Get location in Ionic/Cordova app when in background

Ionic Framework

I’ve recently implemented a feature like this in my project. I did use Ionic and I did use the Cordova plugin background mode from Katzer. (right now I’m running the background process through the iOS 9.2 simulator).

Here’s a code snippet to get it working:

// Run when the device is ready
document.addEventListener('deviceready', function () {

    // Android customization
    // To indicate that the app is executing tasks in background and being paused would disrupt the user.
    // The plug-in has to create a notification while in background - like a download progress bar.
    cordova.plugins.backgroundMode.setDefaults({ 
        title:  'TheTitleOfYourProcess',
        text:   'Executing background tasks.'
    });

    // Enable background mode
    cordova.plugins.backgroundMode.enable();

    // Called when background mode has been activated
    cordova.plugins.backgroundMode.onactivate = function () {

        // Set an interval of 3 seconds (3000 milliseconds)
        setInterval(function () {

            // The code that you want to run repeatedly

        }, 3000);
    }
}, false);

Ionic Framework 2

Here’s an Ionic 2 example ES6 ready:

// Import the Ionic Native plugin 
import { BackgroundMode } from 'ionic-native';

// Run when the device is ready
document.addEventListener('deviceready', () => {

    // Android customization
    // To indicate that the app is executing tasks in background and being paused would disrupt the user.
    // The plug-in has to create a notification while in background - like a download progress bar.
    BackgroundMode.setDefaults({ 
        title:  'TheTitleOfYourProcess',
        text:   'Executing background tasks.'
    });

    // Enable background mode
    BackgroundMode.enable();

    // Called when background mode has been activated
    // note: onactive now returns an returns an observable that emits when background mode is activated
    BackgroundMode.onactivate.subscribe(() => {
          // The code that you want to run repeatedly
    });
}, false);