wellz666/cordova-plugin-background-geolocation

Sophisticated background and foreground geolocation plugin for Cordova 3+. Tracks user when app is running in background.

cordova-plugin-mauron85-background-geolocation

Description

Cross-platform geolocation for Cordova / PhoneGap with battery-saving "circular region monitoring" and "stop detection".

Plugin is both foreground and background geolocation service. It is far more battery and data efficient then html5 geolocation or cordova-geolocation plugin. But it can be used together with other geolocation providers (eg. html5 navigator.geolocation).

On Android you can choose from two location location providers:

• ANDROID_DISTANCE_FILTER_PROVIDER (forked from cordova-plugin-background-geolocation)
• ANDROID_ACTIVITY_PROVIDER

See wiki Which provider should I use? for more information about providers.

Semantic Versioning

This plugin is following semantic versioning as defined http://semver.org

Migration to 2.0

Warning: option.url for posting locations is very experimental and missing features like remote server synchronization. Location database can get very big as currently there is no cleaning mechanism. Use it at own risk. Proper server synchronization will be implemented in version 3.0.

As version 2.0 platform support for Windows Phone 8 was removed. Some incompatible changes were introduced:

• option stopOnTerminate defaults to true
• option locationService renamed to locationProvider
• android providers are now ANDROID_DISTANCE_FILTER_PROVIDER and ANDROID_ACTIVITY_PROVIDER
• removed locationTimeout option (use interval in milliseconds instead)
• notificationIcon was replaced with two separate options (notificationIconSmall and notificationIconLarge)
• js object backgroundGeoLocation is deprecated use backgroundGeolocation instead
• iOS foreground mode witch automatic background mode switch
• iOS [switchMode][] allows to switch between foreground and background mode
• setPace on iOS is deprecated use switchMode instead

Installing the plugin

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-mauron85-background-geolocation

Registering plugin for Adobe® PhoneGap™ Build

This plugin should work with Adobe® PhoneGap™ Build without any modification. To register plugin add following line into your config.xml:

<gap:plugin name="cordova-plugin-mauron85-background-geolocation" source="npm"/>

NOTE: If you're using hydration, you have to download and reinstall your app with every new version of the plugin, as plugins are not updated.

Compilation

Android

You will need to ensure that you have installed the following items through the Android SDK Manager:

Name	Version
Android SDK Tools	24.4.1
Android SDK Platform-tools	23.1
Android SDK Build-tools	23.0.1
Android Support Repository	25
Android Support Library	23.1.1
Google Play Services	29
Google Repository	24

Quick Example

document.addEventListener('deviceready', onDeviceReady, false);

function onDeviceReady () {

    /**
    * This callback will be executed every time a geolocation is recorded in the background.
    */
    var callbackFn = function(location) {
        console.log('[js] BackgroundGeolocation callback:  ' + location.latitude + ',' + location.longitude);

        // Do your HTTP request here to POST location to your server.
        // jQuery.post(url, JSON.stringify(location));

        /*
        IMPORTANT:  You must execute the finish method here to inform the native plugin that you're finished,
        and the background-task may be completed.  You must do this regardless if your HTTP request is successful or not.
        IF YOU DON'T, ios will CRASH YOUR APP for spending too much time in the background.
        */
        backgroundGeolocation.finish();
    };

    var failureFn = function(error) {
        console.log('BackgroundGeolocation error');
    };

    // BackgroundGeolocation is highly configurable. See platform specific configuration options
    backgroundGeolocation.configure(callbackFn, failureFn, {
        desiredAccuracy: 10,
        stationaryRadius: 20,
        distanceFilter: 30,
        debug: true, // <-- enable this hear sounds for background-geolocation life-cycle.
        stopOnTerminate: false, // <-- enable this to clear background location settings when the app terminates
    });

    // Turn ON the background-geolocation system.  The user will be tracked whenever they suspend the app.
    backgroundGeolocation.start();

    // If you wish to turn OFF background-tracking, call the #stop method.
    // backgroundGeolocation.stop();
}

Example Application

Checkout repository cordova-plugin-background-geolocation-example.

API

backgroundGeolocation.configure(success, fail, option)

Parameter	Type	Platform	Description
success	Function	all	Callback to be executed every time a geolocation is recorded in the background.
fail	Function	all	Callback to be executed every time a geolocation error occurs.
option	JSON Object	all
option.desiredAccuracy	Number	all	Desired accuracy in meters. Possible values [0, 10, 100, 1000]. The lower the number, the more power devoted to GeoLocation resulting in higher accuracy readings. 1000 results in lowest power drain and least accurate readings. @see Apple docs
option.stationaryRadius	Number	all	Stationary radius in meters. When stopped, the minimum distance the device must move beyond the stationary location for aggressive background-tracking to engage.
option.debug	Boolean	all	When enabled, the plugin will emit sounds for life-cycle events of background-geolocation! See debugging sounds table.
option.distanceFilter	Number	all	The minimum distance (measured in meters) a device must move horizontally before an update event is generated. @see Apple docs.
option.stopOnTerminate	Boolean	iOS, Android	Enable this in order to force a stop() when the application terminated (e.g. on iOS, double-tap home button, swipe away the app). (default true)
option.startOnBoot	Boolean	Android	Start background service on device boot. (default false)
option.startForeground	Boolean	Android	If false location service will not be started in foreground and no notification will be shown. (default true)
option.interval	Number	Android	The minimum time interval between location updates in milliseconds. @see [Android docs](http://developer.android.com/reference/android/location/LocationManager.html#requestLocationUpdates(long,%20float,%20android.location.Criteria,%20android.app.PendingIntent) for more information.
option.notificationTitle	String optional	Android	Custom notification title in the drawer.
option.notificationText	String optional	Android	Custom notification text in the drawer.
option.notificationIconColor	String optional	Android	The accent color to use for notification. Eg. #4CAF50.
option.notificationIconLarge	String optional	Android	The filename of a custom notification icon. See android quirks.
option.notificationIconSmall	String optional	Android	The filename of a custom notification icon. See android quirks.
option.locationProvider	Number	Android	Set location provider @see wiki
option.activityType	String	iOS	[AutomotiveNavigation, OtherNavigation, Fitness, Other] Presumably, this affects iOS GPS algorithm. @see Apple docs for more information
options.url	String	iOS, Android	Server url where to send HTTP POST with recorded locations
options.httpHeaders	Object	iOS, Android	Optional HTTP headers sent along in HTTP request
options.saveBatteryOnBackground	Boolean	iOS	If enabled it will automatically switch to less accurate significant changes and region monitory when in background (default)

Following options are specific to provider as defined by locationProvider option

ANDROID_ACTIVITY_PROVIDER provider options

Parameter	Type	Platform	Description
option.interval	Number	Android	Rate in milliseconds at which your app prefers to receive location updates. @see android docs
option.fastestInterval	Number	Android	Fastest rate in milliseconds at which your app can handle location updates. @see android docs.
option.activitiesInterval	Number	Android	Rate in milliseconds at which activity recognition occurs. Larger values will result in fewer activity detections while improving battery life.
option.stopOnStillActivity	Boolean	Android	stop() is forced, when the STILL activity is detected (default is true)

Success callback will be called with one argument - location object, which tries to mimic w3c Coordinates interface.

Callback parameter	Type	Description
locationId	Number	ID of location as stored in DB (or null)
provider	String	gps, network, passive or fused
locationProvider	Number	Location provider
debug	Boolean	true if location recorded as part of debug
time	Number	UTC time of this fix, in milliseconds since January 1, 1970.
latitude	Number	latitude, in degrees.
longitude	Number	longitude, in degrees.
accuracy	Number	estimated accuracy of this location, in meters.
speed	Number	speed if it is available, in meters/second over ground.
altitude	Number	altitude if available, in meters above the WGS 84 reference ellipsoid.
bearing	Number	bearing, in degrees.

backgroundGeolocation.start()

Platform: iOS, Android

Start background geolocation.

backgroundGeolocation.stop()

Platform: iOS, Android

Stop background geolocation.

backgroundGeolocation.isLocationEnabled(success, fail)

Platform: iOS, Android

One time check for status of location services. In case of error, fail callback will be executed.

Success callback parameter	Type	Description
enabled	Boolean	true/false (true when location services are enabled)

backgroundGeolocation.showAppSettings()

Platform: iOS >= 8.0

Show app settings to allow change of app location permissions.

backgroundGeolocation.showLocationSettings()

Platform: iOS, Android

Show system settings to allow configuration of current location sources.

backgroundGeolocation.watchLocationMode(success, fail)

Platform: Android

Method can be used to detect user changes in location services settings. If user enable or disable location services then success callback will be executed. In case or error (SettingNotFoundException) fail callback will be executed.

Success callback parameter	Type	Description
enabled	Boolean	true/false (true when location services are enabled)

backgroundGeolocation.stopWatchingLocationMode()

Platform: Android

Stop watching for location mode changes.

backgroundGeolocation.getLocations(success, fail)

Platform: iOS, Android

Method will return all stored locations.

Success callback parameter	Type	Description
locations	Array	collection of stored locations

Locations are stored when:

1. config.stopOnTerminate is false and main activity was killed by the system or
2. option.debug is true

Debug locations can be filtered:

[].filter.call(locations, function(location) {
    return location.debug === false;
});

backgroundGeolocation.deleteLocation(locationId, success, fail)

Platform: iOS, Android

Delete stored location by given locationId.

backgroundGeolocation.deleteAllLocations(success, fail)

Platform: iOS, Android

Delete all stored locations.

backgroundGeolocation.switchMode(modeId, success, fail)

Platform: iOS

Normally plugin will handle switching between BACKGROUND and FOREGROUND mode itself. Calling switchMode you can override plugin behavior and force plugin to switch into other mode.

In FOREGROUND mode plugin uses iOS local manager to receive locations and behavior is affected by option.desiredAccuracy and option.distanceFilter.

In BACKGROUND mode plugin uses significant changes and region monitoring to recieve locations and uses option.stationaryRadius only.

// switch to FOREGROUND mode
backgroundGeolocation.switchMode(backgroundGeolocation.mode.FOREGROUND);

// switch to BACKGROUND mode
backgroundGeolocation.switchMode(backgroundGeolocation.mode.BACKGROUND);

Example config

Android:

backgroundGeolocation.configure(callbackFn, failureFn, {
    desiredAccuracy: 10,
    notificationIconColor: '#4CAF50',
    notificationTitle: 'Background tracking',
    notificationText: 'ENABLED',
    notificationIconLarge: 'icon_large', //filename without extension
    notificationIconSmall: 'icon_small', //filename without extension
    debug: true, // <-- enable this hear sounds for background-geolocation life-cycle.
    stopOnTerminate: false, // <-- enable this to clear background location settings when the app terminates
    locationProvider: backgroundGeolocation.provider.ANDROID_ACTIVITY_PROVIDER,
    interval: 60000, // <!-- poll for position every minute
    fastestInterval: 120000,
    url: 'http://server_ip:port/path',
    httpHeaders: {
        "X-FOO": "bar"
    }
});

iOS:

backgroundGeolocation.configure(callbackFn, failureFn, {
    desiredAccuracy: 10,
    stationaryRadius: 20,
    distanceFilter: 30,
    activityType: 'AutomotiveNavigation',
    debug: true, // <-- enable this hear sounds for background-geolocation life-cycle.
    stopOnTerminate: false // <-- enable this to clear background location settings when the app terminates
});

HTTP locations posting

When options url and optional httpHeaders are set, plugin will try to POST locations array as JSON to given url. If server is not responding or response status code is not 200, locations will be persisted into sqlite db. Stored locations and later retrieved with backgroundGeolocation.getLocations method. Request body is always array, even when only one location is sent.

Example of express (nodejs) server

var express    = require('express');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');

var app = express();

// parse application/json
app.use(bodyParser.json({ type : '*/*' })); // force json

app.post('/path', function(request, response){
    console.log('Headers:\n', request.headers);
    console.log('Body:\n', request.body);
    console.log('------------------------------');
    response.sendStatus(200);
});

app.listen(3000);
console.log('Server started...');

Quirks

iOS

On iOS the plugin will execute your configured callbackFn. You may manually POST the received Geolocation to your server using standard XHR. The plugin uses iOS Significant Changes API, and starts triggering callbackFn only when a cell-tower switch is detected (i.e. the device exits stationary radius). The function changePace(isMoving, success, failure) is provided to force the plugin to enter "moving" or "stationary" state.

stationaryRadius

Since the plugin uses iOS significant-changes API, the plugin cannot detect the exact moment the device moves out of the stationary-radius. In normal conditions, it can take as much as 3 city-blocks to 1/2 km before stationary-region exit is detected.

Android

Android WILL execute your configured callbackFn. This is the main difference from original christocracy plugin. Android is using intents to do so.

On Android devices it is required to have a notification in the drawer because it's a "foreground service". This gives it high priority, decreasing probability of OS killing it. Check wiki for explanation.

If main activity is killed by the system and stopOnTerminate option is false, plugin will store locations into database. Stored locations can be retrieved later with getAllLocations method. Locations are also stored, when debug option is true. However in this case all stored locations, are flagged with debug: true and can be easily filtered.

Custom ROMs

Plugin should work with custom ROMS at least ANDROID_DISTANCE_FILTER_PROVIDER. But ANDROID_ACTIVITY_PROVIDER provider depends on Google Play Services. Usually ROMs don't include Google Play Services libraries. Strange bugs may occur, like no GPS locations (only from network and passive) and other. When posting issue report, please mention that you're using custom ROM.

Multidex

Note: Following section was kindly copied from phonegap-plugin-push. Visit link for resolving issue with facebook plugin.

If you have an issue compiling the app and you're getting an error similar to this (com.android.dex.DexException: Multiple dex files define):

UNEXPECTED TOP-LEVEL EXCEPTION:
com.android.dex.DexException: Multiple dex files define Landroid/support/annotation/AnimRes;
	at com.android.dx.merge.DexMerger.readSortableTypes(DexMerger.java:596)
	at com.android.dx.merge.DexMerger.getSortedTypes(DexMerger.java:554)
	at com.android.dx.merge.DexMerger.mergeClassDefs(DexMerger.java:535)
	at com.android.dx.merge.DexMerger.mergeDexes(DexMerger.java:171)
	at com.android.dx.merge.DexMerger.merge(DexMerger.java:189)
	at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.mergeLibraryDexBuffers(Main.java:502)
	at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.runMonoDex(Main.java:334)
	at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.run(Main.java:277)
	at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.main(Main.java:245)
	at com.android.dx.command.Main.main(Main.java:106)

Then at least one other plugin you have installed is using an outdated way to declare dependencies such as android-support or play-services-gcm. This causes gradle to fail, and you'll need to identify which plugin is causing it and request an update to the plugin author, so that it uses the proper way to declare dependencies for cordova. See this for the reference on the cordova plugin specification, it'll be usefull to mention it when creating an issue or requesting that plugin to be updated.

Common plugins to suffer from this outdated dependency management are plugins related to facebook, google+, notifications, crosswalk and google maps.

Android Permissions

Android 6.0 "Marshmallow" introduced a new permissions model where the user can turn on and off permissions as necessary. When user disallow location access permissions, error configure callback will be called with error code: 20.

Notification icons

NOTE: Only available for API Level >=21.

To use custom notification icons, you need to put icons into res/drawable directory of your app. You can automate the process as part of after_platform_add hook configured via config.xml. Check config.xml and scripts/res_android.js of example app for reference.

With Adobe® PhoneGap™ Build icons must be placed into locales/android/drawable dir at the root of your project. For more information go to how-to-add-native-image-with-phonegap-build.

Intel XDK

Plugin will not work in XDK emulator ('Unimplemented API Emulation: BackgroundGeolocation.start' in emulator). But will work on real device.

Debugging sounds

	ios	android
Exit stationary region	Calendar event notification sound	dialtone beep-beep-beep
Geolocation recorded	SMS sent sound	tt short beep
Aggressive geolocation engaged	SIRI listening sound
Passive geolocation engaged	SIRI stop listening sound
Acquiring stationary location sound	"tick,tick,tick" sound
Stationary location acquired sound	"bloom" sound	long tt beep

NOTE: For iOS in addition, you must manually enable the Audio and Airplay background mode in Background Capabilities to hear these debugging sounds.

Geofencing

There is nice cordova plugin cordova-plugin-geofence, which does exactly that. Let's keep this plugin lightweight as much as possible.

Changelog

See CHANGES.md

Licence

Apache License

Copyright (c) 2013 Christopher Scott, Transistor Software

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.