iOS Auto restart an app?

[tortex]

Hello.

I was talking to an iPad specialist in an Apple Store today. Didn't know they had iPad specialists, but I digress.

He mentioned that using the standard dev tools you can set your app to have an auto restart, re-run system on it, so if a user hits the home button the app will quit and quickly restart. He called it re-run I think. I've googled for a few hours, but cannot find anything. He was adamant it was possible, and he did seem to know what he was talking about (I questioned him on various aspects of the APIs and he responded in a way which clear he knew the dev tools and ObjC).

I've been tasked with making digital label software for tablets, and would love not to resort to the Galaxy tab and Android, both of which have proved less than bad.

 

[admanimal]

There is no such thing. Once the user hits the home button, they will land on the home screen and stay there until they actively choose another app to run.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

It might be possible to do something like include the creation of a UILocalNotification in your app delegate right as the app is being closed. Have it set to automatically display itself a second later with the option of the user starting the app back up. Very hackish and not exactly what you're looking for, but that's the best I can think of... Apple probably wouldn't approve of it if you tried to get it on the app store.

 

[jonnymo5]

Why do you need this? Are you trying to keep the user from leaving your app?

 

[tortex]

Why do you need this? Are you trying to keep the user from leaving your app?

They were to be used in a museum, so we don't want people browsing the net on them and leaving porn up which is what always happens! In the end we decided to have custom made panels of the same spec made and we'll run them off standard Macs.

 

[jonnymo5]

If you are mounting them you could just cover up the home button and power button.

Then the user would not be able to leave your app as long as it didn't crash.

 

[xStep]

They were to be used in a museum, so we don't want people browsing the net on them and leaving porn up which is what always happens! In the end we decided to have custom made panels of the same spec made and we'll run them off standard Macs.

Why wouldn't you just filter them out from having outside access. Any competent network admin could do this.

 

[admanimal]

Why wouldn't you just filter them out from having outside access. Any competent network admin could do this.

Or just enable restrictions on the device and block Safari and anything else you want. Of course this doesn't prevent someone from quitting the app if they can get to the Home button.

 

[tortex]

And if you have hundreds of them, you'd need to start the app every morning, and if the battery dies so does the device, and if it crashes somebody has to unscrew the housing and reset everything. It turns out that really, iPads are beautiful but useless for what we need. Which is a shame, because they are amazing pieces of tech.

 

[xStep]

And if you have hundreds of them, you'd need to start the app every morning, and if the battery dies so does the device, and if it crashes somebody has to unscrew the housing and reset everything. It turns out that really, iPads are beautiful but useless for what we need. Which is a shame, because they are amazing pieces of tech.

Since you've described your moving to Mac, this is for argument sake...

All your points would seem to apply to any device. So root the iPad, have it automatically start into your app and since you're building custom housings anyway, simply make it so you can reset the device if ever needed.

As an extra bonus, add a little network messaging so that you can remotely reset the app to the start page per device or as a group. Every morning run the group reset message and the things are ready to go.

What your working on, sounds like a fun challenge.