Is there anyway that I can read the data from the real time database of firebase and can save it while the app is not opened, I am using Firebase.getInstance.goOnline();
in the code whenever Network connectivity changes so that it listens the data.
I am able to write the data in the database if app is not in recents or is not opened but in the same way I am unable to read the data when app is not opened. Is there any possible way ? Or I am going for an wrong approach ?
I just wants that whenever network connection will be available it will download the updated data automatically. , so that later on I can see the updated data being offline.
Any help will be highly appreciated. Please.
Android makes no guarantees about whether or not your app process is running when it's not visible on screen. It could be killed in favor of other processes that are a higher priority for the user. So, in general it's not a good idea to assume that you can do networking any time you want.
Also, newer Android devices will go into doze mode to help save the user's battery. In that case, your app will definitely not be running.
If you want to ensure that your app process is running, you can schedule some time with JobScheduler or AlarmManager. Or you can ping your app from your server with Firebase Cloud Messaging.
Related
i'm creating android app, and using Firebase.
I have 'Missions', and 'Mission' have status.
If the status changes to 'Active' - I need to 'Wake up' my app and run the code of 'ActiveMissionActivity'.
(The work of the service should be just 'Waking up the app' and go to another activity)
I could write missionsDbRed onChildChanged listener which will be activated when the status is active - but only when the app is running.
What is the good practice for this issue? My friend suggested me to use 'Android Service', but i'm not sure which type do I need, and if there is something that works well with the Firebase DB.
For example i've seen 'Firebase Cloud Functions' But i'm not sure which one is more suitable and why. Thanks
As push-notifications are not a solution to your issue, the best way of handling this matter is by building a service that checks (in the database) if the value you are interested in has changed.
Now regarding the service, a bad idea would be to run a service that continuously checks that value. This would result in a huge battery drain and you risk your process to be killed as android is freeing up resources. you can notice this here.
You can fix this by telling the service when to start checking the value you are interested in.(e.g. by using Alarm API and assuming you know when this should happen) You can see something similar here.
Keeping your service alive as less as possible is probably the safest way.
As for google cloud functions, you might wanna use those for sending notifications prior to the actions that happen through the service you established.
So if the status changes to active while your app is closed, so that means the value changed somewhere out of your app right? If that's the case simply send a push notification to users device to wake it up. It is a lot more performant than using a background service.
My app loses connection to Firebase Realtime Database after being put in the background for a while ... In other words when I reopen my app again after being in the background for a while, Realtime Database services stop functioning until I clear the app data at the phone settings and everything back to normal ... I read about similar cases and found out that Android destroys resources (Socket connection) with Firebase after being put in the background for a specific period of time. However, there was no straightforward solution provided to restore connection after going back to the app ... so any help ?
It is expected that apps will lose their socket connections when there is no visible activity. That's the way the Firebase SDK works. Also, Android will aggressively pause background applications so they don't consume data and battery when the user isn't actively using it.
When an activity becomes started again, the Firebase SDK should attempt to restore the websocket it uses to communicate with the server. This websocket is fully managed by the SDK. You don't have to do anything to tell it to reconnect.
I'm considering the use of keepSynced() for some data from Firebase Realtime Database. I understand that it will automatically sync those paths. But how does that relate to Android lifecycle? If the user leaves all activities (and all normal listeners disconnect), will it stop syncing? I don't want the app to become data or battery hog.
On the other hand, I would like to update cached data when FCM notification arrives. I can launch some service which will connect to Firebase. I would like to sync all paths which are in keepSynced() and stop it when it's synced. I'm not sure how to achieve that. Create a listener to one of the paths and keep the service running for some time? After the service is finished, will it stop syncing?
firebaser here
Great question!
When there is no active activity, the operating system may close the connection to the Firebase database at any time. Our SDKs don't try to prevent that, but will reconnect when the app becomes active again.
What you're describing in your second paragraph is what we call "push to sync", where you send a push notification (typically a silent FCM data message) to trigger synchronizing of the data.
We did something like that in last year's I/O app and, while it was a bit more complex than we wanted it to be, it worked great. We explicitly managed the connection in that case, calling goOnline() and goOffline() (after 5 minutes iirc). The main sync code can be found in the IOSched github repo.
I'm considering the use of keepSynced() for some data from Firebase Realtime Database. I understand that it will automatically sync those paths. But how does that relate to Android lifecycle? If the user leaves all activities (and all normal listeners disconnect), will it stop syncing? I don't want the app to become data or battery hog.
On the other hand, I would like to update cached data when FCM notification arrives. I can launch some service which will connect to Firebase. I would like to sync all paths which are in keepSynced() and stop it when it's synced. I'm not sure how to achieve that. Create a listener to one of the paths and keep the service running for some time? After the service is finished, will it stop syncing?
firebaser here
Great question!
When there is no active activity, the operating system may close the connection to the Firebase database at any time. Our SDKs don't try to prevent that, but will reconnect when the app becomes active again.
What you're describing in your second paragraph is what we call "push to sync", where you send a push notification (typically a silent FCM data message) to trigger synchronizing of the data.
We did something like that in last year's I/O app and, while it was a bit more complex than we wanted it to be, it worked great. We explicitly managed the connection in that case, calling goOnline() and goOffline() (after 5 minutes iirc). The main sync code can be found in the IOSched github repo.
I was wondering if it is possible ( it should actually) to run a piece of code every couple of minutes even if the user is using the app. The basic Idea behind this is that the User will take the smart phone with my app loaded in the field and start collecting data, while he is collecting data or playing with other options of the app the phone catches the 3g/wifi zone it will start syncing the data to the server. I keep pushing notifications to the devices from my web service using Google Cloud messaging (GCM) and when it reaches the phone it means the phone is now connected to the internet I run that piece of code which do the sync for me. Would it stop the current activity of the app or I would say do the user will be able to keep collecting data and the sync is also running on the background?. any idea of this type of scenario?
thanks guys.
Anything that communicates with a server is by nature asynchronous in ActionScript (and you can't make it synchronous). So just do what you'd normally do to communicate with the server. Other processing, such as loops over a large collection or drawing a lot of objects, can make the application unresponsive.
Yes it is possible using AsyncTask. And your application will not stop while AsyncTask is running in background.