App for jailbroken iOS device: Consistent background operation

Question

I am the author of a Cydia tweak called AirFloat. An app that implements the AirPlay audio protocol (previously known as AirTunes), making it possible to stream audio to

Answer 1

First thank you for your amazing works with AirFlow RAOP is pretty hard thing!

So what you could do is to

1. Create a background task handlers as dispatch_block_t, let's say

     dispatch_block_t myDummyBackgroundTaskBlock = {
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask:myDummyBackgroundTask];
        myDummyBackgroundTask = UIBackgroundTaskInvalid;
        myDummyBackgroundTask = [app beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler:myDummyBackgroundTask];
    };

2. Define somewhere this background and foreground tasks handler

        // foreground
        -(void)handleTasksForApplicationInForeground {
        if(myDummyBackgroundTask) { // reset that task
           [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask: myDummyBackgroundTask];
           myDummyBackgroundTask = UIBackgroundTaskInvalid;
         }
        }

         // background
         -(void) handleTasksForApplicationInBackground {
             UIDevice *device = [UIDevice currentDevice];
             BOOL backgroundSupported = NO;
            if ([device respondsToSelector:@selector(isMultitaskingSupported)])
             backgroundSupported = device.multitaskingSupported;
            if(backgroundSupported && backgroundEnabled) { // perform a background task

                myDummyBackgroundTaskBlock = ^{
                    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask: myDummyBackgroundTaskBlock];
                    myDummyBackgroundTaskBlock = UIBackgroundTaskInvalid;
               };

               SEL sel = @selector(doDummyBackgroundTask);
               [self doBackgroundTaskAsync:sel];

               [self performSelector:@selector(doBackgroundTaskAsync:) withObject:nil afterDelay:500.0f]; /// LP: this is the funny part since iOS will kill the task after 500 sec.
                 }
               }

3. Now let's handle in the application delegate the background mode (As defined before you can activate background mode with different options in your app .plist):

        -(void)applicationDidEnterBackground:(UIApplication *)application {
           [self handleTasksForApplicationInBackground];
         }

        -(void)applicationWillEnterForeground:(UIApplication *)application {
           [self handleTasksForApplicationInForeground];
         }

4. Let's see what the background async task selector does

            -(void) doBackgroundTaskAsync:(SEL)selector {

            @try {
                 if( [[UIApplication sharedApplication] backgroundTimeRemaining] < 5 ) { 
                   return;
                 }

               if(!myDummyBackgroundTaskBlock) { // need to create again on-the-fly
                    myDummyBackgroundTaskBlock = ^{
                          [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask:myDummyBackgroundTask];
                         myDummyBackgroundTask = UIBackgroundTaskInvalid;
                    };
                 }

                myDummyBackgroundTask = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler:myDummyBackgroundTaskBlock];
              dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_BACKGROUND, 0), ^{

               while ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] backgroundTimeRemaining] > 5.0) {
                  int delta = 5.0;
                  [self performSelector: selector ];
                  sleep(delta);
              }
            });
          }
           @catch (...) {
         }
        }

I know that this solution works nice but I know that sometimes it happens that iOS will kill the app background task anyway. Anyway if the users suddenly switches the app between foreground and background it will works indefinitely.