Cordova Background Geolocation ·

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The most sophisticated background location-tracking & geofencing module with battery-conscious motion-detection intelligence for iOS and Android.

The plugin's Philosophy of Operation is to use motion-detection APIs (using accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer) to detect when the device is moving and stationary.

• When the device is detected to be moving, the plugin will automatically start recording a location according to the configured distanceFilter (meters).

• When the device is detected be stationary, the plugin will automatically turn off location-services to conserve energy.

Also available for React Native, NativeScript and pure native apps.

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The Android plugin requires purchasing a license. However, it will work for DEBUG builds. It will not work with RELEASE builds without purchasing a license.

(2018) This plugin is supported full-time and field-tested daily since 2013.

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Contents

• 📚 API Documentation

  • 🔧 Configuration Options
  • ⚡ Events
  • 🔹 Methods

• Installing the Plugin

• Android SDK Setup

• Configuring the Plugin

• Using the plugin

• Debugging

• Example

• Sample Application

• Testing Server

🔷 Installing the plugin

From npm

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt

Phonegap Build

  <plugin name="cordova-background-geolocation-lt" source="npm">

  </plugin>

From master (latest, greatest.)

$ cordova plugin add https://github.com/transistorsoft/cordova-background-geolocation-lt.git

🔷 Android SDK

If building from your local machine (as you should be), ensure you have the following items installed or updated in Android SDK Manager

SDK Tools

SDK Platforms

🔷 Configuring the plugin

After adding the plugin, your config.xml will contain the following block, containing a number of <variable /> for you to configure (eg: LICENSE):

<widget id="com.your.company.app.id">
  <plugin name="cordova-background-geolocation-lt">
    <variable name="LICENSE" value="YOUR_LICENSE_KEY" />
    <variable name="GOOGLE_API_VERSION" value="11.6.0" />
    <variable name="APPCOMPAT_VERSION" value="26.1.0" />
    <variable name="LOCATION_ALWAYS_AND_WHEN_IN_USE_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="Always use is required for background location tracking" />
    <variable name="LOCATION_ALWAYS_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="Background location-tracking is required" />
    <variable name="LOCATION_WHEN_IN_USE_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="Background location-tracking is required" />
    <variable name="MOTION_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="Using the accelerometer increases battery-efficiency by intelligently toggling location-tracking only when the device is detected to be moving" />
  </plugin>
  .
  .
  .
</widget>

To configure these <variable />, you simply re-add the plugin, providing desired --variable to the cordova plugin add command. You can combine multiple --variable together in one command or execute cordova plugin add successivly.

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable VARIABLE_NAME=value

$ cordova platform remove android
$ cordova platform add android

❗ To apply changes to these <variable />, you must remove/re-add the cordova platform(s)

Configuring Multiple Variables at Once

Use the \ character followed by [ENTER] in console to configure multiple variables with one command:

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt \
  --variable LICENSE=your_key_here \
  --variable GOOGLE_API_VERSION=11.6.0 \
  --variable APPCOMPAT_VERSION=27.0.0 \
  --variable MOTION_USAGE_DESCRIPTION="My motion usage description"

$ cordova platform remove android
$ cordova platform add android

$ cordova platform remove ios
$ cordova platform add ios

Or each variable separately

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable MOTION_USAGE_DESCRIPTION="My Motion Usage Description"

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable LOCATION_ALWAYS_AND_WHEN_IN_USE_USAGE_DESCRIPTION="My Usage Description"

$ cordova platform remove ios
$ cordova platform add ios

After editing variables, ALWAYS REMOVE / RE-ADD PLATFORM

$ cordova platform remove android
$ cordova platform add android

$ cordova platform remove ios
$ cordova platform add ios

Configuring your LICENSE key

After generating your Android license-key in the Product Dashboard, Configure the LICENSE variable:

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable LICENSE=your_key_here

// Remove / re-add the Android platform
$ cordova platform remove android
$ cordova platform add android

Configuring play-services Version

Many other plugins require Google Play Services and/or Firebase libraries. This is a common source of Android build-failures, since the play-services library version must be aligned to the same version for all plugins. For example, when one plugin imports version 11.0.1 and another one imports 11.2.0, a gradle build failure will occur. Use the GOOGLE_API_VERSION to align the required play-services version with other plugins.

⚠️ The plugin requires a minimum version of 11.2.0.

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable GOOGLE_API_VERSION=11.2.0
$ cordova platform remove android
$ cordova platform add android

Configuring for useSignificantChangesOnly

For those using useSignificantChangesOnly: true, possibly because Apple denied your use of the background location capability, you can disable background location by providing the BACKGROUND_MODE_LOCATION <variable /> with an empty-string:

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable BACKGROUND_MODE_LOCATION=""

$ cordova platform remove ios
$ cordova platform add ios

Configuration Variables

Android

@variable LICENSE [""]

Your Android license key generated from Product Dashboard

@variable GOOGLE_API_VERSION ["11.6.0"]

Sets the desired version of play-services-location dependency. Many other plugins require play-services dependencies, (eg: cordova-plugin-googlemaps, phonegap-plugin-push): If the version of play-services and/or firebase is not aligned to the same version for ALL plugins, your build will fail.

@variable APPCOMPAT_VERSION ["27.0.0"]

Sets the desired version of com.google.android.appcompat-v7 dependency. Many other plugins can require a different version of appcompat-v7 dependeny: If the version of appcompat-v7 is not aligned to the same version for ALL plugins, your build will fail. BackgroundGeolocation requires a minimum version of 26.1.0 due to its support for Android 8.

iOS

@variable LOCATION_ALWAYS_AND_WHEN_IN_USE_USAGE_DESCRIPTION ["Background location-tracking is required"]

Customize the message displayed to the user when AlwaysAndWhenInUse location authorization is requested. This variable is added to your iOS .plist in the NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription key.

@variable LOCATION_ALWAYS_USAGE_DESCRIPTION ["Background location-tracking is required"]

(deprecated in iOS 11.0) Customize the message displayed to the user when Always location authorization is requested. This variable is added to your iOS .plist in the NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription key.

@variable LOCATION_WHEN_IN_USE_USAGE_DESCRIPTION ["Background location-tracking is required"

Customize the message displayed to the user when WhenInUse location authorization is requested. This variable is added to your iOS .plist in the NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription key.

@variable MOTION_USAGE_DESCRIPTION ["Using the accelerometer increases battery-efficiency by..."

Customize the message displayed to the user when "Motion & Fitness" permission is requested. The plugin is highly optimized to use iOS CMMotionActivityManager API for intelligently toggling location-services only when the plugin is detected to be moving.

@variable BACKGROUND_MODE_LOCATION ["<string>location</string>"]

Adds the iOS background-mode location to your iOS .plist file. This is the default behaviour. To disable this, (ie: for those using useSignificantChangesOnly), provide an empty-string:

  <variable name="BACKGROUND_MODE_LOCATION" value="" />

⚠️ If you do want the default behaviour of background-location updates, simply IGNORE this variable -- Do NOT even provide it. If you do provide it, you must provide the full escaped XML value of <string>location</string> (the default value when not provided), not just location.

🔷 Using the Plugin

The plugin creates the object window.BackgroundGeolocation. See API Documentation for details

Ionic 2+ and Typescript

Sample Implementation

platform.ready().then(() => {
  let bgGeo = (<any>window).BackgroundGeolocation;
});

Initialize the Plugin

There are three simple steps to using BackgroundGeolocation:

1. Listen to events
2. Execute #ready
3. #start the plugin

// 1.  Listen to events
bgGeo.on('location', onLocation, onLocationFailure);
bgGeo.on('motionchange', onMotionChange);
bgGeo.on('providerchange', onProviderChange);

// 2. Execute #ready method:  
bgGeo.ready({  
  desiredAccuracy: 0,   // <-- Config params
  distanceFilter: 50
}, function(state) {    // <-- Current state provided to #configure callback
  // 3.  Start tracking
  console.log('BackgroundGeolocation is configured and ready to use');
  if (!state.enabled) {
    bgGeo.start(function() {
      console.log('- BackgroundGeolocation tracking started');
    });
  }
});
// NOTE:  Do NOT execute any API methods until the callback to #configure
// method above executes!
// For example, do not do this here:
// bgGeo.getCurrentPosition()   // <-- NO!
// bgGeo.start();               // <-- NO!

ℹ️ NOTE: The configuration {} provided to the #ready method is applied only when your app is first booted — for every launch thereafter, the plugin will automatically load the last known configuration from persistant storage. If you wish to force the #ready method to always apply the supplied config {}, you can specify reset: true

bgGeo.ready({
  reset: true,  // <-- true to always apply the supplied config
  distanceFilter: 10
}, function(state) {
  console.log('- BackgroundGeolocation is ready: ', state);
});

⚠️ Do not execute any API method which will require accessing location-services until the callback to **#ready* executes (eg: #getCurrentPosition, #watchPosition, #start).

Promise API

The BackgroundGeolocation Javascript API supports Promises for nearly every method (the exceptions are #watchPosition and adding event-listeners via #on method. For more information, see the API Documentation

// Traditional API still works:
bgGeo.ready({desiredAccuracy: 0, distanceFilter: 50}).then(state => {
  console.log('- BackgroundGeolocation is ready: ', state);
}).catch(error => {
  console.log('- BackgroundGeolocation error: ', error);
});

🔷 Example

See here for an Ionic 3 example.

////
// As with all Cordova plugins, you must configure within an #deviceready callback.
//
function onDeviceReady() {
    // Get a reference to the plugin.
    var bgGeo = window.BackgroundGeolocation;

    //This callback will be executed every time a geolocation is recorded in the background.
    var callbackFn = function(location) {
        var coords = location.coords;
        var lat    = coords.latitude;
        var lng    = coords.longitude;
        console.log('- Location: ', JSON.stringify(location));        
    };

    // This callback will be executed if a location-error occurs.  Eg: this will be called if user disables location-services.
    var failureFn = function(errorCode) {
        console.warn('- BackgroundGeoLocation error: ', errorCode);
    }

    // Listen to location events & errors.
    bgGeo.on('location', callbackFn, failureFn);
    // Fired whenever state changes from moving->stationary or vice-versa.
    bgGeo.on('motionchange', function(isMoving) {
      console.log('- onMotionChange: ', isMoving);
    });
    // Fired whenever a geofence transition occurs.
    bgGeo.on('geofence', function(geofence) {
      console.log('- onGeofence: ', geofence.identifier, geofence.location);
    });
    // Fired whenever an HTTP response is received from your server.
    bgGeo.on('http', function(response) {
      console.log('http success: ', response.responseText);
    }, function(response) {
      console.log('http failure: ', response.status);
    });

    // BackgroundGeoLocation is highly configurable.
    bgGeo.ready({
        // Geolocation config
        desiredAccuracy: 0,
        distanceFilter: 10,
        stationaryRadius: 25,
        // Activity Recognition config
        activityRecognitionInterval: 10000,
        stopTimeout: 5,
        // Application config
        debug: true,  // <-- Debug sounds & notifications.
        stopOnTerminate: false,
        startOnBoot: true,
        // HTTP / SQLite config
        url: "http://your.server.com/locations",
        method: "POST",
        autoSync: true,
        maxDaysToPersist: 3,
        headers: {  // <-- Optional HTTP headers
            "X-FOO": "bar"
        },
        params: {   // <-- Optional HTTP params
            "auth_token": "maybe_your_server_authenticates_via_token_YES?"
        }
    }, function(state) {
        // This callback is executed when the plugin is ready to use.
        console.log("BackgroundGeolocation ready: ", state);
        if (!state.enabled) {
            bgGeo.start();
        }
    });

    // The plugin is typically toggled with some button on your UI.
    function onToggleEnabled(value) {
        if (value) {
            bgGeo.start();
        } else {
            bgGeo.stop();
        }
    }
}

🔷 Advanced Sample Application

A fully-featured SampleApp is available in its own public repo. After first cloning that repo, follow the installation instructions in the README there. This SampleApp includes a settings-screen allowing you to quickly experiment with all the different settings available for each platform.

If you're using XCode, boot the SampleApp in the iOS Simulator and enable Debug->Location->Freeway Drive.

🔷 Simple Testing Server

A simple Node-based web-application with SQLite database is available for field-testing and performance analysis. If you're familiar with Node, you can have this server up-and-running in about one minute.

Licence

cordova-background-geolocation
Copyright (c) 2018, Transistor Software (9224-2932 Quebec Inc)
All rights reserved.
[email protected]
http://transistorsoft.com

1. Preamble: This Agreement governs the relationship between YOU OR THE ORGANIZATION ON WHOSE BEHALF YOU ARE ENTERING INTO THIS AGREEMENT (hereinafter: Licensee) and Transistor Software, a LICENSOR AFFILIATION whose principal place of business is Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Hereinafter: Licensor). This Agreement sets the terms, rights, restrictions and obligations on using [{software}] (hereinafter: The Software) created and owned by Licensor, as detailed herein

2. License Grant: Licensor hereby grants Licensee a Personal, Non-assignable & non-transferable, Commercial, Royalty free, Including the rights to create but not distribute derivative works, Non-exclusive license, all with accordance with the terms set forth and other legal restrictions set forth in 3rd party software used while running Software.

   2.1 Limited: Licensee may use Software for the purpose of: - Running Software on Licensee's Website[s] and Server[s]; - Allowing 3rd Parties to run Software on Licensee's Website[s] and Server[s]; - Publishing Software’s output to Licensee and 3rd Parties; - Distribute verbatim copies of Software's output (including compiled binaries); - Modify Software to suit Licensee’s needs and specifications.

   2.2 Binary Restricted: Licensee may sublicense Software as a part of a larger work containing more than Software, distributed solely in Object or Binary form under a personal, non-sublicensable, limited license. Such redistribution shall be limited to unlimited codebases.

3. 2.3 Non Assignable & Non-Transferable: Licensee may not assign or transfer his rights and duties under this license.

   2.4 Commercial, Royalty Free: Licensee may use Software for any purpose, including paid-services, without any royalties

   2.5 Including the Right to Create Derivative Works: Licensee may create derivative works based on Software, including amending Software’s source code, modifying it, integrating it into a larger work or removing portions of Software, as long as no distribution of the derivative works is made.

4. Term & Termination: The Term of this license shall be until terminated. Licensor may terminate this Agreement, including Licensee's license in the case where Licensee :

   3.1 became insolvent or otherwise entered into any liquidation process; or

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   5.1 Upgrades: for the purpose of this license, an Upgrade shall be a material amendment in The Software, which contains new features and or major performance improvements and shall be marked as a new version number. For example, should Licensee purchase The Software under version 1.X.X, an upgrade shall commence under number 2.0.0.

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8. Liability: To the extent permitted under Law, The Software is provided under an AS-IS basis. Licensor shall never, and without any limit, be liable for any damage, cost, expense or any other payment incurred by Licensee as a result of Software’s actions, failure, bugs and/or any other interaction between The Software  and Licensee’s end-equipment, computers, other software or any 3rd party, end-equipment, computer or services. Moreover, Licensor shall never be liable for any defect in source code written by Licensee when relying on The Software or using The Software’s source code.

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