Running the plugin in background

[stochris]

Hello. First of all, let me say that this plugin is really useful for mobile, since by default, the MQTT protocol has such a low overhead, and prioritizes the battery life of the device.
However, I was wondering if there is any official support for running the plugin in background, and keeping the tcp socket open while the main cordova application is sleeping ?

Also, as a side note, how difficult would be to implement the plugin for IOS ? I understand that there are certain limitation with calling C++ methods ( PAHO MQTT ) from Objective-C ( such as not working over cellular mobile )

[arcoirislabs]

@stoiKris
Thank you for your appreciation,
Well currently we were a bit hesitant about the service implementation of the android platform as no one requested, but since you have asked for it we would really like to work on to bring the service implementation of the android to help you with the background service version in the next version.

The iOS implementation is not being finalized because we need to first create an app using our plugin and see if any issues arise during the app submission due to our plugin implementation. We don't want to be a reason for your rejection during app submission (Apple..Ugh!). Although the implementation is not that difficult, but we need to make sure of our implementation, that we do not violate any guidelines.

Open Source Team
Arcoiris Labs

[stochris]

Ok, thank you very much.

The think is, by letting the plugin run in background, you allow your application to use notifications while it's idle, and I don't really see a a downside, since MQTT doesn't use too much battery or mobile traffic.

And you can also let the any notifications be handled by the cordova app ( templating, localization, etc ), instead of moving it to the MQTT broker

[arcoirislabs]

Sure we will take up your suggestion to our team members and some way to implement notifications for background service implementation.
Thank you for your suggestions.

[nmaas87]

I would find this feature very useful as well :)!

[KennPunt]

Background service notifications would be great!

[aignacio]

Thanks again to @arcoirislabs, incredible job, I just have one doubt about performance, does anyone knows the response time of messages from subscription in the app?, as an example 500ms between the message arrived to the broker and be delivered to the callback application mobile.

[arcoirislabs]

@aignacio
We are unsure about the delay as we have not tested it but you may receive the timestamp when the event for a topic was called by digging in the event's callback data. You may cross reference it with broker's verbose if given out by one. Run the broker in verbose mode to get the timestamp of data being received. You have the timestamp on the broker and you the timestamp of message received in the callback.
We are glad that you liked our work. Many features are coming hence forth.

[nmaas87]

Any update on the Background service notifications?

[arcoirislabs]

Hello @nmaas87
We are not sure about when exactly we can roll over that update as we are currently expanding the plugin for other platforms, preferably for iOS. So for now no updates on this work yet. If you can contribute, we will welcome your pull request regarding this feature update.

Amey K.
Maintainer

[nmaas87]

Thank you very much @arcoirislabs for the insight.
I would love to contribute - however I am not good enough to develop the requested feature myself, therefore I cannot hand in an pull request, sorry :(!

[arcoirislabs]

It's fine @nmaas87.
We will surely update you personally on any updates regarding this requested feature. Until then, this issue will remain open for any suggestions/queries/discussions.

[napcat]

I'm also interested in this. It would be a killer feature.

[snr-lab]

Hi,
First of all, I would like to thank you for this nice and useful plugin. It will be great if background service is available.

[JoshBenaya]

Hello, any updates on this feature? thanks!

[askie]

It will be great if background service is available.

[llittlefoxx]

Hello dear all,
Thanks for your efforts! Do you have any updates regarding the background feature?