[PAID] ⏰ Alarm Manager Extension with Notification or Autostart

[Taifun]

@Chechnya_360

I wrote to you on which phone it doesn’t work at all or are you deliberately ignoring it.

I now checked again my personal messages... we had a conversation in April 2023... you had problems with a Samsung A10 and you did not get an alarm at the given time, my answer was

In your test app there is missing

• the close application block to get a notification if the app was closed
• the AfterAlarm event to display something if the app was not closed

and, as you did not close the application

...it was still active and not really closed, in this case the AfterAlarm event fires... however if you do not use it, nothing happens

then in your last message you tried to create an alarm but had issues to create an instant of time. My answer was

yióu have to use this format MM/dd/YYYY hh:mm:ss, see also the documentation of the MakeInstant block
http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu/reference/components/sensors.html#Clock

Returns an instant in time specified by MM/dd/YYYY hh:mm:ss or MM/dd/YYYY or hh:mm.

you always can check, if an alarm is returned in the GetAlarm method...

also see again my answer from here...

Open Source • Background Tasks: Itoo

You are using an old version from December 2021, The extension was updated several times meanwhile, see also here. You should use the latest version as of November 2022, which is SDK31 compatible. You can find it in the download folder. Taifun

you will have to keep the extension version up-to-date... if you do not do this, then it might not work anymore because Google might have added another restriction...

after April 2023 I did not hear anything anymore from you up to now...

if you still have problems to create an instant of time. let me suggest to also check the clocks tutorial here

[Guide] How to use the CLOCK

Hello everyone, I have made a basic guide on how to use the clock component. Here, I will explain all the blocks associated to the clock component and a few sample projects which use the clock. 1.DESIGNER PROPERTIRES OF THE CLOCK 1.1Timer Always Fires This is a Boolean property, i.e it accepts only true or false. If you wish the clock to run even if the application is not the active screen, i.e the user is using some other application. Can this be set using blocks? Yes! By default: Tru…

and if you still have issues, what about contacting me again? I had to assume, you solved your issues... try the current example project from the download folder, try it on your test devices, enable post notifications permission and let us know, if it works for you on your devices.

Taifun

[Tammi_Allen]

So basically after the notice is displayed I wish to run the program again, picking a random time for the next message and then set the next alarm/notice. I'm not using a normal random number generator so it would be beneficial to run at the time of each previous alarm without opening the screen interfering with the user.

I want the user to be able to tap on the message to provide input specific to that message (I.e. up/down vote) Which can be accomplished with the return text. SO I don't know if using a second extension would cause an issue with returning the start text. Also once the programs is started I want to endlessly do its thing.

Otherwise, I was thinking of doing an auto-start once per day to generate all the random times for messages that day, but it not my first choice.

[Chechnya_360]

@Открытый исходный код • Фоновые задачи: Itoo

Taifun

good afternoon dear Taifun! I'm tired of repeating to you I TESTED YOUR APK FILE which you sent me in an update by email, do you understand me? The extension does not work on Samsung. (I abandoned my project and haven’t used your extension since then because it doesn’t work)

[Kumaraswamy]

Chechnya, sometimes there could be device imposed restrictions, check here: Samsung | Don’t kill my app!

What is your Android version? Model?

[Chechnya_360]

samsung a10 android 11

[Kumaraswamy]

[Chechnya_360]

Kumaraswamy, now it works

[Anke]

@Chechnya_360

now it works

That's why you shouldn't be so hasty when you assume that something (e.g. an extension) is faulty. Google and many Android device manufacturers are constantly harassing you with new restrictions and additional battery saving options that are almost impossible to avoid or can no longer be turned off.

---

The whole madness started with and after the introduction of Doze Mode with Android 6. And it's gotten worse every year since then.

But of course everything is in our best interest.

[Kumaraswamy]

@Anke

Google and many Android device manufacturers are constantly harassing you with new restrictions and additional battery saving options that are almost impossible to avoid or can no longer be turned off.

That's right, most of these manufacturers add their own so called "battery savers" that aims to save battery by limiting the software capabilities.

On Samsung this was a big problem for Android 10-11 phones. On Chinese phones, it's been the worst for ever, they tend to auto disable every background execution features by default, unless your app is a very popular ones like "Whatsapp" where you would be automatically whitelisted by the device.

Hopefully Google has promised to unify system behaviors for all the Androids out there (time will tell us how it turns out, nothing great achieved so far)

[Anke]

@Kumaraswamy

Hopefully Google has promised

I wouldn't bet a cent on promises and positive developments for users from Google.

[Chechnya_360]

I would like to apologize for the unfounded accusations against Taifun, the extension works well, the whole problem turned out to be in the phone settings. I also want to say thank you to Kumaraswamy for telling me where I was wrong

[Tammi_Allen]

Perhaps when autostart is called I could just run the functions I need to run and then end the program. Hopefully minimizing disruption of the user experience.

It looks like itoo background functions might be stopped. I want it to run without fail. If itoo background processes are called on a regular basis will that prevent them from being stopped by the system and battery savers?

[Kumaraswamy]

Hi, what exactly do you want to get done?

• You want to perform an operation when the message is shown without opening the screen that would cause user disruption, is this what you are talking about?
• And while doing that operation you would also decide the next time to set for the Alarm, am I right?

[Tammi_Allen]

Yes, I need to run a function when the alarm is activated and also set the next alarm without opening the screen or disrupting the user experience.

[Taifun]

I'm still working on some functionality to combine the alarmmanager extension together with itoo... as soon as I got something running I will let you know

Taifun

[Tammi_Allen]

Thank you. I will be happy to make a donation

[Tammi_Allen]

Show on top notification check is not working.. I need the app to run daily to do some house keeping and provide relevant notifications. However, even after setting the permission it keeps testing as false even when the permission is infact set. I must be sure this permission is set or the whole program fails my purpose..

Is there a definite way to check to be sure the permission is set?

This block is put in initialize screen and always pops up the message..

This check is also always running reguargdless as it always returns false.

[Taifun]

@Tammi_Allen

This check is also always running reguargdless as it always returns false.

well, if the user never enables appear on top settings, then method HasAppearOnTopPermission always will return false

how did you set the blocks in the AfterChoosing event? If you take a look at my example project "Alarm Manager with Autostart Test" you will see these blocks

In the following dialog screen the user has to explicitely choose the app to enable appear on top settings, see also the documentation at App Inventor Extensions: Alarm Manager | Pura Vida Apps. Here are the relevant screenshots

Also rather than only use an if statement to ask for that permission, use an if then else statement to continue with your logic in the else part only if the permission is available as shown in the example project.

Taifun

[dchang]

I need some help with the Taifun Alarm Manager extension. I was wondering if anyone could help me combine the autostart function and the custom alarm settings function. I would like to create an alarm that could be set for certain times and also autostart.

[Taifun]

@dchang

combine the autostart function and the custom alarm settings function

as a start please read the documentation at App Inventor Extensions: Alarm Manager | Pura Vida Apps and try the example projects available in the download folder

@dchang

I would like to create an alarm that could be set for certain times and also autostart.

please try something and if you got stuck, post a screenshot of your relevant blocks

Taifun