Cordova Local-Notification Plugin

The essential purpose of local notifications is to enable an application to inform its users that it has something for them — for example, a message or an upcoming appointment — when the application isn’t running in the foreground.
They are scheduled by an application and delivered on the same device.

How they appear to the user

Users see notifications in the following ways:

• Displaying an alert or banner
• Badging the app’s icon
• Playing a sound

Examples of Notification Usage

Local notifications are ideally suited for applications with time-based behaviors, such as calendar and to-do list applications. Applications that run in the background for the limited period allowed by iOS might also find local notifications useful.
For example, applications that depend on servers for messages or data can poll their servers for incoming items while running in the background; if a message is ready to view or an update is ready to download, they can then present a local notification immediately to inform their users.

Plugin's Purpose

The purpose of the plugin is to create a platform-independent javascript interface for Cordova-based mobile applications to access the specific API on each platform.

Supported Platforms

• iOS (up to iOS8)
  See Local and Push Notification Programming Guide for detailed information and screenshots.

• Android (SDK >=7)
  See Notification Guide for detailed information and screenshots.

• WP8
  See Local notifications for Windows Phone for detailed information and screenshots.
  Windows Phone 8.0 has no notification center. Instead local notifications are realized through live tiles updates.

Dependencies

Cordova will check all dependencies and install them if they are missing.

• org.apache.cordova.device (since v0.6.0)

Installation

The plugin can either be installed into the local development environment or cloud based through PhoneGap Build.

Adding the Plugin to your project

Through the Command-line Interface:

# ~~ from master ~~
cordova plugin add https://github.com/katzer/cordova-plugin-local-notifications.git && cordova prepare

or to use the last stable version:

# ~~ stable version ~~
cordova plugin add de.appplant.cordova.plugin.local-notification && cordova prepare

Removing the Plugin from your project

Through the Command-line Interface:

cordova plugin rm de.appplant.cordova.plugin.local-notification

PhoneGap Build

Add the following xml to your config.xml to always use the latest version of this plugin:

<gap:plugin name="de.appplant.cordova.plugin.local-notification" />

or to use an specific version:

<gap:plugin name="de.appplant.cordova.plugin.local-notification" version="0.7.2" />

More information can be found here.

ChangeLog

Version 0.8.0 (not yet released)

• [feature:] New method hasPermission to ask if the user has granted to display local notifications.
• [feature:] New method registerPermission to register permission to display local notifications.
• [feature:] New Android specific led: flag.
• [feature:] Add isTriggered & getTriggeredIds methods.
• [enhancement:] iOS8 support.
• [enhancement:] Android 2.x (SDK >= 7) support (Thanks to khizarsonu)
• [enhancement:] Scope parameter for isScheduled and getScheduledIds
• [enhancement:] Callbacks for add, cancel & cancelAll
• [enhancement:] image: accepts remote URLs and local URIs (Android)

Further information

• See CHANGELOG.md to get the full changelog for the plugin.
• See the v0.8.x TODO List for upcomming changes and other things.

Using the plugin

The plugin creates the object window.plugin.notification.local with the following methods:

1. notification.local.hasPermission
2. notification.local.registerPermission
3. notification.local.add
4. notification.local.cancel
5. notification.local.cancelAll
6. notification.local.isScheduled
7. notification.local.getScheduledIds
8. notification.local.isTriggered
9. notification.local.getDefaults
10. notification.local.setDefaults
11. notification.local.onadd
12. notification.local.ontrigger
13. notification.local.onclick
14. notification.local.oncancel

Plugin initialization

The plugin and its methods are not available before the deviceready event has been fired.

document.addEventListener('deviceready', function () {
    // window.plugin.notification.local is now available
}, false);

Determine if the app does have the permission to show local notifications

If the permission has been granted through the user it can be retrieved through the notification.local.hasPermission interface.
The method takes a callback function as its argument which will be called with a boolean value. Optional: the scope of the callback function can be defined through a second argument.

Further information

• The method is supported on each platform, however it's only relevant for iOS8 and above.

window.plugin.notification.local.hasPermission(function (granted) {
    // console.log('Permission has been granted: ' + granted);
});

Register permission for local notifications

Required permissions can be registered through the notification.local.registerPermission interface.
The method takes a callback function as its argument which will be called with a boolean value. Optional: the scope of the callback function can be defined through a second argument.

Further information

• The method is supported on each platform, however its only relevant for iOS8 and above.
• The user will only get a prompt dialog for the first time. Later it's only possible to change the setting via the notification center.

window.plugin.notification.local.registerPermission(function (granted) {
    // console.log('Permission has been granted: ' + granted);
});

Schedule local notifications

Local notifications can be scheduled through the notification.local.add interface.
The method takes a hash as an argument to specify the notification's properties and returns the ID for the notification.
Scheduling a local notification will override an earlier one with the same ID. All properties are optional. If no date object is given, the notification pops-up immediately.

Note: On Android the notification id needs to be a string which can be converted to a number. If the ID has an invalid format, it will be ignored, but cancelling the notification will fail.

Further information

• See the onadd event for registering a listener to be notified when a local notification has been scheduled.
• See the ontrigger event for registering a listener to be notified when a local notification has been triggered.
• See the onclick event for registering a listener to be notified when the user has been clicked on a local notification.
• See the [platform specific properties][platform_specific_properties] too list which other properties are available too.
• See getDefaults to examine which property values are used by default and setDefaults how to override them.
• See examples for scheduling local notifications.

window.plugin.notification.local.add({
    id:         String,  // A unique id of the notification
    date:       Date,    // This expects a date object
    message:    String,  // The message that is displayed
    title:      String,  // The title of the message
    repeat:     String,  // Either 'secondly', 'minutely', 'hourly', 'daily', 'weekly', 'monthly' or 'yearly'
    badge:      Number,  // Displays number badge to notification
    sound:      String,  // A sound to be played
    json:       String,  // Data to be passed through the notification
    autoCancel: Boolean, // Setting this flag and the notification is automatically cancelled when the user clicks it
    ongoing:    Boolean, // Prevent clearing of notification (Android only)
}, callback, scope);

Cancel scheduled local notifications

Local notifications can be cancelled through the notification.local.cancel interface.
Note that only local notifications with an ID can be cancelled.

Further information

• See the oncancel event for registering a listener to be notified when a local notification has been cancelled.
• See getScheduledIds to retrieve a list of IDs for all scheduled local notifications.

window.plugin.notification.local.cancel(ID, function () {
    // The notification has been cancelled
}, scope);

Cancel all scheduled local notifications

All local notifications can be cancelled through the notification.local.cancelAll interface.
The method cancels all local notifications even if they have no ID.

Further information

• See the oncancel event for registering a listener to be notified when a local notification has been cancelled.

window.plugin.notification.local.cancelAll(function () {
    // All notifications have been cancelled
}, scope);

Check whether a notification with an ID is scheduled

To check if a notification with an ID is scheduled, the notification.local.isScheduled interface can be used.
The method takes the ID of the local notification as an argument and a callback function to be called with the result. Optional: the scope of the callback can be assigned too.

Further information

• See getScheduledIds to retrieve a list of IDs for all scheduled local notifications.

window.plugin.notification.local.isScheduled(id, function (isScheduled) {
    // console.log('Notification with ID ' + id + ' is scheduled: ' + isScheduled);
}, scope);

Retrieve the IDs from all currently scheduled local notifications

To retrieve the IDs from all currently scheduled local notifications, the notification.local.getScheduledIds interface can be used.
The method takes a callback function to be called with the result as an array of IDs. Optional: the scope of the callback can be assigned too.

window.plugin.notification.local.getScheduledIds(function (scheduledIds) {
    // alert('Scheduled IDs: ' + scheduledIds.join(' ,'));
}, scope);

Check whether a notification with an ID was triggered

To check if a notification with an ID was triggered, the notification.local.isTriggered interface can be used.
The method takes the ID of the local notification as an argument and a callback function to be called with the result. Optional: the scope of the callback can be assigned too.

Further information

• See getTriggeredIds to retrieve a list of IDs for all scheduled local notifications.

window.plugin.notification.local.isTriggered(id, function (isTriggered) {
    // console.log('Notification with ID ' + id + ' is triggered: ' + isTriggered);
}, scope);

Retrieve the IDs from all currently triggered local notifications

To retrieve the IDs from all currently triggered local notifications, the notification.local.getTriggeredIds interface can be used.
The method takes a callback function to be called with the result as an array of IDs. Optional: the scope of the callback can be assigned too.

window.plugin.notification.local.getTriggeredIds(function (triggeredIds) {
    // alert('Triggered IDs: ' + triggeredIds.join(' ,'));
}, scope);

Get the default values of the local notification properties

The default values of the local notification properties can be retrieved through the notification.local.getDefaults interface.
The method returns an object of values for all available local notification properties on the platform.

Further information

• See setDefaults to override the default values.

window.plugin.notification.local.getDefaults(); // => Object

Set the default values of the local notification properties

The default values of the local notification properties can be set through the notification.local.setDefaults interface.
The method takes an object as argument.

Further information

• See the add interface and the [platform specific properties][platform_specific_properties] to get an overview about all available local notification properties.
• See the [example][setdefaults_example] to override default values.

window.plugin.notification.local.setDefaults(Object);

Get notified when a local notification has been scheduled

The notification.local.onadd interface can be used to get notified when a local notification has been scheduled.

The listener must be a function and takes the following arguments:

• id: The ID of the notification
• state: Either background or foreground
• json: A custom (JSON encoded) string

Note: The event is only being invoked in background if the app is not suspended!

Further information

• See the ontrigger event for registering a listener to be notified when a local notification has been triggered.

window.plugin.notification.local.onadd = function (id, state, json) {};

Get notified when a local notification has been triggered

The notification.local.ontrigger interface can be used to get notified when a local notification has been triggered.

The listener must be a function and takes the following arguments:

• id: The ID of the notification
• state: Either background or foreground
• json: A custom (JSON encoded) string

Note: The event is only invoked in background if the app is running and is not suspended!

Further information

• See the onclick event for registering a listener to be notified when the user has been clicked on a local notification.

window.plugin.notification.local.ontrigger = function (id, state, json) {};

Get notified when the user has been clicked on a local notification

The notification.local.onclick interface can be used to get notified when the user has been clicked on a local notification.

The listener must be a function and takes the following arguments:

• id: The ID of the notification
• state: Either background or foreground
• json: A custom (JSON encoded) string

Note: The event is only invoked in background if the app is not suspended!

Further information

• The autoCancel property can be used to either automatically cancel the local notification or not after it has been clicked by the user.

window.plugin.notification.local.onclick = function (id, state, json) {};

Get notified when a local notification has been cancelled

The notification.local.oncancel interface can be used to get notified when a local notification has been cancelled.

The listener must be a function and takes the following arguments:

• id: The ID of the notification
• state: Either background or foreground
• json: A custom (JSON encoded) string

Note: The event is not invoked if the local notification has been cleared in the notification center.

Further information

• The autoCancel property can automatically cancel the local notification if has been clicked by the user.
• See cancel and cancelAll to cancel local notifications manually.

window.plugin.notification.local.oncancel = function (id, state, json) {};

Examples

Scheduling a repeating local notification in the future

The following example shows how to schedule a local notification which will be triggered every week on this day, 60 seconds from now.

var now                  = new Date().getTime(),
    _60_seconds_from_now = new Date(now + 60*1000);

window.plugin.notification.local.add({
    id:      1,
    title:   'Reminder',
    message: 'Dont forget to buy some flowers.',
    repeat:  'weekly',
    date:    _60_seconds_from_now
});

Scheduling an immediately-triggered local notification

The example below shows how to schedule a local notification which will be triggered immediately.

window.plugin.notification.local.add({ message: 'Great app!' });

Schedule a silent local notification

By default the system sound for local notifications will be used. To turn off any sound, set the sound property to NULL.

window.plugin.notification.local.add({ sound: null });

Assign user data to the notification

If needed, local notifications can be scheduled with any user data. That data can be accessed on each event listener, but cannot be modified later.

window.plugin.notification.local.add({
    id:         1,
    message:    'I love BlackBerry!',
    json:       JSON.stringify({ test: 123 })
});

window.plugin.notification.local.onclick = function (id, state, json) {
    console.log(id, JSON.parse(json).test);
}

Change the default value of local notification properties

The following example shows how to override the default value of the autoCancel property.

window.plugin.notification.local.setDefaults({ autoCancel: true });

Platform specifics

Small and large icons on Android

By default all notifications will display the app icon. A specific icon can be defined through the icon and smallIcon properties.

Resource icons

The following example shows how to display the <package.name>.R.drawable.ic_launchericon as the notification icon.

window.plugin.notification.local.add({ icon: 'ic_launcher' });

See below to use the android.R.drawable.ic_dialog_email icon as the notification small icon.

window.plugin.notification.local.add({ smallIcon: 'ic_dialog_email' });

Local icons

The icon property also accepts local file URIs. The URI points to a relative path within the www folder.

window.plugin.notification.local.add({ icon: 'file://img/logo.png' }); //=> /assets/www/img/logo.png

Remote icons

The icon property also accepts remote URLs. If the device cannot download the image, it will fallback to the app icon.

window.plugin.notification.local.add({ icon: 'https://cordova.apache.org/images/cordova_bot.png' });

Notification sound on Android

The sound must be an absolute or relative URI pointing to the sound file. The default sound is RingtoneManager.TYPE_NOTIFICATION.

Note: Local sound files must be placed into the res-folder and not into the assets-folder.

/**
 * Plays the `beep.mp3` which must be located in the res folder
 */
window.plugin.notification.local.add({ sound: 'android.resource://' + package_name + '/raw/beep' });

/**
 * Plays a remote sound
 */
window.plugin.notification.local.add({ sound: 'http://remotedomain/beep.mp3' });

/**
 * Plays a sound file which must be located in the android_assets folder
 */
window.plugin.notification.local.add({ sound: '/www/audio/beep.mp3' });

/**
 * Plays the `RingtoneManager.TYPE_ALARM` sound
 */
window.plugin.notification.local.add({ sound: 'TYPE_ALARM' });

Notification sound on iOS

You can package the audio data in an aiff, wav, or caf file. Then, in Xcode, add the sound file to your project as a nonlocalized resource of the application bundle. You may use the afconvert tool to convert sounds.

Note: To play notification sounds, permission needs to be granted in the notification center settings.
Note: Custom sounds must be under 30 seconds when played. If a custom sound is over that limit, the default system sound is played instead.

/**
 * Plays the `beep.mp3` which must be located in the root folder of the project
 */
window.plugin.notification.local.add({ sound: 'beep.caf' });

/**
 * Plays the `beep.mp3` which must located in the www folder
 */
window.plugin.notification.local.add({ sound: 'www/sounds/beep.caf' });

LiveTile background images on WP8

LiveTiles have the ability to display images for different sizes. These images can be defined through the smallImage, image and wideImage properties.

Note: An image must be defined as a relative or absolute URI. They can be restored to default by cancelling the notification.

/**
 * Displays the application icon as the LiveTile's background image
 */
window.plugin.notification.local.add({ image: 'appdata:ApplicationIcon.png' })

Custom repeating interval on Android

To specify a custom interval, the repeat property can be assigned with an number in minutes.

/**
 * Schedules the notification quarterly every 15 mins
 */
window.plugin.notification.local.add({ repeat: 15 });

Change the LED color on Android devices

The LED color can be specified through the led property. By default the color value is white (FFFFFF). It is possible to change that value by setting another hex code.

window.plugin.notification.local.add({ led: 'A0FF05' });

Quirks

Local Notification limit on iOS

Each application on a device is limited to 64 scheduled local notifications.
The system discards scheduled notifications in excess of this limit, keeping only the 64 notifications that will fire the soonest. Recurring notifications are treated as a single notification.

Events aren't fired on iOS

After deploying/replacing the app on the device via Xcode, no callback for previously scheduled local notifications are fired.

No sound is played on iOS 7

Users must grant permission in the notification center settings for notification sounds to be played.

Adding a notification on WP8

An application can only display one notification at a time. Each time a new notification is added, the application's LiveTile data will be overwritten by the new ones.

TypeError: Cannot read property 'currentVersion' of null

Along with Cordova 3.2 and Windows Phone 8, the version.bat script must be renamed to version.

On Mac or Linux

mv platforms/wp8/cordova/version.bat platforms/wp8/cordova/version

On Windows

ren platforms\wp8\cordova\version.bat platforms\wp8\cordova\version

Black screen (or app restarts) on Android after a notification was clicked

The launch mode for the main activity has to be set to singleInstance

<activity ... android:launchMode="singleInstance" ... />

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request

License

This software is released under the Apache 2.0 License.

© 2013-2014 appPlant UG, Inc. All rights reserved