Get a notification when your Objective-C code is done executing

These days we can use Objective-C for almost anything, be it a simple function, a complex algorithm, or anything that comes to mind. Usually, what we want Objective-C to do happens very quickly, and we don't even have to wait for it to finish.

Long-running Objective-C tasks are a problem

However, sometimes you are writing a Objective-C code, process, or job that may take a long time to run. For example, you may decide to crawl a website or run a long-running parsing algorithm.

I'm sure almost every developer has, at some point, written a Objective-C code that takes a long time to run. They then had to continuously check the task, wait for it to finish running, and ensure the Objective-C code was working as expected. As you can see, this gets tedious very quickly and wastes time and effort.

Push notifications fix this problem

One common way to solve this is to track the status of our Objective-C code and send a push notification when the code is done running or when it fails. By doing so, we can leave and forget about the long-running Objective-C code and focus on the important things we need to do, and by the time something happens, we will instantly get a push notification to let us know.

To do so, we can use LogSnag to track the status of our Objective-C code. LogSnag is a simple, easy-to-use, robust event tracking and notification system that lets you track your Objective-C code and send push notifications when something happens.

Let's walk you through setting up and using LogSnag to track the status of our Objective-C code.

Setting up LogSnag

1. Sign up for a free LogSnag account.
2. Create your first project from the dashboard.
3. Head to settings and copy your API token.

Objective-C code snippets

Now that we have our account and project setup, we can copy the following code snippet, update the values with your information, and paste it into your code.

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

dispatch_semaphore_t sema = dispatch_semaphore_create(0);

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://api.logsnag.com/v1/log"]
  cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy
  timeoutInterval:10.0];
NSDictionary *headers = @{
  @"Content-Type": @"application/json",
  @"Authorization": @"Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"
};

[request setAllHTTPHeaderFields:headers];
NSData *postData = [[NSData alloc] initWithData:[@"{\"project\":\"my-project\",\"channel\":\"crawler\",\"event\":\"Crawling is complete\",\"description\":\"Successfully crawled 1,230 pages.\",\"icon\":\"🔥\",\"notify\":true}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[request setHTTPBody:postData];

[request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];

NSURLSession *session = [NSURLSession sharedSession];
NSURLSessionDataTask *dataTask = [session dataTaskWithRequest:request
completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
  if (error) {
    NSLog(@"%@", error);
    dispatch_semaphore_signal(sema);
  } else {
    NSHTTPURLResponse *httpResponse = (NSHTTPURLResponse *) response;
    NSError *parseError = nil;
    NSDictionary *responseDictionary = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:0 error:&parseError];
    NSLog(@"%@",responseDictionary);
    dispatch_semaphore_signal(sema);
  }
}];
[dataTask resume];
dispatch_semaphore_wait(sema, DISPATCH_TIME_FOREVER);

Objective-C integration details

LogSnag provides several other features that can be used to simplify your job as a developer. For example, suppose you're working with a team. In that case, you can also add the rest of your team to your LogSnag project and allow them to see the status of your Objective-C code and receive push notifications when something important happens.

LogSang also keeps track of your previous events, so you can see what has happened in the past and search through previous events. We found this to be very powerful when we are working on larger projects and need to see what has happened in the past.

In addition, LogSnag allows you to create simple dashboards, charts, and graphs that give you more insight into your code and the events you track.

Other use-cases for LogSnag

1. Monitor your CI/CD build status for your Objective-C application
2. Monitor your CPU usage in your Objective-C application
3. Monitor when database goes down in your Objective-C application
4. Monitor high disk usage in your Objective-C application
5. Monitor when a user changes their email address in your Objective-C application
6. Monitor failed logins in your Objective-C application
7. Monitor failed payments for your Objective-C application
8. Monitor memory usage in your Objective-C application
9. Monitor MySQL downtime in your Objective-C application
10. Monitor when a new feature is used in your Objective-C application
11. Monitor your Postgres downtime in your Objective-C application
12. Monitor Redis downtime in your Objective-C application
13. Monitor suspicious activity in your Objective-C application
14. Monitor when a user exceeds the usage limit for your Objective-C service
15. Monitor when a user is being rate limited in your Objective-C application
16. Send push notifications to your phone or desktop using Objective-C
17. Track canceled subscriptions in your Objective-C application
18. Track your Objective-C cron jobs
19. Track when a file is uploaded to your Objective-C application
20. Track when a form is submitted to your Objective-C application
21. Track payment events via Objective-C
22. Track user sign in events in Objective-C
23. Track user signup events via Objective-C
24. Track waitlist signup events via Objective-C