Android Geofence only works with opened app

Question

I\'m doing a serious research on this topic for many days... I saw many topics here too... But unfortunately I couldn\'t find a solution....

I\'m writing an app that

Answer 1

I had a similar issue and after trying various ways I could finally fix the issue. Unfortunately, the android documentation fails to mention these issues.
The android geofences get removed every time you reboot your device or every time you toggle the location mode. So Add a broadcast receiver to listen to device reboots and location mode changes, and add the geofences again in the receiver.

I have posted a detailed explanation here

Answer 2

I had the same exact problem. Here is what I answered over there: 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. MAKE SURE AND NOTE the change to .getBroadcast instead of getService. That got me hung up for a while.

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");

            //MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE THIS TO getBroadcast if you are coming from the sample code.
            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.