Setting up Info.plist / settings.plist correctly for IOS

[rleiman]

Hi Everyone,

After reading replies to other posts I placed regarding going into background mode and playing an audio mp3 file, I was directed to read: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/ ... sFlow.html

The document was not user friendly but I was able to find out from it I needed to alter a file called Info.plist and add a key called UIBackgroundModes into it. Key? Huh?

I went onto Stackoverflow and found out what that key was about and added the key to the end of all copies of settings.plist because I saw in other LiveCode posts that was where it should be.

Here is the key in one of the settings.plist files:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
	<string>English</string>
	<key>CFBundleDisplayName</key>
	<string>${EXECUTABLE_NAME}</string>
	<key>CFBundleBundleName</key>
	<string>${EXECUTABLE_NAME}</string>
	<key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
	<string>${EXECUTABLE_NAME}</string>
	<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
	<string>${BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER}</string>
	<key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
	<string>6.0</string>
	<key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
	<string>APPL</string>
	<key>CFBundleResourceSpecification</key>
	<string>ResourceRules.plist</string>
	<key>CFBundleSignature</key>
	<string>????</string>
	${URL_TYPES}
	${REMOTE_NOTIFICATION_TYPES}
	<key>CFBundleSupportedPlatforms</key>
	<array>
		<string>iPhoneOS</string>
	</array>
	<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
	<string>${BUNDLE_VERSION}</string>
	<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
	<string>${BUNDLE_VERSION}</string>
	<key>CFBundleIconFiles</key>
	<array>
		${BUNDLE_ICONS}
	</array>
	<key>DTCompiler</key>
	<string>4.2</string>
	<key>DTPlatformBuild</key>
	<string>10A403</string>
	<key>DTPlatformName</key>
	<string>iphoneos</string>
	<key>DTPlatformVersion</key>
	<string>6.0</string>
	<key>DTSDKBuild</key>
	<string>10A403</string>
	<key>DTSDKName</key>
	<string>iphoneos6.0</string>
	<key>DTXcode</key>
	<string>0450</string>
	<key>DTXcodeBuild</key>
	<string>4G182</string>
	<key>CFBundleDisplayName</key>
		${BUNDLE_DISPLAY_NAME_SUPPORT}
	<key>MinimumOSVersion</key>
		${MINIMUM_OS_SUPPORT}
	<key>UIDeviceFamily</key>
	<array>
		${DEVICE_SUPPORT}
	</array>
	<key>UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities</key>
	<dict>
		${DEVICE_CAPABILITY}
	</dict>
	<key>UIRequiresPersistentWiFi</key>
		${PERSISTENT_WIFI}
	<key>UIInitialInterfaceOrientation</key>
		${IPHONE_INITIAL_ORIENTATION}
	<key>UISupportedInterfaceOrientations</key>
	<array>
		${IPHONE_SUPPORTED_ORIENTATIONS}
	</array>
	<key>UIInitialInterfaceOrientation~ipad</key>
		${IPAD_INITIAL_ORIENTATION}
	<key>UISupportedInterfaceOrientations~ipad</key>
	<array>
		${IPAD_SUPPORTED_ORIENTATIONS}
	</array>
	<key>UIStatusBarHidden</key>
		${STATUS_BAR_HIDDEN}
	<key>UIStatusBarStyle</key>
		${STATUS_BAR_STYLE}
	<key>UIFileSharingEnabled</key>
		${FILE_SHARING}
	<key>UIPrerenderedIcon</key>
		${PRE_RENDERED_ICON}
	<key>UIAppFonts</key>
	<array>
		${CUSTOM_FONTS}
	</array>
       <key>UIBackgroundModes</key>
       <array>
            <string>audio</string>
       </array>
</dict>
</plist>

I'm also using MergExt to put the app into background mode with:

Code: Select all

   mergBgTaskStart

In my card stack is the following coding:

Code: Select all

on updateTime
   put long time into field "lblCurrentTime"
   send "updateTime" to me in 500 milliseconds
   
   /*
   || Slice up the time into it's components.
   */
   set the itemDel to ":"
   
   put word 1 of item 2 of field "lblCurrentTime" into intMinutes
   put word 1 of item 3 of field "lblCurrentTime" into intSeconds
   
   /*
   || Play the correct sounds on the quarters when those times are reached.
   */
    if intSeconds = "00" then
      put intMinutes into field "lblMinutes"
   end if
   
   if intSeconds = "00" and intMinutes = "15" then
      play specialFolderPath("engine") & "/Sound Files/quarter.mp3"
   end if
   
   if intSeconds = "00" and intMinutes = "30" then
      play specialFolderPath("engine") & "/Sound Files/half.mp3"
   end if
   
   if intSeconds = "00" and intMinutes = "45" then
      play specialFolderPath("engine") & "/Sound Files/quarter_before.mp3"
   end if
   
   if intSeconds = "00" and intMinutes = "00" then
      play specialFolderPath("engine") & "/Sound Files/hourly.mp3"
   end if
     
end updateTime

All of this works correctly only if the app is running in the foreground. As soon as I get it into the background, only the field "lblCurrentTime" is being updated. This tells me I did something wrong in the settings.plist file.

Can you provide a tutorial for people like me to get this set up correctly so the audio will play in the background? In the Apple documentation they did not give any example on how to do it. I had to go to another source for that info.

The apple documentation also says this:

As long as it is playing audio or video content, the app continues to run in the background.

This makes me believe that I would need to start a sound file playing prior to allowing the user to tap the home button. Does this mean in order for the app to stay in the background I need to have a sound file playing even if that sound file is playing with no volume running prior to playing the other sound files?

Thanks.