Schedule Interactive UILocalNotification - Obj-C

Question

I'm trying to schedule an interactive UILocalNotifaction.

My attempt has been to use the following code, which I grabbed from this tutorial:

NSString * const NotificationCategoryIdent  = @"ACTIONABLE";
NSString * const NotificationActionOneIdent = @"ACTION_ONE";
NSString * const NotificationActionTwoIdent = @"ACTION_TWO";

- (void)registerForNotification {

    UIMutableUserNotificationAction *action1;
    action1 = [[UIMutableUserNotificationAction alloc] init];
    [action1 setActivationMode:UIUserNotificationActivationModeBackground];
    [action1 setTitle:@"Action 1"];
    [action1 setIdentifier:NotificationActionOneIdent];
    [action1 setDestructive:NO];
    [action1 setAuthenticationRequired:NO];

    UIMutableUserNotificationAction *action2;
    action2 = [[UIMutableUserNotificationAction alloc] init];
    [action2 setActivationMode:UIUserNotificationActivationModeBackground];
    [action2 setTitle:@"Action 2"];
    [action2 setIdentifier:NotificationActionTwoIdent];
    [action2 setDestructive:NO];
    [action2 setAuthenticationRequired:NO];

    UIMutableUserNotificationCategory *actionCategory;
    actionCategory = [[UIMutableUserNotificationCategory alloc] init];
    [actionCategory setIdentifier:NotificationCategoryIdent];
    [actionCategory setActions:@[action1, action2]
                    forContext:UIUserNotificationActionContextDefault];

    NSSet *categories = [NSSet setWithObject:actionCategory];
    UIUserNotificationType types = (UIUserNotificationTypeAlert|
                                    UIUserNotificationTypeSound|
                                    UIUserNotificationTypeBadge);

    UIUserNotificationSettings *settings;
    settings = [UIUserNotificationSettings settingsForTypes:types
                                                 categories:categories];

    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] registerUserNotificationSettings:settings];
}

However, this code doesn't seem to actually schedule the notification anywhere. What am I missing?

Answer 1

Apollo,

Scheduling a local notification is relatively easy. Piggy backing off the tutorial you referenced I kind of switched it up so it can make more sense, you can deter or alter the code as need be, but this will give you a better starting point than the tutorial did. Please know it's not mandatory to put this in application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: you can schedule a UILocalNotification anywhere app-wide. See the references below for complete properties of each method

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {

//Here we are just going to create the actions for the category. 
UIMutableUserNotificationAction *acceptAction = [self createAction];
UIMutableUserNotificationAction *laterAction = [self createLaterAction];
laterAction.title = @"Not Now";

//Creating the category and assigning the actions:
UIMutableUserNotificationCategory *acceptCategory = [self createCategory:@[acceptAction, laterAction]];

//Register the categories 
[self registerCategorySettings:acceptCategory];

//For testing purposes we will just fire a local notification on load. This is just for reference, but you don't have to call it in applicationDidFinishLaunching
[self fireLocalNotification];

return YES;
}

//Create a category
- (UIMutableUserNotificationCategory *)createCategory:(NSArray *)actions {
UIMutableUserNotificationCategory *acceptCategory = [[UIMutableUserNotificationCategory alloc] init];
acceptCategory.identifier = @"ACCEPT_CATEGORY";

[acceptCategory setActions:actions forContext:UIUserNotificationActionContextDefault];

return acceptCategory;
}

//Register your settings for that category 
- (void)registerCategorySettings:(UIMutableUserNotificationCategory *)category {
UIUserNotificationType types = (UIUserNotificationTypeAlert | UIUserNotificationTypeBadge | UIUserNotificationTypeSound);

NSSet *categories = [NSSet setWithObjects:category, nil];
UIUserNotificationSettings *settings = [UIUserNotificationSettings settingsForTypes:types categories:categories];

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] registerUserNotificationSettings:settings];
}

//Create Actions Methods
- (UIMutableUserNotificationAction *)createAction {

UIMutableUserNotificationAction *acceptAction = [[UIMutableUserNotificationAction alloc] init];
acceptAction.identifier = @"ACCEPT_IDENTIFIER";
acceptAction.title = @"Accept";

acceptAction.activationMode = UIUserNotificationActivationModeBackground;
acceptAction.destructive = NO;

// If YES requires passcode
acceptAction.authenticationRequired = NO;

return acceptAction;
}

- (UIMutableUserNotificationAction *)createLaterAction {

UIMutableUserNotificationAction *laterAction = [[UIMutableUserNotificationAction alloc] init];
laterAction.identifier = @"LATER_IDENTIFIER";
laterAction.title = @"Not Now";

laterAction.activationMode = UIUserNotificationActivationModeBackground;
laterAction.destructive = NO;
laterAction.authenticationRequired = NO;

return laterAction;
}

- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didRegisterUserNotificationSettings:(UIUserNotificationSettings *)notificationSettings {

UIUserNotificationType allowedTypes = [notificationSettings types];
NSLog(@"Registered for notification types: %u", allowedTypes);
}

//Fire a local Notification: For testing purposes we are just going to fire this immediately after launch. But this will give you a general idea of how to create a UILocalNotification app-wide:
- (void)fireLocalNotification {
UILocalNotification *notification = [[UILocalNotification alloc] init];
notification.alertBody = @"We are just testing -";
notification.category = @"ACCEPT_CATEGORY";

notification.fireDate = [NSDate dateWithTimeInterval:15 sinceDate:[NSDate date]];

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduleLocalNotification:notification];
}

And your outcome will be as anticipated:

Don't forget to call the completion handlers for the actions that were selected. application:handleActionWithIdentifier:forLocalNotification:completionHandler:

Please review the documentation and references below for further customization. Again, i'm not saying this is the right way and it's definetly not the only, it's just a great starting point for you to understand how they work. There are lots of customizable properties for actions and UILocalNotifications

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REFERENCES

• UILocalNotification & Properties : Documentation
• iOS8 Notification Actions & Properties : Documentation