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I am looking for a good way how to make my app "upToDate". These are my requirements:

I have an RESTful Webservice, with tasks for different users. Every user has an iOS App, which should get automatically updated when the Server/Service assigned a task to that User.

So first ill created a manuall "Sync" Button, which checks for new Tasks. Fetches the data with Alamofire, and updated the UI.

But, my goal is automatically sync if there are new tasks.

So, ill guess there are 2 different ways to solve that:

1. Make a Background Fetch (with a NStimer?) every xx Minutes and check if there are new tasks.

After checking that tutorial here: http://www.raywenderlich.com/92428/background-modes-ios-swift-tutorial i am not sure if a background fetch is a good way to solve that. In that case the App uses an scheduler, to check once for new updates, and not every xx minutes.

So in my case i would create an NStimer in the AppDelegate (maybe in applicationDidEnterBackground) and check every xx minutes for new data (but when there are 3 days not any new task, that would be unnecessary battery consumption, or?)

2. Using Push Notifications.

My other idea is to use Push Notifications, so when there is a new task, ill send a Push Notification an manually start the sync. In my opinion that would use less battery, because he will only start the sync when there is a new task available.

Generaly Questions about using Background Services

So ok, if the user finished the task, some data should be automatically uploaded to the server. Normally not a problem, with the manual sync ill check if there is something to upload. But, what if, when there is no internet connection (ill check if before uploading) - and the user do not press on "manual sync".

So i would prefer to check in my "Background Service" if ill got an Internet connection, and if yes - start uploading some data.

Ill know this is not a specific question, but ill think there are lots of users who have the same requirements and it would be great if someone can help me out whats the best way to solve that in the best and practical way.

Thanks in advance!

rmaddy
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derdida
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1 Answers1

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Background updates sound wonderful until you realise that Apple throttles them heavily: you can ask to be updated as frequently as possible, but iOS decides what that value actually means based on how often users open your app and when they do so. Apple considers background updates the kind of thing that should happen just before a user opens your app so the latest content is right there, rather than something that runs proactively in the background.

Your push notification solution is a better one, particularly if you use CloudKit to subscribe to record change events using CKSubscription and CKNotificationInfo. If you do this you'll automatically get push messages in your app, so you can get what you want with very little work. You can read my tutorial for more information on subscribing to CloudKit to get push messages.

TwoStraws
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  • Thanks for your answer! Do i need to use CloudKit? Its a private Server and i would like to install the Notification Service there (its a Laravel REST Service) - never used Notifications before. So you prefer in that case do use a Notification, and update my data after receiving my Notifcation? Maybe you have more tipps with my second question about uploading? In my case it could be up to 10 Mbytes of data which should be uploaded in background, when ill get an internet connection. – derdida Dec 11 '15 at 23:04
  • You don't *need* to use CloudKit, but communicating with APNS yourself takes a little research – Apple didn't make it very easy, and even though there are some libraries out there that smooth over the worst of it you still need to work carefully to ensure you use the service correctly. – TwoStraws Dec 11 '15 at 23:08
  • Ok ill alreay checked the information from apple about using Push Notifications from my own server. So ill guess thats my first attempt to solve such requirements. There are multiple modules for Laravel 5 to handle Push Notifications from my REST Service, so that looks to and practical way to solve that for me. Thanks for pointing me in that direction! – derdida Dec 11 '15 at 23:14
  • You're welcome! You might want to mark my answer as correct so that others can benefit too. – TwoStraws Dec 11 '15 at 23:37