Continue countdown timer when app is running in background/suspended

Question

I have a functional countdown timer.

The problem is that I need to continue the countdown when the user puts the app in the background. Or suspends the app? I am no

Answer 1

What I suggest is cancel the timer and store a NSDate when the app goes to the background. You can use this notification to detect the app going to the background:

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: "pauseApp", name: UIApplicationDidEnterBackgroundNotification, object: nil)

Then cancel the timer and store the date:

func pauseApp(){
    self.stop() //invalidate timer
    self.currentBackgroundDate = NSDate()
}

Use this notification to detect the user coming back:

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: "startApp", name: UIApplicationDidBecomeActiveNotification, object: nil)

Then calculate the difference from the stored date to the current date, update your counter and start the timer again:

func startApp(){
    let difference = self.currentBackgroundDate.timeIntervalSinceDate(NSDate())
    self.handler(difference) //update difference
    self.start() //start timer
}