I am creating a simple forum app for ANDROID using Parse. I am stuck at a problem related to notifications
For instance I want that when user A posts a comment in a forum app, user B (who subscribed to that post) will receive a push notification, can I do that using either client code, instead of handling it using Cloud Code, or the REST API? If not then how to I start developing the server side to use cloud code or REST API
Allowing users to send push notifications via the client is bad for security reasons. It's not incredibly difficult to get the application id and client key to an app. Anyone with that information will be able to create their own code that allows them to target whoever they want with push notifications if client push is enabled.
Related
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
I need some clarifications.
I'm using Firebase realtime database.
Now I've to implement a realtime chat between two android devices. I need also push notifications.
So, the solution based on realtime database is to drop because if the app isn't running, it will not handle the onChildAdded event.
I read on the documentation that I can achieve my aim, using the upstream message from the device to the server.
Now, it's written also that we need an app server.
I just want to be clarified the need of the app server (XMPP or HTTP), and which is the entire flow of message m1 sent from the device A, and the notification on the device B.
In my opinion the app server should act as a man in the middle, so:
A ---> XMPP SERVER ---> FCM
FCM ---> XMPP SERVER ---> B
Is this the flow?
On the documentation I can't understand if I'm right or not.
If so, how do I send a message from the FCM back to the XMPP Server?
The notification message is sent from FCM to the client o from XMPP Server?
Please someone clarify me.
Other solution thought by me:
Since I find really powerful firebase realtime database, I thought these solution to walk around the problem:
Create an app server the is listening for onChildAdded and when it changes send a notification to client device.
Creating a background service on the client app listening to onChildAdded and create notification when necessary.
Even all, I don't like these solutions.
Just want to understand the standard and correct way to achieve my aim.
Firebaser and author of the article debated in the question comments here
To send messages to a device with Firebase Cloud Messaging, you need to specify your project's FCM Server Key. As its name suggests, this key should only be used in code that runs in a trusted environment: i.e. a server that you control.
To send device-to-device messages (such as in a 1:1 chat application where the receiving user is not necessarily online) you need two steps:
one user send an upstream message
the other user receives the downstream message
Using Firebase Cloud Messaging and your custom app server code, you can handle step 2. But that still leaves step 1: the user needs to send a message that somehow triggers your code on the app server. There are quite a few ways to do this.
For example you could implement an HTTP endpoint on your app server and have the chat application send the messages there too (in addition to sending to the database).
You could also implement an XMPP endpoint and have the chat application send the message there (again in addition to sending it to the database).
My article suggest yet another way, one that doesn't require implementing an endpoint at all. It uses a node.js script that runs on your app server and is essentially just a client to the database. Whenever this script detects a relevant chat message, it calls the FCM API and sends the downstream message.
This pattern of using the Firebase Database as your endpoint and then using server-side scripts is quite common when using Firebase. We documented it in our classic blog post Where does Firebase fit in your app? (as option 2) and in this article in the Google Cloud documentation.
I'm working on an Ionic project developing two different Apps:
1) The Companies App - Companies will be able to post new job opportunities.
2) The users App - They will be able to check for any role, if an user applies for a role, the Company that is offering the job, should receive a Push Notification.
As you can see, my problem is: how an App will Push to the other one ? Does Ionic have a solution for that? If not, there is another way to solve this?
Looking forward to hear from you! Thank you!
The whole point of push notifications is to give backend servers the ability to initiate communication and notify mobile devices with updates. This said, You have to do server side logic to achieve what you need, here is a sample scenario for your case:
Register your companies app to ionic.io, following the steps on ionic push quick start guide, when you register your app gets a unique ID that you can use from your server side code to send push notifications, sample code for python can be found in API Examples
Company A uses the companies app to post a new job that will be added in a database on your server. Company A can choose to subsbribe to push notifications, when they do, a unique token ID will be generated for this device, send this token to your backend server because you will need it to send the notification, check API Examples
User B uses the users app to apply for the job, his application is
propagated to the server.
Your server side code will determine that this job was posted by company A which is subscribed to push notifications, and will use the company token id, the application id, and the application secret key to send a notifications to the company on the companies app.
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
This question already has answers here:
How to make a chat application in android? [closed]
(6 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
I am developing an Android app in which I have to implement chat messaging. I would like one to one chat or a group chat.
But I have no idea how to start. Please help me with this stuff. Any help will be appreciated.
A simple chat mechanism will have 2 basic functionalities
Send the message to server (with info about the recipient)
Receive the message from server (designated for my user name)
First step is simple, we can create a web service which will accept the message with additional information about recipient(s). We can create it using any server side language.
Step 2, that is fetching the message from server can be done using 2 techniques, Pull the message (using polling) from server, or Push the message from server to android phone
Polling: In this, the android device will keep accessing server after a few seconds to check if there is a message available for user. This again can be implemented using a simple async task at the client side which will keep calling a web service after say 2-3 seconds. This is fine to use if we are planning to enable chatting only when user is accessing the app (no notifications like gmail or facebook), so that we can kill the polling service when not in use (otherwise it will eat up resources).
Push notifications: a better option is to use push notifications. Android provide Google cloud messaging or GCM (http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html) which will help achieve push from server easily. Otherwise you can try a third party API like urbanairship or pushwoosh depending on your requirement. Push notifications will help the user to receive messages even when he is not using the app.
So in nutshell, a webservice to receive the messages and a push notification mechanism should be sufficient to implement a chat service in android.
Little bit about UrbanAirship
I used UA in one of my projects for push notifications as I needed to support both iOS and Android. If you just want to support Android GCM might also be a good option.
Coming back to UA, check this for sample code and usage: https://docs.urbanairship.com/display/DOCS/Home
The way it works is simple, when someone installs the app and is connected to internet, app registers itself to the UA service. A unique code is specified for each installed app (this is the time when you can capture the user name and unique code and store somewhere in your DB). Next UA provides an API using which you can push a message to designated recipient(s), using the unique codes which are available with UA. These messages can be received by android app and used as per the requirement. Even if the app is not running we can show a notification just like when we receive an email or a message
You can use an existing platform like Scringo. It gives you a one-on-one chat as well as group chat (both the client and the server) as well as the push notification service.