Android Geofence Automatically removed when location service is disabled / restarted

Question

I have successfully added the geofence with the Flag NEVER_EXPIRE. And everything seems to be working fine.

But now while testing i found that if i stop the location services geofence stops working as EXPECTED. Further when i start the location services again my previously added geofence should again start working but no notifications are generated and it seems the geofence are automatically removed once the location services is disabled . And i have to again set all the locations to get back the geofence in working state.

Any suggestions or any idea why it behaves this way??

EDIT::

Similar Issue is also seen when the Device is Turned off / Restarted etc. So basically all the geofences which are registered will be expired if Location Services is disabled / Device is restarted . Few of which i tried to handle by Session but i am looking for a solution by which we can set the Geofences back when the location service is enabled .

Answer 1

Found this Answer::: http://developer.android.com/reference/com/google/android/gms/location/LocationClient.html

In case network location provider is disabled by the user, the geofence service will stop updating, all registered geofences will be removed and an intent is generated by the provided pending intent. In this case, hasError(Intent) returns true and getErrorCode(Intent) returns GEOFENCE_NOT_AVAILABLE.

Now:::: How can we register the geofence back when the location service is back.. (IN BACKGROUND)

Answer 2

For watching in the background, I had the same issue and was able to solve it by changing the sample code from an IntentService to a BroadcastReceiver. All the details can be found on my post here:

Android Geofence eventually stop getting transition intents

This is what I said (in case anyone is too lazy to follow the link):

So after playing around with this a bit, it looks like the ReceiveTransitionsIntentService as defined in the sample code will stop getting the notifications when the app is not around. I think this is a big problem with the example code... Seems like that will trip folks like me up.

So I used a broadcast receiver instead, and so far it seems to be working from my tests.

Add this to the manifest:

<receiver android:name="com.aol.android.geofence.GeofenceReceiver"
        android:exported="false">
        <intent-filter >
            <action android:name="com.aol.android.geofence.ACTION_RECEIVE_GEOFENCE"/>
        </intent-filter>
    </receiver>

Then in the GeofenceRequester class you need to change the createRequestPendingIntent method so that it goes to your BroadcastReceiver instead of the ReceiveTransitionsIntentService

private PendingIntent createRequestPendingIntent() {

        // If the PendingIntent already exists
        if (null != mGeofencePendingIntent) {

            // Return the existing intent
            return mGeofencePendingIntent;

        // If no PendingIntent exists
        } else {

            // Create an Intent pointing to the IntentService
            Intent intent = new Intent("com.aol.android.geofence.ACTION_RECEIVE_GEOFENCE");
//            Intent intent = new Intent(context, ReceiveTransitionsIntentService.class);
            /*
             * Return a PendingIntent to start the IntentService.
             * Always create a PendingIntent sent to Location Services
             * with FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT, so that sending the PendingIntent
             * again updates the original. Otherwise, Location Services
             * can't match the PendingIntent to requests made with it.
             */
            return PendingIntent.getBroadcast(
                    context,
                    0,
                    intent,
                    PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
        }
    }

Then I added the GeofenceReceiver class that looks something like this:

public class GeofenceReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
    Context context;

    Intent broadcastIntent = new Intent();

    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
        this.context = context;

        broadcastIntent.addCategory(GeofenceUtils.CATEGORY_LOCATION_SERVICES);

        if (LocationClient.hasError(intent)) {
            handleError(intent);
        } else {
            handleEnterExit(intent);
        }
    }

    private void handleError(Intent intent){
        // Get the error code
        int errorCode = LocationClient.getErrorCode(intent);

        // Get the error message
        String errorMessage = LocationServiceErrorMessages.getErrorString(
                context, errorCode);

        // Log the error
        Log.e(GeofenceUtils.APPTAG,
                context.getString(R.string.geofence_transition_error_detail,
                        errorMessage));

        // Set the action and error message for the broadcast intent
        broadcastIntent
                .setAction(GeofenceUtils.ACTION_GEOFENCE_ERROR)
                .putExtra(GeofenceUtils.EXTRA_GEOFENCE_STATUS, errorMessage);

        // Broadcast the error *locally* to other components in this app
        LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(context).sendBroadcast(
                broadcastIntent);
    }


    private void handleEnterExit(Intent intent) {
        // Get the type of transition (entry or exit)
        int transition = LocationClient.getGeofenceTransition(intent);

        // Test that a valid transition was reported
        if ((transition == Geofence.GEOFENCE_TRANSITION_ENTER)
                || (transition == Geofence.GEOFENCE_TRANSITION_EXIT)) {

            // Post a notification
            List<Geofence> geofences = LocationClient
                    .getTriggeringGeofences(intent);
            String[] geofenceIds = new String[geofences.size()];
            String ids = TextUtils.join(GeofenceUtils.GEOFENCE_ID_DELIMITER,
                    geofenceIds);
            String transitionType = GeofenceUtils
                    .getTransitionString(transition);

            for (int index = 0; index < geofences.size(); index++) {
                Geofence geofence = geofences.get(index);
                // ...do something with the geofence entry or exit. I'm saving them to a local sqlite db

            }
            // Create an Intent to broadcast to the app
            broadcastIntent
                    .setAction(GeofenceUtils.ACTION_GEOFENCE_TRANSITION)
                    .addCategory(GeofenceUtils.CATEGORY_LOCATION_SERVICES)
                    .putExtra(GeofenceUtils.EXTRA_GEOFENCE_ID, geofenceIds)
                    .putExtra(GeofenceUtils.EXTRA_GEOFENCE_TRANSITION_TYPE,
                            transitionType);

            LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(MyApplication.getContext())
                    .sendBroadcast(broadcastIntent);

            // Log the transition type and a message
            Log.d(GeofenceUtils.APPTAG, transitionType + ": " + ids);
            Log.d(GeofenceUtils.APPTAG,
                    context.getString(R.string.geofence_transition_notification_text));

            // In debug mode, log the result
            Log.d(GeofenceUtils.APPTAG, "transition");

            // An invalid transition was reported
        } else {
            // Always log as an error
            Log.e(GeofenceUtils.APPTAG,
                    context.getString(R.string.geofence_transition_invalid_type,
                            transition));
        }
    }

    /**
     * Posts a notification in the notification bar when a transition is
     * detected. If the user clicks the notification, control goes to the main
     * Activity.
     * 
     * @param transitionType
     *            The type of transition that occurred.
     * 
     */
    private void sendNotification(String transitionType, String locationName) {

        // Create an explicit content Intent that starts the main Activity
        Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(context, MainActivity.class);

        // Construct a task stack
        TaskStackBuilder stackBuilder = TaskStackBuilder.create(context);

        // Adds the main Activity to the task stack as the parent
        stackBuilder.addParentStack(MainActivity.class);

        // Push the content Intent onto the stack
        stackBuilder.addNextIntent(notificationIntent);

        // Get a PendingIntent containing the entire back stack
        PendingIntent notificationPendingIntent = stackBuilder
                .getPendingIntent(0, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);

        // Get a notification builder that's compatible with platform versions
        // >= 4
        NotificationCompat.Builder builder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(
                context);

        // Set the notification contents
        builder.setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_notification)
                .setContentTitle(transitionType + ": " + locationName)
                .setContentText(
                        context.getString(R.string.geofence_transition_notification_text))
                .setContentIntent(notificationPendingIntent);

        // Get an instance of the Notification manager
        NotificationManager mNotificationManager = (NotificationManager) context
                .getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

        // Issue the notification
        mNotificationManager.notify(0, builder.build());
    }
}

Hopefully that helps someone else.

Answer 3

@rns.ravi - look what the docs says - you have to register a intent where you could then re-add all your geofences

public void requestLocationUpdates (LocationRequest request, PendingIntent callbackIntent)

Requests location updates with a callback on the specified PendingIntent.

This method is suited for the background use cases, more specifically for receiving location updates, even when the app has been killed by the system. In order to do so, use a PendingIntent for a started service. For foreground use cases, the LocationListener version of the method is recommended, see requestLocationUpdates(LocationRequest, LocationListener).

Any previous LocationRequests registered on this PendingIntent will be replaced.

Location updates are sent with a key of KEY_LOCATION_CHANGED and a Location value on the intent.

Parameters
request The location request for the updates.
callbackIntent  A pending intent to be sent for each location update.

Answer 4

Run geofence code in foreground service. It will work as expected