Android LocationProvider.TEMPORARILY_UNAVAILABLE - android

I am trying to find out more information about LocationProvider.TEMPORARILY_UNAVAILABLE location status on Android.
I have a program that has to periodically poll device's GPS location. I use requestLocationUpdates() and addGpsStatusListener() methods in the LocationManager class to register my listener.
Most of the time it works just fine. However, occasionally a device would get into a mode where onStatusChanged() method would be called with status argument set to LocationProvider.TEMPORARILY_UNAVAILABLE and my program would not receive updates anymore.
Do you know what would cause the GPS device to become "Temporary Unavailable"? I've been searching the internet but could not find anything useful.
Thanks.

Related

what if LocationListener.onLocationChanged is not called?

In my android app, I am making use of google play's location services for determining device location.So I am implementing com.google.android.gms.location.LocationListener's onLocationChanged method. But based on device's location settings, it is very much possible that this method is not even called.For eg, if user has set 'Device Only' option then only GPS based location access is available,and if user is indoor GPS wont work and onLocationChanged() is not called.
I want to know how to come to know of this at run time so that alternate action can be suggested to user?
From the document itself, LocationListener is used for receiving notifications from the LocationManager when the location has changed. These methods are called if the LocationListener has been registered with the location manager service using the requestLocationUpdates(String, long, float, LocationListener) method.
Also check this blog to understand more about LocationListener in Android. It also explains here the status and behavior of a GPS and some sample code that serve as a guide for you. I hope it helps you to know more about LocationListener

Prevent GPS draining battery of cell phone when location is searched

I'm using LocationManager's method requestLocationUpdates to get the location of the cell phone.
I'm using GPS as the Provider and working with a LocationListener to update the UI of my app.
I need to call a method on my Activity every 1000 milliseconds. To do that, I configured the requestLocationUpdates like this:
locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(provider, 0, 1000, listener);
Everything is working well. The onLocationChanged method is called and the Latitude and Logitude are showed ok.
But I have some doubts.
What happens if I'm in a place with no GPS signal?.
There is some automatic Timeout?
Or the App will try to get the position using the GPS all the time and will drain the battery.
What happens if I switch to WiFI/3G Provider and thats signals also aren't working? It happens the same?
I search over Internet looking for the answer but I can't find the right solution.
For example let's say you are driving in a car and the LocationManager is connected to a valid GPS provider. Now you driving through a tunnel and lose the signal. Now onLocationChanged() isn't triggered anymore. But the system will keep searching in background for a valid GPS provider. If you are through the tunnel the system reconnects to the GPS provider, if still available, and onLocationChanged() is triggered again.
The drain of the battery while connected and getting location updates is much higher as when the system is looking for a valid provider.
If you switch to WiFi or 3G the system will look for the last set provider and overrides the previous one. But the behaviour will be the same.
You can react on this event by monitoring the LocationListener.onStatusChanged() callback and the GpsStatus.Listener interface. E.g. switch to another provider or if no provider is available call removeLocationUpdates() and call requestLocationUpdates() again after a period of time with a Timer. This will save your battery much better.
Edit:
LocationManager.isProviderEnabled(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER) returns true if GPS is enabled in the settings of the device. It's no indicator that you are connected to a GPS provider.
Use the method LocationManager.getBestProvider(Criteria, boolean) to know which provider is available.
As a note: You will almost never get a connection to GPS if you are inside of a room.

How can I get a one-off GPS location in Monodroid

I'm writing an application which requires that an accurate GPS location is taken at the moment a particular action is taken - specifically, by law we have to prove that we were at someone's house when we said we were.
I have already implemented a Location Listener to update the location for live-tracking purposes, but I also require an on-demand update from the device's GPS.
Using GetLastKnownLocation does not appear to force the GPS device to update - instead, I am getting the last location received from the onLocationChanged event.
Is there a way to force a device to update and get the current location, instead of either getting the last known location or waiting for another onLocationChanged event to fire?
Try using Thread that runs at a particular interval of time and gets the location data..
So that you can use it later..

GPS is not working inside the building

After few hours of testing outside of house, when i came back to my house i found that GPS is enabled but was not getting location fixes inside the building.Hence its onLocationChanged method couldn't get called.
Problem: How to know that GPS is not getting any location fixes as device continue to sense your location in "trying mode".By trying mode i mean the situation where it is not coming to any result even after 20 to 30 minutes still it declared it self as enabled (blinking in status bar).
How one could know that the GPS doesn't get location so switch to another provider like Network_Provider.
In short i want to get my device to conclude something that GPS can find location fix for sure or you have to take location by another means.
I hope at least someone can give me idea about how to deal with that.
The link below has an awesome tutorial, of how to get the location from GPS and/or Network.
It uses a timer task, which analyzes if there is a GPS location in a specific period of time, assume 20 seconds. If not, it will return the location from Network as the current location. If there is a location from GPS, then it will compare which update is new (latest), and return that.
What is the simplest and most robust way to get the user's current location on Android?

GPS timeout in android

In blackberry, we use a timeout to get the location, so that if it doesnt retun location in that much time period, we get to know. But in Android, there is no concept of timeout, can anyone please tell the alternative, that we can find out that after this much time there is no location update from GPS.
You can use two threads for this timeout. One thread tries to get the GPS fix and the other (timeout) thread, once it reaches the timeout specified, removes the registration of your application to receive location updates from the location listener.

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