Cordova BackgroundMode-Plugin

A bunch of background mode plugins for Cordova 3.x.x

by Sebastián Katzer (github.com/katzer)

Supported Platforms

• iOS (>=5)
• Android
• WP8

Adding the Plugin to your project

Through the Command-line Interface:

# from master:
cordova plugin add https://github.com/katzer/cordova-plugin-background-mode.git
cordova build

# last version:
cordova plugin add de.appplant.cordova.plugin.background-mode
cordova build

Removing the Plugin from your project

Through the Command-line Interface:

cordova plugin rm de.appplant.cordova.plugin.background-mode

PhoneGap Build

Add the following xml to your config.xml to always use the latest version of this plugin:

<gap:plugin name="de.appplant.cordova.plugin.background-mode" />

or to use this exact version:

<gap:plugin name="de.appplant.cordova.plugin.background-mode" version="0.5.0" />

More informations can be found here.

Release Notes

Version 0.5.0 (13.02.2014)

• Added Android support.

Version 0.4.1 (13.02.2014)

• Release under the Apache 2.0 license.
• [enhancement:] Location tracking is only activated on WP8 if the location service is available.
• [bigfix:] Nullpointer exception on WP8.

Version 0.4.0 (10.10.2013)

• Added WP8 support
  The plugin turns the app into an location tracking app (for the time it runs in the background).

Version 0.2.1 (09.10.2013)

• Added js interface to manually enable/disable the background mode.

Version 0.2.0 (08.10.2013)

• Added iOS (>= 5) support
  The plugin turns the app into an location tracking app for the time it runs in the background.

Using the plugin

Simply add the plugin to your project and the app will run while in background.

The plugin creates the object window.plugin.backgroundMode with two methods:

enable()

The method enables the background mode. The mode is activated once the app has entered the background and will be deactivated after the app has entered the foreground.
Please be aware, to activate the background mode the app needs to be in foreground.

/**
 * Enables the background mode. The app will not pause while in background.
 */
window.plugin.backgroundMode.enable();

disable()

The method disables the background mode. If the mode is disabled while the app is running in the background, the app will be paused immediately.

/**
 * Disables the background mode. The app will pause in background as usual.
 */
window.plugin.backgroundMode.disable();

Platform specifics

Location tracking on iOS

iOS 5-6
The app still runs in background, even if the location service is not actived.

iOS 7
The location service needs to be enabled.

AppStore
Warning: if you use this plugin but your app does not require any persistent geolocation (eg you do nothing with the geolocation values), your app will be rejected by the AppStore review team (there is at least one predecedent).

Optimization on WP8

By default the plugin will track for geo updates while the application is in background and foreground. To stop tracking in foreground, the MainPage.xaml.cs file needs the following 2 methods:

// MainPage.xaml.cs

namespace your.own.namespace
{
    public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage
    {
        /// </summary>
        /// The page (the app) will enter the background and the background mode
        /// needs to be activated.
        /// </summary>
        protected override void OnNavigatingFrom(System.Windows.Navigation.NavigatingCancelEventArgs e)
        {
            Cordova.Extension.Commands.BackgroundMode.Activate();
        }

        /// </summary>
        /// The page (the app) will enter the foreground and the background mode
        /// needs to be deactivated.
        /// </summary>
        protected override void OnNavigatedTo(System.Windows.Navigation.NavigationEventArgs e)
        {
            Cordova.Extension.Commands.BackgroundMode.Deactivate();
        }
    }
}

Quirks

The app crashes on iOS

If the app crashes after installing the plugin, make sure that your *-Info.plist is valid. Do to some bugs in cordova or Plugman please reset all occurences like

<key>NSMainNibFile</key>
<string>

</string>

to

<key>NSMainNibFile</key>
<string></string>

TypeError: Cannot read property 'currentVersion' of null

The error occurs while trying to install the plugin from master. As a workaround the version.bat script has to be renamed to version.

On Mac or Linux

mv platforms/wp8/cordova/version.bat platforms/wp8/cordova/version

On Windows

ren platforms\wp8\cordova\version.bat platforms\wp8\cordova\version

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request

License

This software is released under the Apache 2.0 License.