I want to develop a website that will be able to send push notifications to a mobile application that would be able to run on both android and iOS.
For the last couple of years, I am working as a web developer so developing the website is not something that I am worried about, but I have never developed a mobile application before, the mobile app would only receive notifications from the website so the main functionality would be in the website.
Can anyone suggest me what the best approach is and what I have to learn to be able to do this?
Thank you in Regards
I guess, you have 2 options.
You can either use Firebase FCM
https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/
or use a third party which is called OneSignal
https://onesignal.com/.
If you are looking for an easier way then I recommend using OneSignal instead. You just need to define API Key in your build.gradle and initialize OneSignal in onCreate().
The best approach, in my opinion, would be to use firebase (https://firebase.google.com/products/cloud-messaging/). I think it is better because it is a unique framework for both ios and android and you don't need to worry about the user device when sending the message(you could build an interface in your backend code to handle this but why doing something that already exists and it is free).
The flow is something like this:
on the first start the app(either ios or android) must send its firebase ID to your server so that you can store it (simple http request will od it) and set up a listener for the incoming push messages
when you need to send a push message all you need to do is an http request and you can trigger it with js from your website. The request will contain data such as the firebase id of the receiving device(which you have previously stored)
Firebase Cloud Messaging also have some really nice features like upstream messages(push messages from the device to the server, but you need an xmpp server to listen for them) and topics to send the same notification to many users at the same time
I think the best approach would be to create a node server where the website would be running on and then use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) to send notifications
EDIT: FCM supports both Android and iOS
Related
I am developing an Android app, which deals with allocating orders to multiple suppliers. Each supplier will have the same Android app installed. Every day, the in charge of the suppliers will open the app, pick up the suppliers to assign from the recyclerview and enter a customised message on the days' supply in an editText.
The message should be delivered in form of push notification to other suppliers he has selected from the recyclerview. So, in this case I cannot use Firebase console to send notifications. I initially thought of using Twilio to do this. But my client wanted to keep this as last option. They want me to try Push notifications.
I am researching, but every one is illustrating on how the notification can be sent through Firebase console. I also heard that GCM is obsolete now.
Please can anyone give me some pointers on how this can be done? Please note that I am a beginner in Android.
I think you can use firebase cloud messaging to achieve this. See FCM documentation.
You can send a push notification through firebase by using firebase HTTP protocol instead of the firebase console. In this way, you can programmatically send a push notification by making a REST call.
There are 2 firebase HTTP protocols that you may use to achieve this:
Legacy protocol:
This is the older firebase HTTP protocol. This is easier to set up and you can find a lot of material online explaining how to use this like medium article.
New protocol(HTTP V1):
This is the newer HTTP protocol. This is a little more difficult as authentication is done by oAuth token. However, this is more secure and extensible. Also, it seems like firebase might eventually deprecate the legacy API.
Hence, in your app, once the in charge of suppliers assigns the duties, you can call the firebase APIs to send out push notifications to all the assigned suppliers.
Is their any difference between web services for android and iOS ?? especially if i am implementing push notification using google cloud messaging
Thank you in advance
Web services
There shouldn't be any major differences between web services for Android and iOS. Especially when it comes to exchanging JSON with object representations. At the end, it's all the same, parsing and mapping. Sometimes you might want to return some special, platform specific information. In this case, the mobile clients need a way to tell your backend which OS they're running.
Push notifications
Push notifications is a different story. On Android you have Google Cloud Messaging and on iOS Apple Push Notification Service. Your back end has to know which notification service to use.
There are many ways to solve this problem.
One way is to set a custom HTTP header that would contain information about the OS the mobile client runs. Another is to have a parameter that is sent with each request.
I do not know much about REST servers notifications, so how can I get server's notification\event on my Android app? One way I can suppose is send request to server and wait until response which is delayed, but this decision seems me wrong. Any suggestions? Thanks.
You have all the documentation in Android developers.
One way to do what you want is called Push Notifications and is doing throw Google Cloud Messaging (GCM).
It involves using Google APIs, to code some classes in your Android App, and to code other stuff in your server part.
By the end, you should be able to send a simple message to a device and show a notification.
http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html
I am currently developing an app where users create posts that are stored on a server. When another user shows interest in a post by clicking a button, I want to notify the author of the post using push notifications. I have already set up the data storage using cloud endpoints with Google App Engine. Is there anyway I can use these endpoints to implement push notifications? If not is there another easy way to implement push notifications given my current setup? I have already read about Google Cloud Messaging on the developers page but was somewhat confused. I have kept track of the registration id's but I don't really know where to go from there. Thanks in advance.
You can use the HTTP interface to the GCM servers as described in this
Android developers page.
The easiest way to do it is by downloading the Google Cloud Messaging for Android Library using the Android SDK Manager, which will give you a jar that handles all the complexity of setting up the requests and responses to GCM.
Towards the bottom of that page, there is a sample Java application for push notifications on App Engine which you can use to get familiar with sending push notifications and then adapt to your needs.
I was just looking at the new Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and I was wondering if it is possible to use GCM for Instant Messaging on your Android application?
I saw you can send data, like a message, from a server, but is it also possible to send from one device to another one?
And how would this work?
Some example code would be really helpful..
Tnx!
The official docs on Google Cloud Messaging for Android does mention that GCM can be used to develop an instant messaging app.
...or it could be a message containing up to 4kb of payload data (so
apps like instant messaging can consume the message directly).
So we went ahead and created an instant messaging app using GCM. The server-side is powered by Google App Engine. You can read the complete tutorial here. Create an Instant Messaging app using Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)
So it is possible to use GCM for Instant Messaging on Android, to answer your question. However, reliability of GCM compared to XMPP for IM is another topic.
Just my two cents:
I think you should not use GCM for delivering IM. You should have a dedicated server where your Android IM apps will connect to, using a persistent socket connection. Your server will know who is online or not and therefore can present an 'online list' to all the apps.
GCM can come into play, while users are offline or not running your app. A GCM message can be sent to them to indicate 'XXXX wants to chat'. They can then launch your app and automatically connects to a chat session.
Google has said that the delivery of GCM messages are not guaranteed. This reason alone is not a good idea to rely on them for Instant Messaging.
Try pub nub - it is pretty easy to implement - send Im from one mobile to another - simply fire up the web page (see link) in the browser , and chat between pc, mobile - and works - with 'no server'. Code is for javascript but they also have java. Chat app using jquerymobile web app framework
You might want to check out how a server sends a message to the GCM Service. It is possible to use php on Server side so it should be possible to adapt that to a POST request directly out of your application. However, to communicate you need the registered ids of the devices you want to send data to. Means you will need something to store and get them. Best solution would be your own (web) server which stores all ids and handles the Message sending.