Ability to pause/resume recording from Notification bar without phone unlocking

[szpak]

I really like the minimalism and functionality of the this logger. I have one suggestion to improve its ergonomics.

Starting in Android 7.0 (API level 24) there is a possibility to add "action buttons" to a notification in the Notification bar. In the context of GPSLogger it would be useful to be able to:

• pause/resume recording (without a need to unlock a phone) - e.g. when you hit a long red light on your way and don't want to "hit" your average speed
• stop recording (with a need to unlock a phone as it opens a summary screen anyway)
• start recording (probably also with a need to unlock a phone)

(sample image to ensure we are taking about the same)

It seems that the app uses the API level 32, so there is a chance that all above could be implemented without its bumping.

Update. Added also "start recording" when the app is running, but the recording hasn't been started yet.

[GrazianoCapelli]

It seems a great idea, thanks for your suggestion.

• The Pause / Resume action button should be very simple to implement
• The Stop action I think that could be relatively simple too, but it should be well thought. We could also stop the recording without confirmation dialog, but I think we should unlock the phone and manage the operation from inside the app as you rightly suggested
• The Start recording action button is difficult to implement because currently, when there is no track in-progress, the Location is requested only when the app is in foreground, in order to limit the power consumption

I think maybe we should start with the Pause / Resume, and then we could think and implement the other actions.

[GrazianoCapelli]

With the previous commit I tried to add the action button that toggles the recording state on GPS Logger Notification; The result of my try is in the screenshot here below:

The button already toggles the recording state. When the app is recording, we should show the text "PAUSE" instead.

The implementation is really simple, but we have a problem that I describe here below:

The app currently doesn't require the background location permission, thus the GPS research can be started only when the app is in the foreground. Once the GPS searching is started, the app can be put in background without lose the permission to access the GPS. Currently the user starts the recording and then puts the app in background, and all keeps working because the GPS remains always active. When the user put the app in pause and put it in background, the app doesn't keep the GPS signal for battery saving reasons; when the user wants to restart the recording, it must open the app and perform the operation in foreground.

The problem is that the notification works when the app is in background, while the record button on the main activity works when the app is in the foreground, thus it is not possible to resume a recording from the notification unless we:

• have the background location permission
• keep the GPS always on when the app is active, also in background when the recording is paused

Both solutions are feasible, but I have doubts that the game is worth the candle...

[szpak]

Thanks for giving it a try.

Is it possible to keep that feature opt-in and when enabled in settings, it would ask for the "background location permission", otherwise, only the "foreground location permission" is requested and used? If yes, how would be it be complicated to keep it in code (to only show the extra "button(s)")?

Alternatively, maybe the app could ask for the "background location permission" only when that (available by default) button is clicked (I don't know if Android permission system is such flexible)?

[GrazianoCapelli]

Agree, they both could be good ways to implement the feature. Furthermore, some users asked to have other features that requires the background location permission (like automatic start at bootup and support for Tasker integration), thus we could group them and choose to implement all them into a future release.

Maybe the simplest solution could be to add the possibility to grant the background location using a Preference into app's Settings, as you rightly suggested.

When the permission is granted, the action button(s) should be visible on notification.