carp_communication_package 2.0.0

CARP communication sampling package. Samples phone, sms, and calendar logs and activity.

CARP Communication Sampling Package

This library contains a sampling package for collection of contextual data to work with the carp_mobile_sensing framework. This package supports sampling of the following Measure types:

• dk.cachet.carp.phone_log - the phone log.
• dk.cachet.carp.text_message_log - the text (sms) message log.
• dk.cachet.carp.text_message - incoming text (sms) messages.
• dk.cachet.carp.calendar - all calendar entries.

Note that collection of phone and text message data is only supported on Android.

See the CAMS documentation site for further documentation. See the CARP Mobile Sensing App for an example of how to build a mobile sensing app in Flutter.

This package implements default privacy protection of text messages, phone numbers, and calendar entries as part of the default Privacy Schema. These functions are implemented in the communication_privacy.dart file and use standard SHA1 hashing.

For Flutter plugins for other CARP products, see CARP Mobile Sensing in Flutter.

If you're interested in writing your own sampling packages for CARP, see the description on how to extend CARP Mobile Sensing.

Installing

To use this package, add the following to your pubspec.yaml file. Note that this package only works together with carp_mobile_sensing.

dependencies:
  carp_mobile_sensing: ^latest
  carp_communication_package: ^latest
  ...

Android Integration

Add the following to your app's AndroidManifest.xml file located in android/app/src/main:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  package="<your_package_name>"
  xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">

  ...
   
  <!-- The following permissions are used in the CARP Communication Package -->
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CALL_PHONE"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_NUMBERS"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_SMS"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CALENDAR"/>
  <!-- Even though we only want to READ the calendar, for some unknown 
       reason we also need to add the WRITE permission. -->
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CALENDAR"/>


  <application>
   ...
   ...
    <!-- Registration of broadcast receiver to listen to SMS messages 
         when the app is in the background -->
   <receiver android:name="com.shounakmulay.telephony.sms.IncomingSmsReceiver"
     android:permission="android.permission.BROADCAST_SMS" android:exported="true">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED"/>
      </intent-filter>
    </receiver>

   </application>
</manifest>

iOS Integration

Add this permission in the Info.plist file located in ios/Runner:

<!-- iOS 10–16 (legacy key, still valid) -->
<key>NSCalendarsUsageDescription</key>
<string>INSERT_REASON_HERE</string>

<!-- iOS 17+ -->
<key>NSCalendarsFullAccessUsageDescription</key>
<string>INSERT_REASON_HERE</string>

Using it

To use this package, import it into your app together with the carp_mobile_sensing package:

import 'package:carp_core/carp_core.dart';
import 'package:carp_mobile_sensing/carp_mobile_sensing.dart';
import 'package:carp_communication_package/communication.dart';

Before creating a study and running it, register this package in the SamplingPackageRegistry.

SamplingPackageRegistry().register(CommunicationSamplingPackage());

Collection of communication measures can be added to a study protocol as shown below. Note that TEXT_MESSAGE is an event-based measure collected whenever a new text messages is received, whereas the other measures are one-time measures, which can be fetched using different triggers (in the protocol below, this is done periodically).

// Create a study protocol
StudyProtocol protocol = StudyProtocol(
  ownerId: '[e-mail]',
  name: 'Communication Sensing Example',
);

// Define which devices are used for data collection
// In this case, it is only this smartphone
Smartphone phone = Smartphone();
protocol.addPrimaryDevice(phone);

// Add an automatic task that collects incoming SMS messages
protocol.addTaskControl(
    ImmediateTrigger(),
    BackgroundTask(
        measures: [Measure(type: CommunicationSamplingPackage.TEXT_MESSAGE)]),
    phone);

// Add an automatic task that every 3 hour collects the logs for:
//  * in/out SMS
//  * in/out phone calls
//  * calendar entries
protocol.addTaskControl(
    PeriodicTrigger(period: const Duration(hours: 3)),
    BackgroundTask(measures: [
      Measure(type: CommunicationSamplingPackage.PHONE_LOG),
      Measure(type: CommunicationSamplingPackage.TEXT_MESSAGE_LOG),
      Measure(type: CommunicationSamplingPackage.CALENDAR),
    ]),
    phone);

All the log measures (PHONE_LOG, TEXT_MESSAGE_LOG, CALENDAR) collects data using a HistoricSamplingConfiguration which per default collects all data back to the last time, data was collected. Restriction on the history ("past") of data collection can be overridden, like this:

// Add an background task that collects the calendar entries for the past 7 
// days (max), every time the app is resumed i.e. come to the foreground).
protocol.addTaskControl(
    AppLifecycleTrigger({AppLifecycleState.resumed}),
    BackgroundTask(measures: [
      Measure(type: CommunicationSamplingPackage.CALENDAR)
        ..overrideSamplingConfiguration =
            HistoricSamplingConfiguration(past: const Duration(days: 7)),
    ]),
    phone);