[feat] Background notifications

[micahlt]

At the moment, message notifications only fire when the app is open. This is because the request is being made with the Capacitor Local Notifications plugin which is controlled via JavaScript, which only runs when the app is in the foreground. The solution to this problem would be to write an Android Service to fetch messages periodically in the background, or even better a WorkManager since it's the new standard and is battery-efficient.

This really should be worked on before release to Google Play since the current experience is very unpolished. @locness3 do you have any experience with Java? I know you've mentioned creating a native app before.

[moeenio]

It seems relatively simple to set up a WorkManager. We might not even need to have it interact with the webview. Might look into sync adapters as well.

[micahlt]

Sync adapters look really interesting as well! You're right - we shouldn't need to directly interact with the webview, but we do have to store the current username somewhere that can be synced between the webview and the service/WorkManager/sync adapter.

[micahlt]

@locness3 So just from what I've tried, setting up a sync adapter lies beyond my marginal knowledge of Java. Would you be willing to add this feature and make a PR? That would be absolutely amazing 🤩

[moeenio]

we do have to store the current username somewhere that can be synced between the webview and the service/WorkManager/sync adapter.

I believe we're currently using localStorage? I think we should look into @capacitor/storage - whose doc page recommends against using the former :

Mobile OSs may periodically clear data set in window.localStorage, so this API should be used instead.

I believe @capacitor/storage fits as it uses Android's SharedPreferences which are easy to access from java code.

[moeenio]

Note to self : @capacitor/storage seems to use CapacitorStorage as the default name for the shared preferences file.

[moeenio]

Might look into sync adapters as well.

These look relatively complex to set up since it looks like you need to create an authenticator and a content provider - would stick with using WorkManager.

[micahlt]

Might look into sync adapters as well.

These look relatively complex to set up since it looks like you need to create an authenticator and a content provider - would stick with using WorkManager.

Been meaning to switch to Capacitor Storage for a while. I'll write the code sometime tonight and PR the changes into this repo so you can set up a WorkManager easily!

[micahlt]

@locness3 It's been done - the current signed-in username is stored with the key username. You should be good to go!

[moeenio]

Great

[micahlt]

I appreciate your help on this issue! Thanks again!