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Silent push notifications allow us to remotely request a fresh location from a user. Radar supports requesting these locations through an API endpoint, starting with iOS SDK version 3.24.0. There are two types of silent push notifications that can be sent to a device: regular app silent push and location service extension push. App silent push can be used to wake the app to perform a track if the app is in the foreground or background. This can be used to restart tracking if tracking was stopped due to device memory or CPU resource constraints. However the silent push notification will not work if the app has been manually killed by the user. Location extension service can be used to request a location for devices even if the app was manually terminated. The app will wake for ~30 seconds to respond to the request and perform a track request with a fresh location. The location extension service acts as a separate app, so it can only restart continuous tracking for 30 seconds before the extension is shutdown.

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Radar dashboard setup

Obtain an encryption key for APN (Apple push notification). Navigate to Settings tab, and enable push notifications. Then enter in the app’s bundle ID, team ID, key ID, and key. Then save the settings.

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App setup (automated setup)

  • Enable remote notifications in app capabilities.
  • Initialize Radar with RadarInitializeOptions.pushNotification = true. 
import UIKit
import RadarSDK

@UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {

    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        let radarInitializeOptions = RadarInitializeOptions()
        radarInitializeOptions.silentPush = true
        Radar.initialize(publishableKey: "prj_test_pk_...", options: radarInitializeOptions)

        return true
    }

}

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Manual setup

  • Enable remote notifications in app capabilities.
  • Initialize Radar with RadarInitializeOptions.silentPush = false this is the default value. 
import UIKit
import RadarSDK

@UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {

    let locationManager = CLLocationManager()

    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        let radarInitializeOptions = RadarInitializeOptions()
        radarInitializeOptions.silentPush = false
        Radar.initialize(publishableKey: "prj_test_pk_...", options: radarInitializeOptions)

        locationManager.startMonitoringLocationPushes() { data, error in
            Radar.setLocationExtensionToken(data?.map { String(format: "%02x", $0) }.joined())
        }

        return true
    }

}

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Location extension service setup

When a location payload is received by the location service extension, pass the payload to Radar to handle the notification. 
import CoreLocation
import RadarSDK

class LocationPushService: NSObject, CLLocationPushServiceExtension {
    func didReceiveLocationPushPayload(_ payload: [String : Any], completion: @escaping () -> Void) {
        Radar.initialize(withAppGroup: "group.yourApp.data")
        Radar.didReceivePushNotificationPayload(payload, completionHandler: completion)
    }
}

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Usage

Silent push or location extension push notifications can be triggered by sending a POST API request to the /users/refresh endpoint. See the API reference for full details.