Background Service notification for Titanium

background_demo.js

/*  Kosso : March 12th 2011 
This the only way I managed to do this without the app crashing on resume.
Done slightly differently to the KS example, since they unregister the service and 
do not use a setInterval timer.
*/

//############  in app.js :


// test for iOS 4+
function isiOS4Plus(){
	if (Titanium.Platform.name == 'iPhone OS'){
		var version = Titanium.Platform.version.split(".");
		var major = parseInt(version[0]);
		// can only test this support on a 3.2+ device
		if (major >= 4){
			return true;
		}
	}
	return false;
}

if (isiOS4Plus()){

	var service;
	
	// Ti.App.iOS.addEventListener('notification',function(e){
	// You can use this event to pick up the info of the noticiation. 
	// Also to collect the 'userInfo' property data if any was set
	//		Ti.API.info("local notification received: "+JSON.stringify(e));
	//	});
	// fired when an app resumes from suspension
	Ti.App.addEventListener('resume',function(e){
		Ti.API.info("app is resuming from the background");
	});
	Ti.App.addEventListener('resumed',function(e){
		Ti.API.info("app has resumed from the background");
		// this will unregister the service if the user just opened the app
		// is: not via the notification 'OK' button..
		if(service!=null){
			service.stop();
			service.unregister();
		}
                Titanium.UI.iPhone.appBadge = null;
	});
	Ti.App.addEventListener('pause',function(e){
		Ti.API.info("app was paused from the foreground");
		
		service = Ti.App.iOS.registerBackgroundService({url:'bg.js'});
		Ti.API.info("registered background service = "+service);
		
	});
}


//##############  end app.js  changes


//############# in bg.js :

Ti.API.info("hello from a background service!");


var alertCount = 0;
var notification = null;

function notify(resp){
	// This creates the notification alert on a 'paused' app
	notification = Ti.App.iOS.scheduleLocalNotification({
		alertBody:resp,
		alertAction:"OK",
		userInfo:{"hello":"world"},
		badge:alertCount,
		date:new Date(new Date().getTime() + 10)
	});
}


function checkFeed(){

        // silently ignore this if there's no network connection
	if (Titanium.Network.online == false) {
		return;
	}

	var t = new Date().getTime();
	Ti.API.info('checking feed in bg.. '+t);

	var xhr = Titanium.Network.createHTTPClient();
	xhr.timeout = 1000000;
	xhr.onerror = function(e){
		Ti.API.info('IN ERROR ' + e.error);
	};
	xhr.onload = function(){
	
		// demo to increase the badge number...
		alertCount++;

		var response = this.responseText;		
		Ti.API.info("the reply was: "+response);
		// open the notification
		notify(response);
	};
	
	xhr.open('GET','http://YOUR_SERVER.COM/service_test.php');
	xhr.send();
	/*
	my service_test.php is simply: 
	<?php
		echo "hello from a server at: ".date("r");
	?>
	*/
	

}

Ti.App.iOS.addEventListener('notification',function(){
	Ti.API.info('background event received = '+notification);
	Ti.App.currentService.stop();
	Ti.App.currentService.unregister();
});

// Kick off a timer to trigger a function called 'checkFeed' every 10 seconds (= 10000 ms)
var timer = setInterval(checkFeed, 10000);

//####### END bg.js

Background service runs, when app goes to the background. In foreground, you could write the code in a function and call this function with setTimeout as in this link Check the comment by Mark.