how to get SNS working in Android?
We have an app that sends SNS messages to iOs apps already (I personally am only working with the App side). And have extended it to send Android messages. It works fine for iOS and thinks it is sending to Android correctly but no message ever actually shows up on the Android device.
I am registering with the backend by getting the Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID and sending that to the web service that registers it with Amazon SNS.
I have turned on all the permissions that I can (I don't need to specifically ask for permission do I?, how would I do that).
Basically the setup we have is I hand our web service a device id and it registers with Amazon and the web service sends the notifications out (but I am never seeing them).
Is there anything else I need to do or check on the client side?
Amazon SNS for push messaging on android instructions is the same as normal GCM on android.
You must follow the directions here:
GCM Getting Started - covers the google console set up and will provide you with the :
SenderId, for use in the android app code. (This is the Google Console's Project #)
the api key, for use in SNS server setup
Implementing GCM Client - covers client library, getting the registration ID, setting up a wakeful service and broadcast receiver for creating notifications or whatever you'd like you app to do when it receives a push.
You should also read thru amazon's documentation Getting Started with Google Cloud Messaging for Android which summarizes the the previous two links.
I am registering with the backend by getting the Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID and sending that to the web service that registers it with Amazon SNS.
This is not correct. By using the GCM client library, call the following methods to get the real registration ID (sns likes to call them an endpoint) that you can send to the web service that registers it with Amazon SNS. There should be no need to use Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID at all for push on android.
GoogleCloudMessaging gcm = GoogleCloudMessaging.getInstance(someContext);
String registrationId = gcm.register(senderId);
I have turned on all the permissions that I can (I don't need to specifically ask for permission do I?, how would I do that).
see Implementing GCM Client for the required permissions that you must include in your AndroidManifest.xml. And no, you don't need to specifically ask for permission since it would be in the AndroidManifest.xml but you could ask the user on first app start with a dialog or some other UI. You may also choose to let the user disable push for you app via a settings screen if your app has one.
Is there anything else I need to do or check on the client side?
You should confirm that you are able to get registration ids (perhaps some logging)?
And then with those ids, test your implementation. Here is a question that was asked a while ago that will help you use a rest client to send pushes with your registration ids and api_key (SNS login not needed).
How to push notification from rest client for testing purpose
Related
I was wondering how android push framework is able to distinguish data recieved via GCM and forward it to the appropriate android application for which it was intended ?
Can anyone let me know how it is done ?
You question : how android push framework is able to distinguish data recieved via GCM and forward it to the appropriate android application.
From your question it looks like you willing to know about data
workflow & Client Server architecture that exists in applications
which are using the GCM service.
As per google’s documentation “Google Cloud Messaging for Android (GCM) is a service that helps developers send data from servers to their Android applications on Android devices”. GCM is a service provided by Google for developer that helps developer to send data from server to any number of Android devices.
Simplified Application Specific Work-flow:
The push notification can be broadcasted either to the mass audience
or a select set of users. Mass audience is targeted when the
notification has to be sent about a marketing campaign. A subset of
users are targeted when a personalized information has to be sent.
The below steps explains how push notification works on android devices:
First android device sends sender id, application id to GCM server
for registration.
Upon successful registration, GCM server issues registration id to android device.
After receiving registration id, device will send registration id to our server.
Our server will store registration id in the database for further use.
Whenever push notification is needed, our server sends a message to GCM server along with device registration id (which is
stored earlier in the database).
GCM server will deliver that message to respected mobile device using device registration id.
This can also be understand using following figure
An Example Workflow:
So, from above images it easy to understand that whenever the android
application is first installed by the user, then it registers itself
to GCM server, and obtains unique GCM ID, then it's our Host servers
responsibility to keep this newly registered Registration ID of the
android user into Database, and then it will be used whenever server
side application willing to send the message to that particular
android user.
So, let us consider one case; suppose an Server wants to send Some data to Android User, which has already registered it's GCM ID 1234567 when it's first time installed, and as it's in the server's database the server application will fetch it from DB, and simply make a HTTP POST request to the GCM server in JSON format, which will have registered user's GCM ID along with the data to send , in same way the GCM Server has the record of all the Registered GCM/Android Clients, it directly forwards that message to the intended android user, and android app in user's phone will raise and Notification alert, to indicate an push notification has arrived.
Hope This answers an question!
GCM stands for Google Cloud Messaging.
Every push notification receive on any Android device is sent by the GCM only.
sender -> GCM -> Android Device
when sender sends an push notification then it goes to GCM. GCM receives that push and forward it to particular Android Device by its Unique device id.
GCM can't deliver Push without Unique Device ID.
while implementing push notification there are two important things, application key and server key ... these are unique Keys.. using these keys GCM identifies the application to whom push notification is related
We are developing apps both in IOS and Android. GCM push notification has been enabled for IOS and its working fine now. The package name for both the platforms are going to be the same.
I was given SERVER API KEY and SENDER ID by ios developer to set up gcm for android. While looking for the steps, I came across https://developers.google.com/cloud-messaging/android/client.
I kept to myself that the steps listed in the contents need to be done to set up GCM for android (please correct me if I am wrong).
Get Config file and add it to Android project
Set up Google play services (I added gcm in my project dependency)
Add entries to Manifest file
Check for google play services APK
Obtain registration token.
"An Android application needs to register with GCM connection servers before it can receive messages"
"The client app should store a boolean value indicating whether the registration token has been sent to the server." - My backend team told me I dont need to send them anything I have to just configure gcm in the app and the app will receive messages from backend.
So, My question is Do I need to have RegistrationIntentService and MyInstanceIDListenerService. Also, Do I have to define my InstanceIDListenerService in Manifest?
Our backend uses device id to send push notifications to devices so they dont need registration token to be sent to them as we send device id. So in this case, Should I register my app with GCM using RegistrationIntentService and InstanceIDListenerService? if so, should the app keep the registration token with itself. Is this registration needed?
GCM supports three types of downstream (server-to-client) messaging: send to a specific device (also called "simple" or "targeted"), send to a topic, or send to a device group. Your question says, "our backend uses device id to send push notifications to devices". It is not clear what "device ID" is and which type of messaging you intend to use. Your backend team has told you that you "don't need to send them anything". If that is true, I don't know where they are getting the "device ID".
Each of the three types of messaging provided by GCM require client devices to register with GCM and obtain a registration token. To send a message to a specific device, the registration token is effectively the "device ID". So yes, you need to implement something similar to the RegistrationIntentService and InstanceIDListenerService described in the documentation.
The description in the documentation about needing to send the registration token to the App Server is misleading. That is only required for targeted messaging. The documentation for receiving topic messages states: "Note that, for topic messaging it's not required to send the registration token to your app server; however, if you do send it, your server can verify the validity of the token and get more information about the app that created it."
Can anyone help me with a way to send requests as a notification through my android app to all the users who have installed my application and then their responses are sent back to the user who sent the request.
I have read about GCM but I dont understand how can I register all the users to get their GCM registration ID and how can i simulataneously send a notification to all users..I may sound naive but I am completely new to this GCM concept and I dont think that it is the exact thing what I am looking for..
So,somebody please tell me how to send notifications(simultaneously on click of a button or something..) to all the users who have registered in my android app .
You will need to build a server component that keeps track of all registered users. This component will be an app that you write and expose in the cloud. There are many app-hosting services to choose from. Amazon EC2 is one example.
So the app flow would be something like this:
User launches your Android app.
Android app registers itself with GMC. GCM will respond with a token that represents that device.
Android app POSTs that device token to your cloud application.
Cloud application saves that token. The app should now have a list of tokens that represents all active devices running your app. (of course you may want to have an expiration policy - i.e. remove all tokens corresponding to devices you have not heard from in say 30 days).
One of your app users posts a message that s/he wants to broadcast.
Your Android app responds by sending a request to your cloud application.
Your cloud application responds to this request, by making a request to GCM. In this request (or series of requests), the app will include all device tokens and the user-entered message.
GCM responds by pushing the message to all devices with your app (i.e. all of those that have register with GCM and received a token - see step 2).
If using GCM alone you would need to write a server component. I get the impression you don't want to do this. You could use Urban Airship push messaging, which will allow you to send out a message to all registered apps from the Urban Airship web portal. Urban Airship integrates with GCM (which is easy to setup). You would still need to add code to your app to handle the push notification the app receives.
http://docs.urbanairship.com/build/android.html
I read about Google Cloud Messaging at http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/gcm.html.
It supports Third Party Application server to Android application push notification.
I am wondering whether it is possible to implement the same thing push/receive notification from an Android app on one mobile to the same Android app on another mobile using Google Cloud Messaging.
If not, is there any other free service available similar to Google Cloud Messaging?
An Android device can send a GCM message to another Android device. All it needs is the API Key (of the Google API Project ID that the app uses to register to GCM) an the Registration ID of the other device. Using these parameters it can send a GCM message to another device via an HTTP request.
Usually applications that use GCM require a 3rd party server in order to store the Registration IDs of all registered devices. If your app has a different way to let devices share their Registration IDs with each other without requiring a server, you don't need the server.
As far as I'm aware, there has to be a server in the middle to send the push notifications (Android -> Personal Server -> GCM Server -> Android)
So the Android device sending the notification would send some data to a script on the server (using a HTTP GET/POST), and that script would then send the push notifications to all the devices that you wanted it to
Following the example Code from google (GCM Client Example), you can build an app to get a registration ID for your device, but sending messages without a server wouldn't work in my opinion. I didn't tried by now, but what about using the Google Backend Starter, or (what I tried) using a Backend as a Service Provider like apiOmat if you can't afford or don't want to set up a server.
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.