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Authors NativeScript.org
nativescript-radar-io
by triniwiz | v0.0.3
NativeScript Radar.io SDK
npm i --save nativescript-radar-io

NativeScript RadarIO

npm npm Build Status

Installation

tns plugin add nativescript-radar-io

To get a Radar publishable API key, sign up for a Radar account.

IOS

Configure project

To track the user's location in the foreground, you must add a string for the NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription key in your Info.plist file if you haven't already. This string will be displayed when prompting the user for foreground location permissions.

To track the user's location in the background, you must also add a string for the NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription (iOS 10 and before) and NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription (iOS 11 and later) keys in your Info.plist file if you haven't already. These strings will be displayed when prompting the user for background location permissions.

<key>NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
<string>Your iOS 11 and higher background location usage description goes here. e.g., "This app uses your location in the background to recommend places nearby."</string>

<key>NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>Your iOS 10 and lower background location usage description goes here. e.g., "This app uses your location in the background to recommend places nearby."</string>

<key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
<string>Your foreground location usage description goes here. e.g., "This app uses your location in the foreground to recommend places nearby."</string>

For increased reliability and responsiveness in the background, you should also turn on Location updates. Note that this requires additional justification during App Store review. Learn more.

Add to Info.plist

<key>UIBackgroundModes</key>
<array>
  <string>fetch</string>
  <string>location</string>
</array>

Usage

Import module

First, import the module:

import { RadarIO } from 'nativescript-radar-io';

Enable Places

If you are using Places, you must set Facebook as your place data provider.

To set Facebook as your place data provider, call:

RadarIO.setPlacesProvider('facebook');

To disable Places later, call:

RadarIO.setPlacesProvider('none');

Learn more about Places.

Identify user

Until you identify the user, Radar will automatically identify the user by device ID.

To identify the user when logged in, call:

RadarIO.setUserId(userId);

where userId is a stable unique ID string for the user.

Do not send any PII, like names, email addresses, or publicly available IDs, for userId. See privacy best practices for more information.

To set an optional dictionary of custom metadata for the user, call:

RadarIO.setMetadata(metadata);

where metadata is a JSON object with up to 16 keys and values of type string, boolean, or number.

Finally, to set an optional description for the user, displayed in the dashboard, call:

RadarIO.setDescription(description);

where description is a string.

You only need to call these functions once, as these settings will be persisted across app sessions.

Request permissions

Before tracking the user's location, the user must have granted location permissions for the app.

To determine the whether user has granted location permissions for the app, call:

RadarIO.getPermissionsStatus().then((status) => {
  // do something with status
});

status will be a string, one of:

  • GRANTED
  • DENIED
  • UNKNOWN

To request location permissions for the app, call:

RadarIO.requestPermissions(background);

where background is a boolean indicating whether to request background location permissions or foreground location permissions. On Android, background will be ignored.

Foreground tracking

Once you have initialized the SDK, you have identified the user, and the user has granted permissions, you can track the user's location.

To track the user's location in the foreground, call:

RadarIO.trackOnce().then((result) => {
  // do something with result.location, result.events, result.user.geofences
}).catch((err) => {
  // optionally, do something with err
});

err will be a string, one of:

  • ERROR_PUBLISHABLE_KEY: the SDK was not initialized
  • ERROR_PERMISSIONS: the user has not granted location permissions for the app
  • ERROR_LOCATION: location services were unavailable, or the location request timed out
  • ERROR_NETWORK: the network was unavailable, or the network connection timed out
  • ERROR_UNAUTHORIZED: the publishable API key is invalid
  • ERROR_SERVER: an internal server error occurred
  • ERROR_UNKNOWN: an unknown error occurred

Background tracking

Once you have initialized the SDK, you have identified the user, and the user has granted permissions, you can start tracking the user's location in the background.

To start tracking the user's location in the background, call:

RadarIO.startTracking();

Assuming you have configured your project properly, the SDK will wake up while the user is moving (usually every 3-5 minutes), then shut down when the user stops (usually within 5-10 minutes). To save battery, the SDK will not wake up when stopped, and the user must move at least 100 meters from a stop (sometimes more) to wake up the SDK. Note that location updates may be delayed significantly by iOS Low Power Mode, by Android Doze Mode and App Standby and Background Location Limits, or if the device has connectivity issues, low battery, or wi-fi disabled. These constraints apply to all uses of background location services on iOS and Android, not just Radar. See more about accuracy and reliability.

Optionally, you can configure advanced tracking options. See the iOS background tracking documentation and Android background tracking documentation for descriptions of these options.

RadarIO.startTracking({
  priority: 'responsiveness', // // use 'efficiency' to avoid Android vitals bad behavior thresholds (ignored on iOS)
  sync: 'possibleStateChanges', // use 'all' to sync all location updates ('possibleStateChanges' recommended)
  offline: 'replayStopped' // use 'replayOff' to disable offline replay ('replayStopped' recommended)
});

To stop tracking the user's location in the background (e.g., when the user logs out), call:

RadarIO.stopTracking();

You only need to call these methods once, as these settings will be persisted across app sessions.

To listen for events, location updates, and errors, you can add event listeners:

RadarIO.on('events', (result) => {
  // do something with result.events, result.user
});

RadarIO.on('location', (result) => {
  // do something with result.location, result.user
});

RadarIO.on('error', (err) => {
  // do something with err
});

Add event listeners outside of your component lifecycle (e.g., outside of componentDidMount) if you want them to work when the app is in the background.

You can also remove event listeners:

RadarIO.off('events');

RadarIO.off('location');

RadarIO.off('error');

Battery usage

For most users, background tracking with the native iOS and Android SDKs uses 1-2% battery per day. Learn more in the in the SDK documentation.

On Android, a receiver loads and parses the JavaScript bundle when the app is launched in the background. If you do not want to receive events in JavaScript and you want to disable this, add an override to your manifest:

<receiver
  tools:replace="android:enabled"
  android:name="com.github.triniwiz.radario.Receiver"
  android:enabled="false"
  android:exported="false" />

Manual tracking

You can manually update the user's location by calling:

const location = {
  latitude: 39.2904,
  longitude: -76.6122,
  accuracy: 65
};

RadarIO.updateLocation(location).then((result) => {
  // do something with result.events, result.user.geofences
}).catch((err) => {
  // optionally, do something with err
});

License

Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004