No badge until open

[yeefom]

Hi,

This problem has been bothered me for a while: there is no badge on the icon until I open omnifocus. I mean, if an action becomes due soon or overdue, an badge should apear automatically. Should it? :)

Thanks!

Yeefom

[jjlucsy]

iOS doesn't allow a program to run in the background, therefore it has no way to update itself. That, and OmniGroup doesn't provide a backend server that can push badge updates to the user. So this is expected behavior, unfortunately.

[yeefom]

iOS doesn't allow a program to run in the background, therefore it has no way to update itself. That, and OmniGroup doesn't provide a backend server that can push badge updates to the user. So this is expected behavior, unfortunately.

Thanks for your reply!

I am wondering whether local notification can do this job? As far as I know, there are apps update badge status themselves without internet connection.

[montbarron]

Thanks for your reply!

I am wondering whether local notification can do this job? As far as I know, there are apps update badge status themselves without internet connection.

Yeah, it seems weird to me that it doesn't use local notifications for this. It would be entirely do-able with the way that local notifications work.

It may not work for certain things (like geofenced tasks, for instance) but it'd be really helpful for time-based things.

[CatOne]

I am wondering whether local notification can do this job? As far as I know, there are apps update badge status themselves without internet connection.

It's certainly possible. Things does it.

Obviously this would be for items that the app knew about the last time it quit. Items that were created on other devices wouldn't appear in the badge count. But there's no reason the app couldn't register for a local notification to update its badge count at 12:01 AM or whatever.

[Brian]

I checked briefly with one of the engineers: local notifications can update the badge, but their memory was that the API is optimized around the "show me how many times this app has pestered me" use case, which is a simpler one than the way OmniFocus uses the badge.

Our badge represents the sum of some combination of overdue, due soon, and flagged items, depending on the settings you choose.

Additionally, if the app hasn't been launched in a while, we haven't synced, either. At that point, the local alerts being fired may be based on stale data; they doesn't incorporate changes you made on other devices.

Push would has the advantage there, but then you have to pass a whole lot of personal data through a server that we run...

[Brian]

None of the above, of course, is arguing that folks shouldn't want this - votes added to the feature request on this. Just providing some background/nuance about what's going on here. Thanks!

[whpalmer4]

Additionally, if the app hasn't been launched in a while, we haven't synced, either. At that point, the local alerts being fired may be based on stale data; they doesn't incorporate changes you made on other devices.

Push would has the advantage there, but then you have to pass a whole lot of personal data through a server that we run...

A hybrid approach: any and all running copies of OmniFocus send in their idea of what the badge should read, and your server sends out push notifications to all known instances, possibly based only on the data from the client which has most recently seen a change made. No need to actually house the data.

[Brian]

I've got four items overdue, and another due in an hour. While out and about, I complete one overdue action on my iPhone. Before the hour is up, waiting on a park bench for a friend, I do a mini-review on my WiFi-only iPad, deferring the due date on a different overdue action.

Two hours later, I reach a coffee shop with free WiFi. I open the iPad but do not launch OmniFocus; what number appears on the badge? :-)

[whpalmer4]

Well, changes made on non-connected or non-synced devices are a common-mode failure with the current situation, so that's no worse than now.

Your iPad doesn't need to launch OmniFocus — it gets the push notification from your server, no?

[CatOne]

I've got four items overdue, and another due in an hour. While out and about, I complete one overdue action on my iPhone. Before the hour is up, waiting on a park bench for a friend, I do a mini-review on my WiFi-only iPad, deferring the due date on a different overdue action.

Two hours later, I reach a coffee shop with free WiFi. I open the iPad but do not launch OmniFocus; what number appears on the badge? :-)

;-)

True that... local notifications could easily push additions for items that were rolling over at a time... But Things does this on a daily basis and with OmniFocus items can have times so it would be more work.

So it's a choice between "Just no it's not updated when the app is running" or "We'll push some updates and make it closer but it may not be absolutely correct." Probably best to understand the behavior and deal with it... "If you need an absolutely correct number you should just launch the app..." :-)

[magnum6]

I've got four items overdue, and another due in an hour. While out and about, I complete one overdue action on my iPhone. Before the hour is up, waiting on a park bench for a friend, I do a mini-review on my WiFi-only iPad, deferring the due date on a different overdue action.

Two hours later, I reach a coffee shop with free WiFi. I open the iPad but do not launch OmniFocus; what number appears on the badge? :-)

A little late to this discussion - but for someone who wants the most accurate information all of the time, they probably didn't buy the wifi only in the first place. Omnifocus is a good app, but you lose the efficacy of the badge if I have to open the app for it to be accurate. Privacy shouldn't be an issue - we're just talking about pushing numbers.