The most sophisticated background location-tracking & geofencing module with battery-conscious motion-detection intelligence for iOS and Android.

The plugin's Philosophy of Operation is to use motion-detection APIs (using accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer) to detect when the device is moving and stationary.

• When the device is detected to be moving, the plugin will automatically start recording a location according to the configured distanceFilter (meters).

• When the device is detected be stationary, the plugin will automatically turn off location-services to conserve energy.

Also available for React Native, NativeScript and pure native apps.

The Android plugin requires purchasing a license. However, it will work for DEBUG builds. It will not work with RELEASE builds without purchasing a license.

(2018) This plugin is supported full-time and field-tested daily since 2013.

• 📚 API Documentation

  • 🔧 Configuration Options
  • ⚡ Events
  • 🔹 Methods

• Installing the Plugin

• Android SDK Setup

• Configuring the Plugin

• Using the plugin

• Debugging

• Example

• Sample Application

• Testing Server

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt

  <plugin name="cordova-background-geolocation-lt" source="npm">

  </plugin>

$ cordova plugin add https://github.com/transistorsoft/cordova-background-geolocation-lt.git

If building from your local machine (as you should be), ensure you have the following items installed or updated in Android SDK Manager

After adding the plugin, your config.xml will contain the following block, containing a number of <variable /> for you to configure (eg: LICENSE):

<widget id="com.your.company.app.id">
  <plugin name="cordova-background-geolocation-lt">
    <variable name="LICENSE" value="YOUR_LICENSE_KEY" />
    <variable name="GOOGLE_API_VERSION" value="11.6.0" />
    <variable name="APPCOMPAT_VERSION" value="26.1.0" />
    <variable name="LOCATION_ALWAYS_AND_WHEN_IN_USE_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="Always use is required for background location tracking" />
    <variable name="LOCATION_ALWAYS_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="Background location-tracking is required" />
    <variable name="LOCATION_WHEN_IN_USE_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="Background location-tracking is required" />
    <variable name="MOTION_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="Using the accelerometer increases battery-efficiency by intelligently toggling location-tracking only when the device is detected to be moving" />
  </plugin>
  .
  .
  .
</widget>

To configure these <variable />, you simply re-add the plugin, providing desired --variable to the cordova plugin add command. You can combine multiple --variable together in one command or execute cordova plugin add successivly.

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable VARIABLE_NAME=value

$ cordova platform remove android
$ cordova platform add android

❗ To apply changes to these <variable />, you must remove/re-add the cordova platform(s)

Use the \ character followed by [ENTER] in console to configure multiple variables with one command:

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt \
  --variable LICENSE=your_key_here \
  --variable GOOGLE_API_VERSION=11.6.0 \
  --variable APPCOMPAT_VERSION=27.0.0 \
  --variable MOTION_USAGE_DESCRIPTION="My motion usage description"

$ cordova platform remove android
$ cordova platform add android

$ cordova platform remove ios
$ cordova platform add ios

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable MOTION_USAGE_DESCRIPTION="My Motion Usage Description"

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable LOCATION_ALWAYS_AND_WHEN_IN_USE_USAGE_DESCRIPTION="My Usage Description"

$ cordova platform remove ios
$ cordova platform add ios

$ cordova platform remove android
$ cordova platform add android

$ cordova platform remove ios
$ cordova platform add ios

After generating your Android license-key in the Product Dashboard, Configure the LICENSE variable:

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable LICENSE=your_key_here

// Remove / re-add the Android platform
$ cordova platform remove android
$ cordova platform add android

Many other plugins require Google Play Services and/or Firebase libraries. This is a common source of Android build-failures, since the play-services library version must be aligned to the same version for all plugins. For example, when one plugin imports version 11.0.1 and another one imports 11.2.0, a gradle build failure will occur. Use the GOOGLE_API_VERSION to align the required play-services version with other plugins.

⚠️ The plugin requires a minimum version of 11.2.0.

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable GOOGLE_API_VERSION=11.2.0
$ cordova platform remove android
$ cordova platform add android

For those using useSignificantChangesOnly: true, possibly because Apple denied your use of the background location capability, you can disable background location by providing the BACKGROUND_MODE_LOCATION <variable /> with an empty-string:

$ cordova plugin add cordova-background-geolocation-lt --variable BACKGROUND_MODE_LOCATION=""

$ cordova platform remove ios
$ cordova platform add ios

Your Android license key generated from Product Dashboard

Sets the desired version of play-services-location dependency. Many other plugins require play-services dependencies, (eg: cordova-plugin-googlemaps, phonegap-plugin-push): If the version of play-services and/or firebase is not aligned to the same version for ALL plugins, your build will fail.

Sets the desired version of com.google.android.appcompat-v7 dependency. Many other plugins can require a different version of appcompat-v7 dependeny: If the version of appcompat-v7 is not aligned to the same version for ALL plugins, your build will fail. BackgroundGeolocation requires a minimum version of 26.1.0 due to its support for Android 8.

Customize the message displayed to the user when AlwaysAndWhenInUse location authorization is requested. This variable is added to your iOS .plist in the NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription key.

(deprecated in iOS 11.0) Customize the message displayed to the user when Always location authorization is requested. This variable is added to your iOS .plist in the NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription key.

Customize the message displayed to the user when WhenInUse location authorization is requested. This variable is added to your iOS .plist in the NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription key.

Customize the message displayed to the user when "Motion & Fitness" permission is requested. The plugin is highly optimized to use iOS CMMotionActivityManager API for intelligently toggling location-services only when the plugin is detected to be moving.

Adds the iOS background-mode location to your iOS .plist file. This is the default behaviour. To disable this, (ie: for those using useSignificantChangesOnly), provide an empty-string:

  <variable name="BACKGROUND_MODE_LOCATION" value="" />

⚠️ If you do want the default behaviour of background-location updates, simply IGNORE this variable -- Do NOT even provide it. If you do provide it, you must provide the full escaped XML value of <string>location</string> (the default value when not provided), not just location.

The plugin creates the object window.BackgroundGeolocation. See API Documentation for details

Sample Implementation

platform.ready().then(() => {
  let bgGeo = (<any>window).BackgroundGeolocation;
});

There are three simple steps to using BackgroundGeolocation:

1. Listen to events
2. Execute #ready
3. #start the plugin

// 1.  Listen to events
bgGeo.on('location', onLocation, onLocationFailure);
bgGeo.on('motionchange', onMotionChange);
bgGeo.on('providerchange', onProviderChange);

// 2. Execute #ready method:  
bgGeo.ready({  
  desiredAccuracy: 0,   // <-- Config params
  distanceFilter: 50
}, function(state) {    // <-- Current state provided to #configure callback
  // 3.  Start tracking
  console.log('BackgroundGeolocation is configured and ready to use');
  if (!state.enabled) {
    bgGeo.start(function() {
      console.log('- BackgroundGeolocation tracking started');
    });
  }
});
// NOTE:  Do NOT execute any API methods until the callback to #configure
// method above executes!
// For example, do not do this here:
// bgGeo.getCurrentPosition()   // <-- NO!
// bgGeo.start();               // <-- NO!

ℹ️ NOTE: The configuration {} provided to the #ready method is applied only when your app is first booted — for every launch thereafter, the plugin will automatically load the last known configuration from persistant storage. If you wish to force the #ready method to always apply the supplied config {}, you can specify reset: true

bgGeo.ready({
  reset: true,  // <-- true to always apply the supplied config
  distanceFilter: 10
}, function(state) {
  console.log('- BackgroundGeolocation is ready: ', state);
});

⚠️ Do not execute any API method which will require accessing location-services until the callback to **#ready* executes (eg: #getCurrentPosition, #watchPosition, #start).

The BackgroundGeolocation Javascript API supports Promises for nearly every method (the exceptions are #watchPosition and adding event-listeners via #on method. For more information, see the API Documentation

// Traditional API still works:
bgGeo.ready({desiredAccuracy: 0, distanceFilter: 50}).then(state => {
  console.log('- BackgroundGeolocation is ready: ', state);
}).catch(error => {
  console.log('- BackgroundGeolocation error: ', error);
});

See here for an Ionic 3 example.

////
// As with all Cordova plugins, you must configure within an #deviceready callback.
//
function onDeviceReady() {
    // Get a reference to the plugin.
    var bgGeo = window.BackgroundGeolocation;

    //This callback will be executed every time a geolocation is recorded in the background.
    var callbackFn = function(location) {
        var coords = location.coords;
        var lat    = coords.latitude;
        var lng    = coords.longitude;
        console.log('- Location: ', JSON.stringify(location));        
    };

    // This callback will be executed if a location-error occurs.  Eg: this will be called if user disables location-services.
    var failureFn = function(errorCode) {
        console.warn('- BackgroundGeoLocation error: ', errorCode);
    }

    // Listen to location events & errors.
    bgGeo.on('location', callbackFn, failureFn);
    // Fired whenever state changes from moving->stationary or vice-versa.
    bgGeo.on('motionchange', function(isMoving) {
      console.log('- onMotionChange: ', isMoving);
    });
    // Fired whenever a geofence transition occurs.
    bgGeo.on('geofence', function(geofence) {
      console.log('- onGeofence: ', geofence.identifier, geofence.location);
    });
    // Fired whenever an HTTP response is received from your server.
    bgGeo.on('http', function(response) {
      console.log('http success: ', response.responseText);
    }, function(response) {
      console.log('http failure: ', response.status);
    });

    // BackgroundGeoLocation is highly configurable.
    bgGeo.ready({
        // Geolocation config
        desiredAccuracy: 0,
        distanceFilter: 10,
        stationaryRadius: 25,
        // Activity Recognition config
        activityRecognitionInterval: 10000,
        stopTimeout: 5,
        // Application config
        debug: true,  // <-- Debug sounds & notifications.
        stopOnTerminate: false,
        startOnBoot: true,
        // HTTP / SQLite config
        url: "http://your.server.com/locations",
        method: "POST",
        autoSync: true,
        maxDaysToPersist: 3,
        headers: {  // <-- Optional HTTP headers
            "X-FOO": "bar"
        },
        params: {   // <-- Optional HTTP params
            "auth_token": "maybe_your_server_authenticates_via_token_YES?"
        }
    }, function(state) {
        // This callback is executed when the plugin is ready to use.
        console.log("BackgroundGeolocation ready: ", state);
        if (!state.enabled) {
            bgGeo.start();
        }
    });

    // The plugin is typically toggled with some button on your UI.
    function onToggleEnabled(value) {
        if (value) {
            bgGeo.start();
        } else {
            bgGeo.stop();
        }
    }
}

A fully-featured SampleApp is available in its own public repo. After first cloning that repo, follow the installation instructions in the README there. This SampleApp includes a settings-screen allowing you to quickly experiment with all the different settings available for each platform.

If you're using XCode, boot the SampleApp in the iOS Simulator and enable Debug->Location->Freeway Drive.

A simple Node-based web-application with SQLite database is available for field-testing and performance analysis. If you're familiar with Node, you can have this server up-and-running in about one minute.

cordova-background-geolocation
Copyright (c) 2018, Transistor Software (9224-2932 Quebec Inc)
All rights reserved.
[email protected]
http://transistorsoft.com

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