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I am trying to build an iOS app that aids in Ecological Momentary Assessment of Patients. Basically it is a simple survey app that the patients need to take thrice a day.

I am new to iOS development and thus I cannot take some design decisions, I would really appreciate if some of you could look at these design decisions and let me know if it is possible in an iOS app.

  1. I want the patients to take these surveys thrice a day after their Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. So I want my app to auto-start or at least pop-up a remainder for the user to start the survey app and fill the questionnaire. Is this possible?
  2. I want to assign a unique ID to each copy of the app, which the app should use to send the data to the central database which resides on the server. I don't want to bother the patients by giving a login form every time they start this app, or even the first time they start the app. So is this possible?
Charles
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Vij
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  • I'm not so sure that it wouldn't be possible to wake up the app. In iOS7 Apple has introduced silent push notification, that doesn't show any popup, but gives the app some time to do operations, I'm wondering what happen if use a custom scheme URL. It worth a try. – Andrea Mar 28 '14 at 07:50
  • Thanks for your reply, silent push notification means, i cannot in any way use the vibration, or message alert sounds as well right? This App is directed towards old age people and it is really important to grab their attention towards the device to make them fill this app in a timely manner – Vij Mar 28 '14 at 07:55
  • The user won't notice that you sent one. The idea is you sent one to all registered devices for push notif. In the callback method triggered by the push you tell the app to open a custom scheme URL equal to your app... maybe your app will open... maybe – Andrea Mar 28 '14 at 07:57
  • App would be rejected from the AppStore with the way you offered. – Igor Matyushkin Mar 28 '14 at 07:59

2 Answers2

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  1. Can't auto start app, but you can use local notification to make the patient run your app
  2. If you don't need identify each patient, UUID is the unique ID for each device.
Ryan
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  • Thanks for your response, so I'll give the user the choice to set his ideal breakfast, lunch and dinner timings for the first time when he uses the app then use the local notification to trigger a reminder, does this decision make sense? – Vij Mar 28 '14 at 07:51
  • @Vij : yes this makes sense. Regarding the identification of device, you can use the "Advertising identifier", which is the new way you should identify devices. You're not supposed to use the UDID anymore, and the UUID will be reset almost all the time, including at app launch. Have a look [here](http://www.doubleencore.com/2013/04/unique-identifiers/) to choose the way to identify your devices. – rdurand Mar 28 '14 at 07:57
  • @rdurand thanks for the link, will go through it. My Other doubt was, the app users would be old people and I have to have some way to remind them in a timely manner to take the survey, I believe silent notifications would not serve this purpose, so is there any other workarounds? – Vij Mar 28 '14 at 08:04
  • @Vij : No, as trick14 said, you won't be able to launch your app without the user interaction. You should use local notifications, to which you can add sounds so they get notified. Also, you can take a look at [guided access](http://9to5mac.com/2013/09/08/how-to-use-ioss-guided-access-feature/), which is an iOS feature that lets you keep the user in a single application. This might be useful. – rdurand Mar 28 '14 at 08:41
  • @rdurand Thanks for the link, will see how I can utilize this in my app. – Vij Mar 28 '14 at 08:55
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That's not possible to start the app automatically on iOS, but you can show reminder in status bar. Use local notifications for this.

Regarding to unique ID, you can generate a random ID on the first launch of the app or just use device's UDID.

Igor Matyushkin
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  • Thanks for your response, so I'll give the user the choice to set his ideal breakfast, lunch and dinner timings for the first time when he uses the app then use the local notification to trigger a reminder, does this decision make sense? – Vij Mar 28 '14 at 07:51
  • Yes, it's good to provide a user with ability of chosing when to receive notifications. – Igor Matyushkin Mar 28 '14 at 07:57