Android Question Service/StartServiceAt reliability - advice sought

[JackKirk]

Hi,

I have a couple of B4A v10.7 apps that use services with StartServiceAt to periodically check for certain changes in AWS S3 files.

They work pretty reliably on my Samsung S5 and I have a SMS alert mechanism for when they do fail.

I would like to find some way to improve their reliability - maybe with another app?

Any suggestions appreciated...

 

[Erel]

I would like to find some way to improve their reliability - maybe with another app?

Push notifications are more reliable. You can check for changes from a server or a PC and send push notifications when needed.

 

[KMatle]

Take a look here: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/background-location-tracking.99873/

Check the energy savings on newer Android versions. Non system apps (like yours) are not allowed to run in the background by default.

 

[KMatle]

Push notifications are more reliable. You can check for changes from a server or a PC and send push notifications when needed.

Even better

 

[JackKirk]

Non system apps (like yours) are not allowed to run in the background by default.

Not sure I exactly understand what a "system app" is - one of my apps runs as the default messaging app (i.e. replaces the normal SMS app) on a dedicated Android device - is this a "system app".

 

[JohnC]

A system app are the apps built-into the phone when you buy it (not counting the built-in bloatware apps)

 

[JackKirk]

Take a look here: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/background-location-tracking.99873/

I used a lot of the guts of this as the basis for the apps I wrote.

 

[JackKirk]

Push notifications are more reliable.

I looked at this mechanism before I wrote these apps but came to the conclusion that the extra complexity of additional accounts and 3rd party servers - which need to be maintained, documented and explained to users - was too much.

I was looking for the simplest possible solution within the "AWS bubble" I have to work in - and came up with simple periodic polling - not as elegant probably but way simpler.

The only real issue is the annoyance of the odd failure of the StartServiceAt mechanism - which the SMS alert mechanism provides a workaround for - and which I was hoping to improve by raising the question in post #1.

 

[JackKirk]

Have a look at https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/t...ing-that-use-startserviceat-in-a-loop.130989/