feat: setup background task from scratch on iOS by szymonrybczak · Pull Request #53834 · Expensify/App

szymonrybczak · 2024-12-10T10:42:05Z

Explanation of Change

Warning

This Pull Request is rebased on top of the Upgrade to React Native 0.76 Pull Request because it's using a new type-safe way of creating EventEmitters available only in 0.76.

Adds an implementation of background task on iOS. This implemenation leverages BGTaskScheduler API, which is iOS specific API available from iOS 13 responsible for scheduling and executing background tasks. For our specific use case we're using BGProcessingTask which is designed for executing longer tasks e.g. syncing requests as in our case that can take longer.

From the more technical perspective it's a C++ TurboModule that was bootstrapped as a Local Library so it's linked inside package.json.

For now, we're scheduling new tasks in 15-minute intervals after the execution of the previous one.

How to test it?

To force execution of the background task can use Xcode debugger attached to physical iPhone device:

e -l objc -- (void)[[BGTaskScheduler sharedScheduler] _simulateLaunchForTaskWithIdentifier:@"com.bundle.id"]

Here's a video presenting this behaviour:

CleanShot.2024-12-10.at.11.59.35.mp4

Fixed Issues

$ #50140
PROPOSAL: #50140

Tests

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

QA Steps

Open the app on physical iPhone with Account A
Open the app on Web with Account B
With Account A activate the Flight mode and send some messages, for easier tracking send from 1 to 9, each on its one message
Move Account A’s app into background
Enable turn off the Flight mode
Watch the Account B, messages and any performed actions should show up

Note: take into account that could some time for the first time, this times will be improved and vary depending on the app usage on the device. We set the interval between tasks to 15 minutes but at the end of the day iOS decides when to execute it.

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Android: mWeb Chrome

iOS: Native

iOS: mWeb Safari

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

MacOS: Desktop

melvin-bot · 2024-12-10T11:49:12Z

@Pujan92 Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

szymonrybczak · 2024-12-10T11:56:04Z

ios/NewExpensify/Info.plist

+	</array>
+	<key>BGTaskSchedulerPermittedIdentifiers</key>
+	<array>
+		<string>com.expensify.chat.dev</string>


Q: which one should we specify here?

melvin-bot · 2024-12-10T12:00:10Z

Hey, I noticed you changed some webpack configuration files. This can break production builds. Did you remember to run a production build locally to verify they still work?

github-actions · 2024-12-10T12:00:11Z

🚧 @mountiny has triggered a test build. You can view the workflow run here.

github-actions · 2024-12-10T15:58:12Z

🚧 @mountiny has triggered a test build. You can view the workflow run here.

github-actions · 2024-12-10T16:25:19Z

🧪🧪 Use the links below to test this adhoc build on Android, iOS, Desktop, and Web. Happy testing! 🧪🧪

Android 🤖	iOS 🍎
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.amazonaws.com/android/53834/index.html	❌ FAILED ❌
	The QR code can't be generated, because the iOS build failed
Desktop 💻	Web 🕸️
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.amazonaws.com/desktop/53834/NewExpensify.dmg	https://53834.pr-testing.expensify.com

👀 View the workflow run that generated this build 👀

github-actions · 2024-12-11T01:00:36Z

🚧 @thienlnam has triggered a test build. You can view the workflow run here.

github-actions · 2024-12-11T01:26:32Z

🧪🧪 Use the links below to test this adhoc build on Android, iOS, Desktop, and Web. Happy testing! 🧪🧪

Android 🤖	iOS 🍎
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.amazonaws.com/android/53834/index.html	❌ FAILED ❌
	The QR code can't be generated, because the iOS build failed
Desktop 💻	Web 🕸️
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.amazonaws.com/desktop/53834/NewExpensify.dmg	https://53834.pr-testing.expensify.com

👀 View the workflow run that generated this build 👀

ios/NewExpensify/Info.plist

github-actions · 2024-12-11T09:33:58Z

🚧 @mountiny has triggered a test build. You can view the workflow run here.

github-actions · 2024-12-11T10:02:47Z

🧪🧪 Use the links below to test this adhoc build on Android, iOS, Desktop, and Web. Happy testing! 🧪🧪

Android 🤖	iOS 🍎
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.amazonaws.com/android/53834/index.html	https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.amazonaws.com/ios/53834/index.html

Desktop 💻	Web 🕸️
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.amazonaws.com/desktop/53834/NewExpensify.dmg	https://53834.pr-testing.expensify.com

👀 View the workflow run that generated this build 👀

mountiny · 2024-12-12T15:30:21Z

@mananjadhav any updates?

mananjadhav · 2024-12-12T15:33:51Z

Will be checking in next 10 mins. I did check this yesterday and the messages didn't arrive in like 5-8 mins. I couldn't check after that. But I'll be doing another test today.

mananjadhav · 2024-12-12T16:46:53Z

@szymonrybczak I tried to test this and it didn't work for me. I sent a message at 21:55 my time and it's 22:13 my time right now. No messages. I sent 10-13.

I tried different variations and I checked on two iPhones by the way - iPhone X and iPhone 16 plus.

ios-background-to-foreground.MP4

Before Foreground waiting for the app in background

After Foreground

mananjadhav · 2024-12-19T15:14:18Z

@szymonrybczak any updates on this one?

szymonrybczak · 2024-12-20T15:58:49Z

hey @mananjadhav, to answer your question and how it should work, so iOS is very strict regarding executing any kind of background tasks and 15 minutes which are used as earliest begin date are indicating first possible execution of the task.

As mentioned in the docs:

Setting the property indicates that the background task shouldn’t start any earlier than this date. However, the system doesn’t guarantee launching the task at the specified date, but only that it won’t begin sooner.

So actually we don't have any guarantee on when it will be executed, as other doc says:

The delay between the time you schedule a background task and when the system launches your app to run the task can be many hours.

To validate the implementations locally there's this guide. I followed steps from it and aded a video inside this PR description which presents that for specific identifier correct callback is being executed on JS side.

I spent a lot of time of trying to find a way to test it inside a Release build, searched a lot of native-only examples but there's no other way for BGTaskScheduler API.

To test how big impact does it have on app experience I'd propose sending analytics when the background task is executed, so we'll have a clear picture on the reliability of this solution and how often iOS decides to execute it.

mananjadhav

Thanks for the patience here @szymonrybczak. Checklist completed here. I am not sure what the Comment on native files changed means. @mountiny Can you help?

melvin-bot · 2025-01-14T22:25:15Z

We did not find an internal engineer to review this PR, trying to assign a random engineer to #50140 as well as to this PR... Please reach out for help on Slack if no one gets assigned!

luacmartins

NAB maybe we should leave a comment on why src/setup/backgroundTask/index.ts is empty so people don't delete it

luacmartins · 2025-01-15T00:17:41Z

One of the checks is failing:

Run gh pr comment 53834 --body \
  gh pr comment 53834 --body \
  ":warning: This PR is possibly changing native code. It may cause problems in Hybrid App. Please ask Hybrid App team to review those changes in the Slack open-source channel. The C+ can help you with that. :warning:"
  shell: /usr/bin/bash -e {0}
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ***
failed to run git: fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git

That's not a blocker to merge this PR.

melvin-bot · 2025-01-15T00:17:57Z

Congrats, that's your 5th PR merged! 🎉 Do you know about the ContributorPlus role? It's an opportunity to earn more in the Expensify Open Source community. Keep up the great work - thanks!

melvin-bot · 2025-01-15T00:18:01Z

@luacmartins looks like this was merged without a test passing. Please add a note explaining why this was done and remove the Emergency label if this is not an emergency.

luacmartins · 2025-01-15T00:18:06Z

See above

OSBotify · 2025-01-15T00:27:41Z

✋ This PR was not deployed to staging yet because QA is ongoing. It will be automatically deployed to staging after the next production release.

github-actions · 2025-01-15T14:42:33Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/luacmartins in version: 9.0.86-0 🚀

platform	result
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🖥 desktop 🖥	cancelled 🔪
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖🔄 android HybridApp 🤖🔄	success ✅
🍎🔄 iOS HybridApp 🍎🔄	success ✅

github-actions · 2025-01-15T22:28:31Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/luacmartins in version: 9.0.86-0 🚀

platform	result
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🖥 desktop 🖥	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖🔄 android HybridApp 🤖🔄	success ✅
🍎🔄 iOS HybridApp 🍎🔄	success ✅

szymonrybczak · 2025-01-16T09:09:07Z

NAB maybe we should leave a comment on why src/setup/backgroundTask/index.ts is empty so people don't delete it

I've added it in Android PR: 7472c60

luacmartins · 2025-01-16T15:04:22Z

Thanks!

github-actions · 2025-01-17T13:32:17Z

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/mountiny in version: 9.0.86-3 🚀

platform	result
🤖 android 🤖	true ❌
🖥 desktop 🖥	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖🔄 android HybridApp 🤖🔄	failure ❌
🍎🔄 iOS HybridApp 🍎🔄	success ✅

arosiclair · 2025-02-18T23:00:21Z

ios/tmp.xcconfig

@szymonrybczak any reason we committed this file to the repo? Normally it's just a temporary file used in production builds.

I will take a look at this, probably remove it and add it into the .gitignore, thanks for caching this

Working on this in this PR: #56169

Thanks but I already got to it in this PR: #57058

szymonrybczak force-pushed the szymonrybczak/feat/setup-background-task-from-scratch branch from 4822dc1 to 9364f0d Compare December 10, 2024 11:19

szymonrybczak marked this pull request as ready for review December 10, 2024 11:49

szymonrybczak requested a review from a team as a code owner December 10, 2024 11:49

melvin-bot bot requested review from Pujan92 and removed request for a team December 10, 2024 11:49

szymonrybczak commented Dec 10, 2024

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szymonrybczak mentioned this pull request Dec 10, 2024

Implement custom Background Processing task from Scratch #52700

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mountiny assigned szymonrybczak Dec 10, 2024

mountiny added the Ready To Build label Dec 10, 2024

mountiny changed the title ~~feat: setup background task from scratch on iOS~~ [HOLD App#51475] feat: setup background task from scratch on iOS Dec 10, 2024

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mountiny requested review from mananjadhav and removed request for Pujan92 December 10, 2024 14:18

szymonrybczak commented Dec 11, 2024

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ios/NewExpensify/Info.plist Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

szymonrybczak force-pushed the szymonrybczak/feat/setup-background-task-from-scratch branch from 2ee195e to 240573a Compare December 11, 2024 09:30

szymonrybczak mentioned this pull request Dec 27, 2024

feat(Android): setup background task #54616

Merged

49 tasks

szymonrybczak added 7 commits January 14, 2025 23:21

chore: update lock

49632c5

fix: eslint warnings

a8884a0

fix: mock module

74d6767

feat: add a log when executing background task

310e010

fix: move mocks to one file

a1c707e

feat: pass error to JS

8a914f3

fix: eslint error

6276845

szymonrybczak force-pushed the szymonrybczak/feat/setup-background-task-from-scratch branch from 4fe46ab to 6276845 Compare January 14, 2025 22:22

mananjadhav approved these changes Jan 14, 2025

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melvin-bot bot requested a review from luacmartins January 14, 2025 22:33

luacmartins approved these changes Jan 15, 2025

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luacmartins merged commit 9be0b9f into Expensify:main Jan 15, 2025

melvin-bot bot added the Emergency label Jan 15, 2025

luacmartins removed the Emergency label Jan 15, 2025

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Jan 15, 2025

Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2025-01-15 #55270

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31 tasks

melvin-bot bot mentioned this pull request Jan 17, 2025

[$250] [HOLD for payment 2025-01-30] Background network processing #50140

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arosiclair reviewed Feb 18, 2025

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hungvu193 mentioned this pull request Jul 18, 2025

[No QA] Update Firebase Dependencies #65520

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Explanation of Change

How to test it?

Fixed Issues

Tests

Offline tests

QA Steps

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

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