/WWDCAlertApp

A simple iOS app to monitor and notify updates on WWDC webpage

Primary LanguageObjective-CMIT LicenseMIT

WWDC Alert App

Continuous Integration provided by cisimple.

What is it?

This is a simple app that will generate a local notification every time WWDC page updates.

It refreshes every 2 mins and caches the last fetched content of WWDC page. If the most recent content is not exactly same as previously cached copy (using [NSString isEqualToString]), it will trigger a UILocalNotification.

The app also generates a UILocalNotification, if the app is killed or there was an error fetching the latest WWDC page.

Here's my blog post on the App.

Note: The app stops refreshing every 2 minutes when it is foregrounded. So if you leave the app open and running and the device is not locked, it will NOT auto-refresh.

Build Instructions

This app uses Cocoapods. If you haven't used it before, one of the key things to make sure is that you build from WWDCAlert.xcworkspace and not WWDCAlert.xcodeproj. In other words, do NOT open WWDCAlert.xcodeproj in Xcode; instead, use WWDCAlert.xcworkspace and build WWDCAlert target to run on a device.

How does it run in background?

The app registers for background mode to receive location updates. Every time it is backgrounded, it kicks off a background task that wakes up every 2 mins to refresh the WWDC page. If the app is running out of background time allotted to it, it triggers location update on CLLocationManager, which allows for a reset of (bumps up) allotted background time to the app. As you might have already realized, this app will use GPS approximately every 9 mins and also use network to refresh WWDC page every 2 mins; so beware of the high battery consumption. On an iPhone 5, it drained 15% of battery over 6 hours, while running in the background.

Please feel free to modify and run it on your local devices. If you find a bug, please submit a fix/report to the repo for all of us to benefit. Also, this app was put together quickly over an evening, and has not been field tested well, so please do not make this the only source of tracking WWDC date update and use other means as well.

NOTE: This app will NOT be approved (rightfully so) by Apple for the AppStore. It uses location updates to be able to run in the background. There is no valid reason for this type of app to use location updates.

Credits

This app uses AFNetworking to download WWDC page. Thanks to @mattt

Contact

Find me on Twitter: @rmatta