iPad will not shutdown when TapForms has Focus

[PLH]

I just bought TapForms yesterday, so I’m just learning; however, I have noticed that when I leave my iPad with TapForms as the active on-screen application, it causes the iPad to remain turned-on. I have the iPad setting to turn-off the iPad after 5 minutes of inactivity. If I minimize the TapForms application or if I start a different application, then the iPad shuts-down after 5 minutes. I hope this can be fixed easily because today it zapped my iPad battery from 95% to 30% because I went outside for a few hours and when I returned and looked at the iPad and saw that TapForms was still running and my iPad did not automatically shut-down after 5 minutes.

[Brendan]

Hello PLH,

What screen were you using at the time? Did you have the web server running at the time? There are a few instances in Tap Forms where I tell the device not to go to sleep.

Thanks,

Brendan

[PLH]

The first day I was using TapForms it happened on the screen with a record I was updating. The web server was not running. It seems to not go to sleep regardless of which screen I was on.

Then the next day I explored the app by navigating through all the sample forms, the tools menu and all sub-menus, and I deleted all the sample forms, rebooted the iPad, then suddenly it started to sleep after a few minutes of inactivity.

Now I can not reproduce the problem, but I suppose that by closing the TapForms app and reboot the iPad helped, so perhaps that solved the issue. I noticed the reboot also solved another issue; when I added a two new date fields to an existing database it would allow me to pick a date from the date-picker-popup, but when I tapped the form after picking a date, the date would not appear on the form until I navigated to a different form, then navigated back to the form with the new date. This was also resolved by rebooting the iPad.

This seems to be a great app, I use it to keep track of all the vegetables in my vegetable garden, seeds, planting dates, growth rate, harvest dates, soil type, etc. Works great for this.

[PLH]

Update:

It is happening again, my iPad refuses to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity, as specified in the iPad settings, when TapForms is the active app. The webserver is not running and no menus are open; TapForms is simply displaying a record and no fields are ‘open’ awaiting input from an open popup picker, such as a pop-up date picker or a pop-up Pick-List.

Any suggestions?

[Brendan]

Hello PLH,

Hmm.. I’m just testing it myself now. It seems to sleep fine for me. But I’ve only tested it one time so far. I’m working on testing it some more. Also I’m looking into my code to see where I am disabling the idle timer. The only places I can see are when you either turn on the FTP server or the web server, or when a long running process is occurring, such as when importing a file or encrypting the database.

I’m using an iPad 2 with iOS 4.3.3 for my tests though. It’s really weird that this is happening to you only in Tap Forms HD. Could you try a smaller timeout to see if that changes things? I have mine set to 2 minutes with no passcode lock.

Thanks,

Brendan

[PLH]

I think I’ve discovered how to reproduce the problem. I have a version 1 iPad running 4.3.3.

After reading your last post it occurred to me that you have code to disable the idle timer when using a process to transmit data, but I do not use FTP or the web server on TapForms. But, as I mentioned I’m a new user and I have been exploring the menus and sub-menus and other features. One of those features that I tried was the icon on the top right for transmitting data by ‘beaming’ to another device; but because I do not have another ‘device’ I simply explored that icon for a moment, the looked at the pop-up called ‘Receive Beam’ then I clicked the ‘Cancel button’ on the top left corner of the blue pop-up (‘Receive Beam’) and this returned me to my form/active record screen. Then after opening the ‘Receive Beam’ pop-up the iPad will not go to sleep.

[Brendan]

Hello PLH,

I just found where the problem was thanks to your help!

It turns out when you load up the beam view, I set the iPhone’s idle timer so it won’t go to sleep. Then, when the view gets unloaded, I re-enable the idle timer. However, the method I put that code in doesn’t always get called. So I’ve moved it to a place that will always get called when the view disappears from the screen.

That will fix the problem for the future. So for now, maybe don’t go into the beam screen unless you need it. Then you could always kill the app using the multi-tasking dock to force-quit it.

Thanks!

Brendan

[PLH]

Great that you found the problem. I suppose you will include a fix in your next release.

Regarding the other issue I mentioned:

(I noticed the reboot also solved another issue; when I added a two new date fields to an existing database it would allow me to pick a date from the date-picker-popup, but when I tapped the form after picking a date, the date would not appear on the form until I navigated to a different record, then navigated back to the record with the new date. This was also resolved by rebooting the iPad.)

Is this a bug that can be fixed without the necessity of rebooting the iPad or navigating to a different record?

[Brendan]

Hello PLH,

Yes, the fix will be in my next release for the sleep issue.

The date issue happens only when you add a date field to an existing form and then edit existing records to select a date. Adding new records to the form should work fine. That’s something I still need to fix. But simply swiping left or right across the record detail screen should refresh it.

Thanks,

Brendan

[PLH]

OK, thanks for the information.

[Kavanaugh]

t seems to sleep fine for me. But I’ve only tested it one time so far. I’m working on testing it some more. Also I’m looking into my code to see where I am disabling the idle timer. The only places I can see are when you either turn on the FTP ipad 2 Chargersserver or the web server, or when a long running process is occurring, such as when importing a file or encrypting the database.ipad 2 stand cases

[Author]

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