Push notification play sounds other than in Bundle

jamison · March 2010

Guys

Has anyone worked out a way of getting push notifications to play sounds from a source other than the application bundle? Specifically the applications Documents directory.

My app can create its own sounds and I want the user to be able to assign this sound to be the one used for push notifications. Hence I can't ship pre-installed with the bundle.

I've tried saving files into the bundle within the app, but of course you get permission denied. (On the phone, not in the simulator).

Duncan C · March 2010

jamison;187033 said:
Guys

Has anyone worked out a way of getting push notifications to play sounds from a source other than the application bundle? Specifically the applications Documents directory.

My app can create its own sounds and I want the user to be able to assign this sound to be the one used for push notifications. Hence I can't ship pre-installed with the bundle.

I've tried saving files into the bundle within the app, but of course you get permission denied. (On the phone, not in the simulator).

I play simple sounds using the AVAudioPlayer class.

You can create an AVAudioPlayer with the initializer initWithContentsOfURL.

You just need to build a URL that points to a file in your documents directory.

First, get the path to the documents directory, with code like this:


NSString* userDocumentsPath = nil;
	
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
if ([paths count] > 0) 
   userDocumentsPath = [paths objectAtIndex:0];

Then append the filename to that string and turn it into a URL with the NSURL initializer initFileURLWithPath.

Once you've created a sound player, just invoke it from the code that processes your push notification.

Regards,

Duncan C
WareTo

BrianSlick · March 2010

I'm guessing he means if the app isn't running.

iPhone Dev Center: Apple Push Notification Service Programming Guide: Apple Push Notification Service

Sounds like it needs to be in the bundle.

jamison · March 2010

Thanks for the response.

Yes, I mean if the app is not running.

That pretty much confirms my fears - teaches me a lesson in developing loads based on what the simulator did, only to find out the bundle is read only on the phone...

doh! slaps head. again.

Can't see any reason why they couldn't open this up though, to allow the push to play sounds in the apps Documents/ area.

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Push notification play sounds other than in Bundle

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