RMS and iPad App

jkayser

I have a client that is running RMS 3.3.3 and are slowly changing out their old MVP-8400i's for iPads. The problem that we are running into is that RMS cannot track the battery life of the iPad and it is always showing OFFLINE. Any thoughts as to why?

Thanks in advance.

[Deleted User]

Assuming you are running TPControl App. The iPad will only show up as a device as long as the app is running and has focus. This is not a good way to manage the iPads as they will show up mostly as offline.

jkayser

Yes it is running in TP Control. I understand that this isn't the best way to monitor the iPads, but the client isn't going to move to a different option. So I am stuck finding out a way to get the iPad to work seamlessly with RMS. I have spoken with Tech Support about this and was told that a control module would have to be created for something like this to work. My question is this, is it the iPad itself that needs the control module or would it be TP Control? I have a request to TP Control in regards to this as well, so I guess I will find out soon enough.

[Deleted User]

There would have to be a way to communicate to RMS that the actual device is communicating regardless of the state of the app. At this point, we would be treating it as a computer. There is no RMS monitoring module for this device type so that would be a good place to start. You could write your own using the open source RMS SDK or propose a feature request through Tech Support for an RMS PC monitoring Module.

nickm

jkayser wrote: »

...but the client isn't going to move to a different option. So I am stuck finding out a way to get the iPad to work seamlessly with RMS.

Due to the way iOS background processes work, there is never going to be a "seamless" way to manage iPads through RMS. There will always be a chance that the TPControl app will be moved far enough to the background that iOS drops it's processes out of RAM. There's also the issue of the iPad going to sleep and shutting of data services (i.e. WiFi). You, the user, nor AMX have any control over how it works.

While I'm usually game for creative ideas and work-arounds, trying to promise that level of functionality is doing yourself a huge disservice.

C.Houliaras

Are the iPads intended to be used for anything but TPControl? Guided access would keep TPC open, but then the iPad would still sleep.

PhreaK

Due to the way iOS works after ~2.5 minutes of being in the background I believe that the TPControl app will be closed via the OS, causing the device to drop offline.

You may want to check and see if this sends you the panel sleep string when this happens. If that is the case, rather than having a online|offline device state you could monitor these with an online|offline|sleep state. Basically if the device drops offline without being asleep that gives you an indication that there's likely some connectivity issues or a dead battery at which point you probably want to show an alert in RMS. If it drops into a sleep state first simply ignore the offline event.

DHawthorne

iPad limitations are the way they are because Apple mandates it in all approved apps. You can't lock the app on the device, you can't force it to stay active and foreground. It's out of TPC's hands. You may have done better with a good droid tablet which doesn't have those limitations. Probably too late for you in this case, but it's something to keep in mind for the future. iPads are really only good for a control device if the intent is just to use them sometimes between other uses.

mstocum

DHawthorne wrote: »

iPad limitations are the way they are because Apple mandates it in all approved apps. You can't lock the app on the device, you can't force it to stay active and foreground.

With iOS 6 and Guided Access mode, you can lock the OS into a single app. The app will even relaunch on reboot or crash. If you're running an MDM server, and put the devices into supervised mode, this can also be remotely managed.

John Nagy

mstocum wrote: »

With iOS 6 and Guided Access mode, you can lock the OS into a single app. The app will even relaunch on reboot or crash. If you're running an MDM server, and put the devices into supervised mode, this can also be remotely managed.

This mode exists on iOS 7 (current) as well, and offers a lot of what we've missed on iThings... I didn't know this mode was there.

With TPC set into this Guided Access mode, the panel times out to a barely-lit mode instead of locking. At a touch, it brightens and stays connected the whole time. This is ideal, although it eventually times out to dark and offline.. still playing with it to determine the range of times. Looks like 15 minutes or so without a touch, it fully darkens and sleeps. But then, a touch on the POWER button brings it back alive, although disconnected at first, then connects in seconds. It does not lock, no slide required...

This rocks by comparison to the normal operation if you want to dedicate a iThing for control.
THANKS!

mstocum

John Nagy wrote: »

With TPC set into this Guided Access mode, the panel times out to a barely-lit mode instead of locking. At a touch, it brightens and stays connected the whole time. This is ideal, although it eventually times out to dark and offline.. still playing with it to determine the range of times. Looks like 15 minutes or so without a touch, it fully darkens and sleeps. But then, a touch on the POWER button brings it back alive, although disconnected at first, then connects in seconds. It does not lock, no slide required...

If you go into settings and disable auto-lock, I believe the iPad should stop going to sleep.

John Nagy

mstocum wrote: »

If you go into settings and disable auto-lock, I believe the iPad should stop going to sleep.

Indeed. But that's a short road to a dead battery, not to mention the annoyance of a panel that won't darken. Ideal would be separate lock/sleep rules for in and out of the charger. But no, Apple says no. Maybe in iOS 8?