@capacitor/motion: Add `frequency` option

[Maximvdw]

Feature Request

Plugin

• @capacitor/motion

Description

Both Accelerometer, Gyroscope and OrientationSensor support a frequency option. My feature request is to support similar functionality in @capacitor/motion

Platform(s)

Web, Android, iOS

Preferred Solution

I have two options:

Motion.addListener('accel', { frequency: 50 }, (event) => {});

or

Motion.setListenerFrequency('accel', 50);
Motion.addListener('accel', (event) => {});

The latter would make more sense when assuming only one 'main' listener is used for the sensors as the frequency would be applied to all listeners for that event.

[jcesarmobile]

First option is not technically possible since addListener doesn't accept options. It would require a major refactor on @capacitor/core, @capacitor/ios and @capacitor/android for being able to accept options.

Second option might be possible.

There is also a third option, provide callback methods in addition to the addListener ones. i.e. Motion.watchAccel(options, callback).

EDIT:
The plugin uses deviceorientation and devicemotion events, which don't allow to configure the frequency, so in order to pass a frequency, the plugin should use the mentioned sensors instead of the current events. The mentioned sensors don't support iOS nor a few Android and desktop browsers yet.

[Maximvdw]

There is also a third option, provide callback methods in addition to the addListener ones. i.e. Motion.watchAccel(options, callback).

Personally I feel the difference between "watch" and "listener" is a bit ambiguous. I think the 2nd option is the most logical one as it is similarly implemented in other cross-platform frameworks such as react-native.

The plugin uses deviceorientation and devicemotion events, which don't allow to configure the frequency, so in order to pass a frequency, the plugin should use the mentioned sensors instead of the current events. The mentioned sensors don't support iOS nor a few Android and desktop browsers yet.

The currently implementation could be kept with an additional "web-next" implementation that uses these newer sensors on supported browsers (i.e. when the classes are not undefined). When using the proposed Motion.setListenerFrequency('accel', 50); function, this function can remain unimplemented in the current implementation while offering new browsers the possibility to change the frequency in "web-next".

Similarly, related to issue #1425 - the "web-next" implementation implementation could add the new magnetometer sensors while remaining backwards compatible with the older deviceorientation and devicemotion events on older browsers.

To give an example:
Motion.setListenerFrequency('accel', 50); Motion.addListener('accel', (event) => {});
on an iOS device will basically ignore the listener frequency that is being set and rely on the frequency of the devicemotion event. No errors will be thrown as the function is simply not implemented.

On a supported browser, this would in fact work.

Small note: Just for future reference - they type definitions for the sensors can be found here https://www.npmjs.com/package/@types/w3c-generic-sensor

[Maximvdw]

Any progress on this feature request?

[jcesarmobile]

This thread has been inactive for some time, and we’re cleaning up older items to keep the backlog focused and manageable.

Details on the effort:
https://ionic.io/blog/keeping-capacitors-backlog-healthy

If this is still relevant today, feel free to open a new issue with current information and we’ll review it.

[ionitron-bot]

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