. the iphone which install my app was asked to upload it's location every minute(or hour) to a webservice. So what should i do with this situation?
I know there is a corelocation framework, I could use it for my app. like when I run this app, the corelocation will grab the GPS for my. my question is what if I close the app? Can i still get the GPS and upload it to webservice every minute? If I can't, how could I ?
You could enable background location service, If application is in background and receives a considerable change in location it will activate the app for a brief amount of time, This will give you some time to process. Apple recommends not to use web-service calls during this time, because there wont be any guarantee that the app would be live when it returns back. But since you just want to update the location, you could just post it and dont have to wait for response. Please note that significant location change should be used and this will help you to save your device's battery life. This is when the app is in background state.
May be you could try registering for the proximity/location alert or something. But i am not sure whether it would help when app is closed.
If your app is running in the background then you can get the GPS data but it the application is removed from the Background then you cannot get the GPS data. This is not possible in iPhone.
Related
Am developing application for calculate count of user moved steps and draw the user activities in the map. And we are using UIAccelerometer delegate for receive acceleration-related data from the onboard hardware. So I need to receive acceleration-related data when the application in background mode too. Last time one of my application got rejected because of using location service in background, Apple suggested me like "you can only use this background mode if your app truly needs this information to provide value for the user". Kindly suggest the best approach for this application.
You cannot run accelerometer in background.
You can track user's location in background... however, if you just keep tracking it and do nothing with that info.. apple is going to reject it and tell you to just get the lates location when app comes to foreground.
what you can try is.. update the user of total distance covered etc on a regular basis (like run keeper) and this will justify tracking location in background.
But first, you can try appealing to the review board explaining that you need to track location in background because you show entire route travelled by user when app comes to foregraound. and compare this to existing apps like run keeper and if you are lucky apple may approve your application without any changes...
This can easily be done.
What happens in that iOS put your application in halt state when your application is not in running in foreground state.
You just need to register your application for background execution.
Refer :
http://dcraziee.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/background_ios/
Also refer :
iOS background application network access
for apple policies about using location service.Which states that you can use location service in background.
I've seen application on iphone called "moves"
the gps is running on background while the application is totaly closed and not working in the background.
how can i get the location of the user and send it to the application while it is closed and not working on background? how could this possible?
what is the function to do that?
thanks
It is possible to get the location while the phone is running in the background (The Google Maps app does this), however running a background thread is a privilege that you must justify to Apple in their review process.
Here is some documentation by Apple for guidelines for running in the background
You register for the significant-change location service.
According to the Apple docs:
If the app starts this service and is then terminated, the system relaunches the app automatically when a new location becomes available.
This is not possible for an App on a non jailbraked iphone. Check again what you really have seen.
Apps can run in the background and get locations. But an app which is closed, can not do anything, since it is not running.
Maybe you have sawn the GPS Arrow in the status bar, staying active. But this disappears after some seconds, as long as no other application uses GPS.
Basically, I've been learning Objective-C and how to develop for the iPhone over the past few months and have created a few basic applications. Now I've got an idea for an iPhone app that I'm interested in developing and I'm just looking for a bit of advice on wether it is actually possible. I'm looking to create an app that sends the iPhones location to my server every 15 minutes - even when the app hasn't been opened/isn't opened.
Is this possible? If it is, could you point me in the direction of some more info on this subject.
Thanks.
You can declare your application as needing background location services. But this is available only in iOS 4, and user needs to allow location services for your app.
More info about multitasking can be found here
More info about getting users's location can find here
The answer to your question could be a partial YES or a partial NO. Basically ur app can give location updates even when it is not opened ... and u can handle it to be sent to ur server whenever user location updates .. but it is not possible to send the location update on a time basis like every 15 minutes ..
If you want ur app to register for location updates in background mode, u have two options:-
send location update on significant location change (i.e. a location update is sent when user moves significantly such that the cell tower changes for the user ) in this case u have to use startMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges OR
send continous location updates by using startupdatingLocation and in info.plist file declare background mode key for location updates (uses GPS)
and u have to handle didUpdatetoLocation for location updates in both cases and Ur app will be woken up in background as soon as a location update is recieved (beware of battery usage in 2nd case)
I need to write an application, that every 10 minutes it should be awaken from suspended mode, get user location via gps and send this information to the server by network.
Depending on the response it should return to the suspended mode or show local notification to the user.
Is there a way to do this on iOS 4?
I've tried different approaches, but the only working for me was to start monitoring user location in backgroind and declare the application as location background application. In that case it worked in background and has a network connection. But this approach takes a lot of power and not accepted cause application should work 24/7.
May be there is a way to write some daemon that should work in background and wake my application every 10 minutes?
Apparently, Pastebot tried to do something similar with the 'audio' multitasking declaration (by playing a silent audiofile) and got rejected.. UNTIL they actually presented a option to the user to pick which audiofile they wanted to play. It's in the appstore now. :)
In this case: What is your reason for not wanting to use the location updates? If battery-usage is a concern, you can use the 'significant location changes only' option, after which you can temporarily change to a more accurate option.
This isn't possible outside of the method you have already tried.
The iPhone background task API will allow you to run a location service in the background.
There is no way to write daemons for the iPhone without jailbreaking, and that is not something I'm able/prepared to help you with.
App store friendly: use new APIs in iOS4, which allows u to make use of GPS location
Anti App store: create a daemon by adding a specific plist file to System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ and put ur app under Applications/. this approach requires a jailbroken iPhone however...
detailed information plz google the following keywords: daemon, multitask, background, etc...
cheers, Lloyd
For the sake of this question, assume I plan to build a Google Latitude client app for iOS 4.
my app needs to upload the user gps location every two minutes, and also download the user friends locations. - in the background!
my app can't wait to be woken up by the OS on cellular tower switches (because they may only happen after 2 KM, while my app needs constant gps updating), so I understand I can create a thread, similar to the ones GPS navigators use, to run in the background.
I have no knowledge in iPhone programming, I just need to know if my app is feasible.
Will I be able to access the internet from within the background thread (and upload the user gps location), or is it restricted to only sampling the GPS location.
1.
Will Apple approve such an application, or is this type of use forbidden? because my app isn't realy critical such as a gps navigator
Thanks!
As Don said, iOS will send location events to apps that support it. From there, the app can do what it needs to do with the location event.
Background apps can register for one of three options:
Significant changes only: a low-power way to track location that only wakes the app up when there's a "significant" change in location
Standard location services: compatible with all iOS devices that can use location services, allows you specify change in distance, and works in background. However, if the app has been terminated or suspended, iOS won't attempt to relaunch the app.
Continuous location services: allows the program to receive continuous location updates and iOS will not suspend the application when sent to the background.
More info: Executing Code in the Background and Location Awareness Programming Guide
If you take a look at Executing Code in the Background, Apple provides guidelines on what multitasking-aware apps should and shouldn't do.
You will receive the locationManager:didUpdateToLocation:fromLocation: message in your app. In there, you can do whatever you need to, although you should not update the UI or use Open GL if your are in the background.