Hi @Ionut, I purchased Ariela months ago and thank you for the great app.
Although I have searched this forum, I’m still not sure that I completely understand the setting “Allow background running”, especially regarding the following functionality:
device tracker
pushing of app sensors to HASS
notifications
What I would like answered is how the above functionalities in Ariela will behave in the following scenarios (if the functionality is “on” and how often they run/poll), when “Allow background running” is OFF and when it is ON:
Ariela is open and in the foreground
Ariela is open but not in the foreground (press of home button, switched to a different app)
Ariela quit via “Exit” in the left menu
Ariela is dragged off-screen in the app switcher UI
I’m a software developer myself, so the more technical the answers, the better. Thank you.
Hello and so sorry for being this late in a response, i didn’t see the message until now.
The device tracker functionality will be automatically limited if the background running is not allowed. If that function is disabled then Ariela will wake up from time to time based on Android OS and sent a device tracker update.
No sensors informations are not sent if Ariela is not running in foreground or allow background running enabled.
Notifications are not influenced by the allow background running option. Those will be received even if Ariela is not running.
Having background running enabled or disabled doesn’t influece the app sensors / device tracker if Ariela is in background.
Same as above, but i do not recommend do this on any app Most of the apps will still be active in a way or another and will consume battery.
If the exit function will work then even if the allow background running is enabled then Ariela will not be running.
Note: you may also want to look into Trigger Ariela custom updates – Ariela . This is a new function that will allow triggering events from HA that will be sent to Ariela and Ariela send back updates like device tracker, battery etc. This new function uses the notification system and doesn’t require Ariela to be running in foreground or background.
Ariela in foreground (the no-brainer case): everything works
Ariela not in foreground: sensors/tracker work as in the foreground case?
Ariela exited via “Exit” menu: everything stops
Ariela dragged off-screen via switcher menu: not replied, unsure
Given the above interpretation (which I’m assuming is not totally correct from my part), it’s still unclear in what scenarios “Allow background running” would have made a difference.
Disabling “Allow background running” will behave like when Ariela is exited via “Exit” menu.
Ariela dragged off-screen via switcher menu: not replied, unsure
This depends. If the above option is enabled, everything works, else Ariela and HA connection will be stopped.
Ariela not in foreground: sensors/tracker work as in the foreground case?
Everything normal only if the allow background running is enabled.
Most of the apps will still be active in a way or another and will consume battery.