Is there a way to perform async communication between iPhones/IOS devices? I have been researching and thought maybe APN might fill that void, but it sounds like I can't initiate an APN push from an IOS dvice to another, and even if I could I can't trigger the "event" on the other device with just an APN push from what I can identify.
Does anyone have any examples or general advice for IOS device interaction for devices that are not in GameKit (i.e. wifi/bluetooth) range that does not require an intermediate service (urban airship, dedicated server, etc) or will I need to have a 3rd party in order to trigger and/or sync these interactions between devices?
Sorry I don't have any code or details as this is still in the planning phases for me. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
The answer is : use a server side app and have all your devices talk to that server.
If you dont want or cannot host an app, you can use a cloud solution based on websocket like Pusher. You can then subscribe to events and post messages with data.
They have an iOS client library
http://pusher.com/docs/client_libraries
P.S: Also have a look at Parse and Stackmob , i remember that had this kind of feature was in their roadmap, but i don't know if it's available yet..
Hope this helps,
Vincent
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We are developing an app for Android and IOS for students. student can receive notification for upcoming events like exams or interviews.
We are between two decisions: Using FCM with the development of a backed which manages the sending of notifications and the registration of tokens or using the schedulers that exist in IOS and Android then download a list of events from an API regularly and trigger a local notification which will require less development on the backend side but a little more on the frontend side.
What would be best in your opinion and can we trigger a notification even if the app is closed for the 2nd solution?
I would deffinitely recommend to use FCM. It is much easier than it looks like and the performance of your notifications would be much better regarding stability, timing, battery persistance and other. You can use on of the Firebase databases to store the notification tokens and the Firebase Cloud Functions to send them from there. I have made a very similar App for Kindergarden children and it works great. I'm not sure if it would even work at all when you do it on your own. At least not as you expect it. For me that sounds like much more work.
I am trying to build an application which works this way: I as a user want to start a call with another user. The way I want the connection be made is by random. So it will connect to one of the many clients out there by random. Also when other clients try to make a call, it should connect to another random client and so on. I want those phone calls be made via application(such as WhatsApp) not as a phone call.
Now, the question is; is Twilio a good approach for this purpose?
If yes can you tell me which of their feature would fit my app the best?
Thanks for any suggestions!
Twilio developer evangelist here.
I can answer that Twilio would be a good approach for you to do this within your own application. I'd recommend using Twilio Video to build this as it allows cross platform communication via audio or video (in your case, you may not need the video, but this will give you the best audio quality).
As an example, my colleague Dominik built a video roulette application. It is the case that the interface was built in JavaScript for the web, but the idea would be the same for a native app. The code for the server side part of the application should give some insight into how to connect random pairings.
It's also possible to integrate Twilio Video with CallKit and Connection Services so that you can make outbound calls to other devices that ring like a real incoming call.
I want to make an application which will send information to a server about user's location every 30min. It is needed to provide location specific push notifications.
I need such functionality for Android/iOS, which would work in background (also if device is restarted). I found some articles covering background services and I created background service doing that, but after phone is restarted it won't work.
Is it possible with Android and iOS? How can I achieve that?
With iOS, no. With Android, yes.
Apple has gone to great lengths to limit what apps can do. You can do some things in the background for an extended period of time (GPS, play audio, Voip, etc), but after a reboot your app will not be restarted until the user opens it again. There are exceptions to this. Voip apps are allowed to restart after a reboot, but apple will not approve your app for the App Store unless you actually have a place for a user in your app to use the Voip feature. Geofences are a possibility, but I haven't had experience with that feature yet. In my experience, Apple does whatever they can to make sure your app doesn't run forever.
With android, there is more flexibility and what you propose is totally possible. I've listed some important links below, since most of those solutions are far better documented than what I can do here.
Essentially you need to register as a boot receiver and then send an intent to start a titanium android service when the boot event is received. I don't have experience with starting a titanium service, but I'm sure its a simple intent you need to fire. Either way you'll need a module for this native code. I attached a link to a bencoding titanium module that may help you, although there may be some others out there. You may even need to code one yourself.
Samsung is notorious for stopping your app with their SPCM feature. You may want to familiarize yourself with it. I've added a stackoverflow discussion link below.
I don't know all of your system requirements but honestly, for any app I would try my best to not run forever. It will hurt the battery life for your users and will add a lot of complexity. Maybe you could simply have the app check the GPS coordinates when it receives a push notification and decide right there and then whether to present a notification to the user? Just something to consider.
Either way good luck!
How to start an Application on startup?
http://docs.appcelerator.com/platform/latest/#!/guide/Android_Services
https://github.com/benbahrenburg/benCoding.Android.Tools
Dealing with Samsung SPCM killer
I'm developing an internal iOS cocoa app, in which multiple devices need to connect and read/write to a data connection. It will be similar to an inventory application.
Would this be best done using a server-side SQLLite communicator or some other kind of server-side data store? Or is there a method i don't know of that multiple devices can share data.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
A third-party service possibly worth checking out is Parse.
With Parse, you can add a scalable and powerful backend in minutes and launch a full-featured app in record time without ever worrying about server management. We offer push notifications, social integration, data storage, and the ability to add rich custom logic to your app’s backend with Cloud Code.
Depending upon the complexity and assuming that all devices can be connected to the same icloud account you could utliize icloud for this.
http://www.raywenderlich.com/6015/beginning-icloud-in-ios-5-tutorial-part-1
I want to make my iPhone app display on a Mac's screen, kind of like AirPlay does with other machines. The only way I have heard to do this is, although I do not like it, turn the iPhone into a server. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to do so. I also wanted to set it up in such a way that my Mac automatically detects it. I have seen a similar setup in the game Chopper 2. My Mac app will have a simple timer that fires every few seconds to look for the iPhone, in the same way that Chopper 2's "Find iPhone" button does.
Is there a simple way to turn the iPhone into a server, or start a "session" like Game Center does?
One last thing: I know it is somehow possible, because another app I have actually gives my iPhone a web address at the click of a button. It is called the Dicenomicon, if you want proof.
First there is no easy way to redirect your display to Mac, even if you made it a server of some kind.
Second, to discover or publish customized services on WLAN, you may want to refer to the samples on Bonjour:
CocoaHTTPServer: a simple TCP/HTTP server.
WiTap: an app that discovers and connects to services of the same kind on WLAN by Bonjour.
I'm not really sure what you mean by "server", because there is no way to share the screen of an iPhone using the official SDK, although this is possible by jailbreaking.
It would be possible, however, to send data back and forth between the Mac and iPhone, and display the data on the iPhone, on a Mac. Using that data, you could try to recreate the interface on the Mac. All of this could be accomplished using sockets. A class that might help with that would be cocoaAsyncSocket, which makes network programming a lot easier.
The auto-discovery of iPhones on the local network is achievable with Bonjour. Without getting into too many details, NSNetService would allow you to publish a service for your app from an iPhone, and NSNetServiceBrowser would allow you to find that service on the local network from the Mac. From the NSNetServiceBrowser, you could establish a socket connection with the iPhone.
Good luck!
You might want to take a look at the GameKit APIs, I know they do something similar between two iOS devices.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/GameKit_Guide/Introduction/Introduction.html