cordova-plugin-mauron85-background-geolocation

Breaking changes

Documentation has been updated to v3. Documentation for version 2.x can be found here.

Plugin has been upgraded significantly since v2. Please read docs thoroughly.

Donation

Please support my work and support continuous development by your donation.

Description

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

Plugin can be used for geolocation when app is running in foreground or background. It is more battery and data efficient than html5 geolocation or cordova-geolocation plugin. It can be used side by side with other geolocation providers (eg. html5 navigator.geolocation).

You can choose from two location location providers:

• DISTANCE_FILTER_PROVIDER
• ACTIVITY_PROVIDER
• RAW_PROVIDER

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

Example Application

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

Submitting issues

All new issues should follow instructions in ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md. Properly filled issue report will significantly reduce number of follow up questions and decrease issue resolving time. Most issues cannot be resolved without debug logs. Please try to isolate debug lines related to your issue. Instructions how to prepare debug logs can be found in section Debugging. If you're reporting app crash, debug logs might not contain all needed informations about the cause of the crash. In that case, also provide relevant parts of output of adb logcat command.

Semantic Versioning

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

Migrations

See MIGRATIONS.md

Installing the plugin

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

Default iOS location permission prompt can be changed in your config.xml:

<plugin name="cordova-plugin-mauron85-background-geolocation">
    <variable name="ALWAYS_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="This app requires background tracking enabled" />
    <variable name="MOTION_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="This app requires motion detection" />
</plugin>

For compatibility with other plugins you may also set specific google play version. Following example will lock google play services to version 11.0.1 for compatibility with phonegap-plugin-push.

Note: Always consult documentation of other plugins to figure out correct GOOGLE_PLAY_SERVICES_VERSION.

<plugin name="cordova-plugin-mauron85-background-geolocation">
    <!-- may contain other variables as shown above -->
    <variable name="GOOGLE_PLAY_SERVICES_VERSION" value="11.0.1" />
</plugin>

Note: To apply changes, you must remove and reinstall plugin.

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:

<plugin name="cordova-plugin-mauron85-background-geolocation"/>

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

Compatibility

Plugin version	Cordova CLI	Cordova Platform Android	Cordova Platform iOS
<2.3.0	6.4.0	6.3.0
>=2.3.0	7.1.0	6.3.0

Please note that as of Cordova Android 6.0.0 icons are by default in mipmap/ directory not drawable/ directory, so this plugin will have a build issue on < 6.0.0 Cordova builds, you will need to update Authenticator.xml to drawable directory from mipmap directory to work on older versions.

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

Example using React Component

Note: You don't have to use React or write your app in ES2015. You can call BackgroundGeolocation methods directly.

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { Alert } from 'react-native-web';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

class BgTracking extends Component {
  componentDidMount() {
    BackgroundGeolocation.configure({
      desiredAccuracy: BackgroundGeolocation.HIGH_ACCURACY,
      stationaryRadius: 50,
      distanceFilter: 50,
      notificationTitle: 'Background tracking',
      notificationText: 'enabled',
      debug: true,
      startOnBoot: false,
      stopOnTerminate: false,
      locationProvider: BackgroundGeolocation.ACTIVITY_PROVIDER,
      interval: 10000,
      fastestInterval: 5000,
      activitiesInterval: 10000,
      url: 'http://192.168.81.15:3000/location',
      httpHeaders: {
        'X-FOO': 'bar'
      },
      // customize post properties
      postTemplate: {
        lat: '@latitude',
        lon: '@longitude',
        foo: 'bar' // you can also add your own properties
      }
    });

    BackgroundGeolocation.on('location', (location) => {
      // handle your locations here
      // to perform long running operation on iOS
      // you need to create background task
      BackgroundGeolocation.startTask(taskKey => {
        // execute long running task
        // eg. ajax post location
        // IMPORTANT: task has to be ended by endTask
        BackgroundGeolocation.endTask(taskKey);
      });
    });

    BackgroundGeolocation.on('stationary', (stationaryLocation) => {
      // handle stationary locations here
    });

    BackgroundGeolocation.on('error', (error) => {
      console.log('[ERROR] BackgroundGeolocation error:', error.code, error.message);
    });

    BackgroundGeolocation.on('start', () => {
      console.log('[INFO] BackgroundGeolocation service has been started');
    });

    BackgroundGeolocation.on('stop', () => {
      console.log('[INFO] BackgroundGeolocation service has been stopped');
    });

    BackgroundGeolocation.on('authorization', (status) => {
      console.log('[INFO] BackgroundGeolocation authorization status: ' + status);
      if (status !== BackgroundGeolocation.AUTHORIZED) {
        Alert.alert('Location services are disabled', 'Would you like to open location settings?', [
          { text: 'Yes', onPress: () => BackgroundGeolocation.showLocationSettings() },
          { text: 'No', onPress: () => console.log('No Pressed'), style: 'cancel' }
        ]);
      }
    });

    BackgroundGeolocation.on('background', () => {
      console.log('[INFO] App is in background');
      // you can also reconfigure service (changes will be applied immediately)
      BackgroundGeolocation.configure({ debug: true });
    });

    BackgroundGeolocation.on('foreground', () => {
      console.log('[INFO] App is in foreground');
      BackgroundGeolocation.configure({ debug: false });
    });

    BackgroundGeolocation.checkStatus(status => {
      console.log('[INFO] BackgroundGeolocation service is running', status.isRunning);
      console.log('[INFO] BackgroundGeolocation service has permissions', status.hasPermissions);
      console.log('[INFO] BackgroundGeolocation auth status: ' + status.authorization);

      // you don't need to check status before start (this is just the example)
      if (!status.isRunning) {
        BackgroundGeolocation.start(); //triggers start on start event
      }
    });

    // you can also just start without checking for status
    // BackgroundGeolocation.start();
  }

  componentWillUnmount() {
    // unregister all event listeners
    BackgroundGeolocation.events.forEach(event => BackgroundGeolocation.removeAllListeners(event));
  }

  render() {
    // render locations, buttons, etc...
  }
}

function onDeviceReady() {
  ReactDOM.render(<BgTracking />, node);
}

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

API

configure(options)

Configure options:

Parameter	Type	Platform	Description	Provider*	Default
locationProvider	Number	all	Set location provider @see PROVIDERS	N/A	DISTANCE_FILTER_PROVIDER
desiredAccuracy	Number	all	Desired accuracy in meters. Possible values [HIGH_ACCURACY, MEDIUM_ACCURACY, LOW_ACCURACY, PASSIVE_ACCURACY]. Accuracy has direct effect on power drain. Lower accuracy = lower power drain.	all	MEDIUM_ACCURACY
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.	DIS	50
debug	Boolean	all	When enabled, the plugin will emit sounds for life-cycle events of background-geolocation! See debugging sounds table.	all	false
distanceFilter	Number	all	The minimum distance (measured in meters) a device must move horizontally before an update event is generated. @see Apple docs.	DIS,RAW	500
stopOnTerminate	Boolean	all	Enable this in order to force a stop() when the application terminated (e.g. on iOS, double-tap home button, swipe away the app).	all	true
startOnBoot	Boolean	Android	Start background service on device boot.	all	false
startForeground	Boolean	Android	If false location service will not be started in foreground and no notification will be shown.	all	true
interval	Number	Android	The minimum time interval between location updates in milliseconds. @see Android docs for more information.	all	60000
fastestInterval	Number	Android	Fastest rate in milliseconds at which your app can handle location updates. @see Android docs.	ACT	120000
activitiesInterval	Number	Android	Rate in milliseconds at which activity recognition occurs. Larger values will result in fewer activity detections while improving battery life.	ACT	10000
stopOnStillActivity	Boolean	Android	@deprecated stop location updates, when the STILL activity is detected	ACT	true
notificationTitle	String optional	Android	Custom notification title in the drawer.	all	"Background tracking"
notificationText	String optional	Android	Custom notification text in the drawer.	all	"ENABLED"
notificationIconColor	String optional	Android	The accent color to use for notification. Eg. #4CAF50.	all
notificationIconLarge	String optional	Android	The filename of a custom notification icon. @see Android quirks.	all
notificationIconSmall	String optional	Android	The filename of a custom notification icon. @see Android quirks.	all
activityType	String	iOS	[AutomotiveNavigation, OtherNavigation, Fitness, Other] Presumably, this affects iOS GPS algorithm. @see Apple docs for more information	all	"OtherNavigation"
pauseLocationUpdates	Boolean	iOS	Pauses location updates when app is paused. *@see Apple docs	all	false
saveBatteryOnBackground	Boolean	iOS	Switch to less accurate significant changes and region monitory when in background	all	true
url	String	all	Server url where to send HTTP POST with recorded locations @see HTTP locations posting	all
syncUrl	String	all	Server url where to send fail to post locations @see HTTP locations posting	all
syncThreshold	Number	all	Specifies how many previously failed locations will be sent to server at once	all	100
httpHeaders	Object	all	Optional HTTP headers sent along in HTTP request	all
maxLocations	Number	all	Limit maximum number of locations stored into db	all	10000
postTemplate	Object|Array	all	Customization post template @see Custom post template	all

* DIS = DISTANCE_FILTER_PROVIDER ACT = ACTIVITY_PROVIDER RAW = RAW_PROVIDER

Partial reconfiguration is possible be providing only some configuration options:

BackgroundGeolocation.configure({
  debug: true
});

In this case new configuration options will be merged with stored configuration options and changes will be applied immediately.

start()

Platform: iOS, Android

Start background geolocation.

stop()

Platform: iOS, Android

Stop background geolocation.

isLocationEnabled(success, fail)

Deprecated: This method is deprecated and will be removed in next major version. Use checkStatus as replacement.

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)

checkStatus(success, fail)

Check status of the service

Success callback parameter	Type	Description
isRunning	Boolean	true/false (true if service is running)
hasPermissions	Boolean	true/false (true if service has permissions)
authorization	Number	BackgroundGeolocation.{NOT_AUTHORIZED | AUTHORIZED}

showAppSettings()

Platform: Android >= 6, iOS >= 8.0

Show app settings to allow change of app location permissions.

showLocationSettings()

Platform: iOS, Android

Show system settings to allow configuration of current location sources.

getLocations(success, fail)

Platform: iOS, Android

Method will return all stored locations. This method is useful for initial rendering of user location on a map just after application launch.

Note: Returned locations does not contain location.id.

Success callback parameter	Type	Description
locations	Array	collection of stored locations

BackgroundGeolocation.getLocations(
  function (locations) {
    console.log(locations);
  }
);

getValidLocations(success, fail)

Platform: iOS, Android

Method will return locations, which has not been yet posted to server. Note: Locations does contain location.id.

Success callback parameter	Type	Description
locations	Array	collection of stored locations

deleteLocation(locationId, success, fail)

Platform: iOS, Android

Delete location with locationId.

Note: Locations are not actually deleted from database to avoid gaps in locationId numbering. Instead locations are marked as deleted. Locations marked as deleted will not appear in output of BackgroundGeolocation.getLocations.

deleteAllLocations(success, fail)

Note: You don't need to delete all locations. Plugin manages number of locations automatically and location count never exceeds number as defined by option.maxLocations.

Platform: iOS, Android

Delete all stored locations.

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 receive locations and uses option.stationaryRadius only.

// switch to FOREGROUND mode
BackgroundGeolocation.switchMode(BackgroundGeolocation.FOREGROUND_MODE);

// switch to BACKGROUND mode
BackgroundGeolocation.switchMode(BackgroundGeolocation.BACKGROUND_MODE);

getLogEntries(limit, success, fail)

Platform: Android, iOS

Return all logged events. Useful for plugin debugging. Parameter limit limits number of returned entries. @see Debugging for more information.

removeAllListeners(event)

Unregister all event listeners for given event

Events

Name	Callback param	Platform	Provider*	Description
location	Location	all	all	on location update
stationary	Location	all	DIS,ACT	on device entered stationary mode
activity	Activity	Android	ACT	on activity detection
error	{ code, message }	all	all	on plugin error
authorization	status	all	all	on user toggle location service
start		all	all	geolocation has been started
stop		all	all	geolocation has been stopped
foreground		Android	all	app entered foreground state (visible)
background		Android	all	app entered background state

Location event

Location parameter	Type	Description
id	Number	ID of location as stored in DB (or null)
provider	String	gps, network, passive or fused
locationProvider	Number	location provider
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.

Activity event

Activity parameter	Type	Description
confidence	Number	Percentage indicating the likelihood user is performing this activity.
type	String	"IN_VEHICLE", "ON_BICYCLE", "ON_FOOT", "RUNNING", "STILL",
		"TILTING", "UNKNOWN", "WALKING"

Event listeners can registered with:

const eventSubscription = BackgroundGeolocation.on('event', callbackFn);

And unregistered:

eventSubscription.remove();

Note: Components should unregister all event listeners in componentWillUnmount method, individually, or with removeAllListeners

HTTP locations posting

All locations updates are recorded in local db at all times. When App is in foreground or background in addition to storing location in local db, location callback function is triggered. Number of location stored in db is limited by option.maxLocations a never exceeds this number. Instead old locations are replaced by new ones.

When option.url is defined, each location is also immediately posted to url defined by option.url. If post is successful, the location is marked as deleted in local db.

When option.syncUrl is defined all failed to post locations will be coalesced and send in some time later in one single batch. Batch sync takes place only when number of failed to post locations reaches option.syncTreshold. Locations are send only in single batch, when number of locations reaches option.syncTreshold. (No individual location will be send)

Request body of posted locations is always array, even when only one location is sent.

Warning: option.maxLocations has to be larger than option.syncThreshold. It's recommended to be 2x larger. In other case location syncing might not work properly.

Custom post template

With option.postTemplate is possible to specify which location properties should be posted to option.url or option.syncUrl. This can be usefull to reduce number of bytes sent over "wire"

All wanted location properties has to be prefixed with @. For all available properties check Location event.

Two forms are supported:

jsonObject

BackgroundGeolocation.configure({
  postTemplate: {
    lat: '@latitude',
    lon: '@longitude',
    foo: 'bar' // you can also add your own properties
  }
});

jsonArray

BackgroundGeolocation.configure({
  postTemplate: ['@latitude', '@longitude', 'foo', 'bar']
});

Note: only string keys and values are supported. Note: Keep in mind that all locations (even single one) will be sent as array of object(s), when postTemplate is jsonObject and array of array(s) for jsonArray!

Example of backend server

Background-geolocation-server is a backend server written in nodejs. There are instructions how to run it and simulate locations on Android, iOS Simulator and Genymotion.

Quirks

iOS

On iOS the plugin will execute your registered .on('location', callbackFn) callback function. You may manually POST the received Geolocation to your server using standard XHR. However for long running tasks, you need to wrap your code in startTask - endTask block.

stationaryRadius (apply only for DISTANCE_FILTER_PROVIDER)

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 switchMode is provided to force the plugin to enter "BACKGROUND" stationary or "FOREGROUND" mode.

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

On Android devices it is recommended to have a notification in the drawer (option startForeground:true). This gives plugin location service higher priority, decreasing probability of OS killing it. Check wiki for explanation.

Custom ROMs

Plugin should work with custom ROMS at least DISTANCE_FILTER_PROVIDER. But 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: 2.

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.

If you only want a single large icon, set notificationIconLarge to null and include your icon's filename in the notificationIconSmall parameter.

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

See DEBUGGING.md

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.