I want to create a push notification system in nodejs, which will be suitable for both iOS and Android. I've been searching, and at the moment I am thinking about this one:
http://devcenter.kinvey.com/nodejs/guides/push
Can anyone, who has been working on something like this, tell me what is the best way to implement that?
I think the best way is to use Firebase Cloud Message (FCM), you can send notifications to your Android and iOS devices over an fcm_token provided by Firebase SDK. It's Google solution and simple to use.
https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/?refresh=1
If you dont like Google, this is an other 100% free option that allow you to do the same job, One Signal.
https://onesignal.com/
Another commercial option is Twilio: https://www.twilio.com/docs/notify/send-notifications
Basically what I'm trying to do is a system that each time there is a new user added to a SQL Server database, it sends a notification to the android and iOS app I'm developing. I was planning to use the Google Cloud Messaging, but the notifications need to get to the iOS application as well. What do you suggest me to implement? I was thinking of using GCM for the android app and APN for the iOs app, but is there a simplier unified way to implement a system like this?
I haven't used it myself yet, but I have this bookmarked for future exploration. It seems easy and does all of what you want. https://pushover.net/
But as far as my experience, GCM is great and pretty easy to implement on Android. No iOS development experience here.
you can use a trigger to send out an email everytime you have added a user
What is the easiest way to implement a simple app which does two things:
receive push notifications (new messages in user's inbox),
open a page on my website in a webview or web browser.
It would be best if the solution was portable among iOS, Android and possibly other mobile systems like Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10, but I'm happy with separate solutions, if it's the only way to do it.
I suggest that, checking out Parse apis for this task.
There are solutions like http://xtify.com/ or http://urbanairship.com/products/push-notifications/ that provide an all in one package across platforms but I don't know the quality of service or which one would be right for you, some research on your part will be necessary if you choose this path.
Or you could implement it yourself but it will require your own server. The server would notify both Androids C2DM And Apple Push Service at the same time. You will have to implement the client side on each.
For iPhone here's a good tutorial for setting it up http://www.raywenderlich.com/3443/apple-push-notification-services-tutorial-part-12
For Android http://www.vogella.com/articles/AndroidCloudToDeviceMessaging/article.html
You register your app with both services then sends the push keys to your server. With the keys the server can then notify both platforms respective push services to send a notification .
I can't really help with the server setup stuff as its not my area of expertise but this is how we implement push notifications for the apps my company makes.
I'd recommend a Phonegap (Cordova) app and UrbanAirship for the notifications. You can get a free account with that. It's relatively easy to implement too.
As for the browser, I'm not sure exactly what you want it for. Could you elaborate and I'll post a response.
I noticed that Google C2DM quota is limited to 200000 messages per day. This makes me thinking that it should be used for very simple use cases. Now I understand why IM services like skype or others have a service always running on the background. Does a library exist to manage a persistent connection to the server? I have tried XMPP with Smack api but even if it is very good for desktop stable connections, it is not so suitable for mobile ones (that have many problems). I would prefer a simpler one specific for mobile applications. Does it exist?
Thanks
What are you trying to do here? Google C2DM quota is a soft-limit. If needed, you can email them and perhaps agree on some sort of business deal with them.
If you are looking for push-like experience, you can check out Urban Airship. They made their version of service that works on the Android devices without C2DM support.
I would recommend checking out Deacon. There is Android specific code and it runs as a service in the background with a connection to your server.
I have developed a simple two player chess game in android to be played using Bluetooth. I want to extend it by making it possible to be played through internet. whenever a player makes a move, the move should be transferred to the other player via internet.
How to make this possible?
I have heard of C2DM mechanism.Does that suites the scenario i described and is it reliable?
Thanks:)
Yes, C2DM is ideally suited to this type of game. This is what I am using for my own game (http://www.chesspresso.net) which is a correspondence chess client for android.
Things to consider when using C2DM:
You don't send the info to the devices, you notify the devices that a move has been made. You don't use C2DM to transfer data, you use it to notify that something has changed.
Its available for 2.2+ Android, which is the majority of devices. But if you wanted to support older devices you'd have to consider an alternative. I am using polling for older devices.
You have to request for developer access, then once your app is ready you have to request production status. If you don't do this you'll hit the developer status quota very quickly once its released! They are very generous with production quota, but you have to explain what you're using it for and it also can take a few weeks to get accepted!
Your users will have to have a google account that is authorised, otherswise C2DM won't work. Most users will have an account associated with their device, but some don't so this means that you'll possibly want to validate for the presence of an account to notify the user.
Its reliable, but every now and again a device will have to wait for the message. Sometimes a few minutes. Usually its instant.
Hope that helps!
UPDATE:
C2DM has now been deprecated, and replaced by Google's GCM.
Also, I strongly suggest looking at other options as tying yourself down to a Google specific API means you won't be able to support external marketplaces. For alternatives, I am currently evaluating Amazon SNS and I will also be looking at Urban Airship. There are possibly other alternatives I have not considered evaluating yet.
UPDATE:
Evaluation update of non google based push notifications:
Amazon SNS is just not a project for this task and Urban Airship for the vast majority of apps is too expensive. Unfortunately all the other alternatives are all very expensive also, especially if your app (like mine) relies heavily on push.
A good way of doing that is using a simple direct TCP connection between the peers.
If you're new to socket programming on Java, try this:
All About Sockets
Another option is to use some sort of IM as a communication medium for app. For eg. Use Asmack to connect to XMPP Im like GTalk. Prompt user to create an account there, for your game.
And use it to send and receive commands via IM. This way you won't need to setup your mediating server.
This works if user knows who he is playing with. To collect the user data and let them search for available players, you still need to setup a server. IRC chat room may be an option to avoid this also.
GTalk was just an example. You can use any IM or IRC also.
C2DM it's not design to transfer informations, even if they are small like "horse in b4" or things like this. It's designed to inform the device of something, maybe a newer version of a document or more articles on a website.. Stuff like this.. It's not designed to communicate device to device. And also it may be not fast enough for a real time chess play.
You should look for a more traditional way of communicate via internet or to search for some libraries (I'm pretty sure that something exists..) that will help you.
IMHO, C2DM is exactly the kind of thing you would want for a chess game; to be notified when the oppo has made his turn (which may be minutes /hours / days later ?). I have discussed my game with a few google android devs and they've stated that C2DM is ideal for this. You'll need to go via a centralised server though (well, not essential but very advisable) as there may be issues with resync'ing game state etc. Worried about "hitting the limit" ? Well, for a start my c2dm acct is restricted to "just" 100,000 messages per day. I guess you're buying the drinks if you hit that !!
Chess is often played by email. You could do that.
Of course, any centralized/federated messaging system will work.
What might be better for your use is to add a jabber client to the application and have the program generate an account name that is used for automated messaging. You could host the jabber server or generate the accounts on a free provider.
Google App Engine if you know Python or Java.
Alternatively there are two web app API styles in wide use today: SOAP XML and RESTful web services.
If you know RoR I would recommend using JSON/REST, because you can just use Phusion Passenger with Apache to deploy your app. Free, extremely easy, and makes your server very reliable.
You could, and I only mention this because my friends do this all the time, use twitter as a server between the games.
I also found a lib called mages which looks quite promising.
Good luck.
I did this for my online 2D rpg: http://developingthedream.blogspot.com
Basically, use a middle-man server to co-ordinate data between all your clients.
You simply open a socket and communicate with the middle server and it takes care of passing on the information to any other connected clients.
I wouldn't recommend C2DM because of the message limit, and because the latency is still to big. Using your own server you can optimize it, plus you'll be the only one using the service so your data will be delivered faster.
I think that C2DM is not right way for playing chess because there is no warranty that messages will be delivered. You need more reliable way for data transfer