Creating and sending push notifications to iOS mobile using Event Notifications

Registering an App ID

The App ID (the bundle identifier) is a unique identifier that identifies a specific application. Each application requires an App ID. Services like the Push Notifications service are configured to the App ID.

• Go to the Apple developer portal and select Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles.

  

• Go to Identifiers > Add identifier button.

  

• Click add a new Identifier button.

  

• Select the App IDs option.

  

• Select a type and click Continue.

  

• Provide a string for the App ID Prefix. Provide the App name in the Description field. For example, Event Notifications iOS application.

• For the Bundle ID, choose Explicit and provide a Bundle ID value. It is recommended that you provide a reverse domain-name style string. For example, com.ibm.cloud.en.app.

  

• Select the Push Notifications check-box from the Capabilities and click Continue.

  

• Go through your settings and click Register > Done.

Your App ID is now registered.

Create a development and distribution APNs SSL certificate

Before you obtain an APNs certificate, you must first generate a certificate signing request (CSR) and submit it to Apple, the certificate authority (CA). The CSR contains information that identifies your company and your public and private key that you use to sign for your Apple push notifications. Then, generate the SSL certificate on the iOS Developer Portal. The certificate, along with its public and private key, is stored in Keychain Access.

You can use APNs in two modes:

• Sandbox mode for development and testing.
• Production mode when distributing applications through the App Store (or other enterprise distribution mechanisms).

You must obtain separate certificates for your development and distribution environments. The certificates are associated with an App ID for the app that is the recipient of remote notifications. For production, you can create up to two certificates. IBM Cloud uses the certificates to establish an SSL connection with APNs.

CocoaPods

use_frameworks!

target 'MyApp' do
   pod 'ENPushDestination', '~> 0.0.1'
end

Carthage

To install ENPushDestination using Carthage, add the following to your Cartfile.

github "IBM/event-notifications-destination-ios-sdk" ~> 0.0.1

Then, run the following command to build the dependencies and frameworks:

carthage update --platform iOS

Swift Package Manager

Add the following to your Package.swift file to identify ENPushDestination as a dependency. The package manager clones ENPushDestination when you build your project with swift build.

dependencies: [
   .package(url: "https://github.com/IBM/event-notifications-destination-ios-sdk", from: "0.0.1")
]

Unregistering from notifications

Use the following code snippets to unregister from Event Notifications.

enPush.unregisterDevice { response, statusCode, error in
   /**.....*/
}

To unregister from the UserId based registration, you must call the registration method. See the Register without userId option in Register for notifications.

Subscribe to tags

The subscribe API subscribes the device for a given tag. After the device is subscribed to a particular tag, the device can receive notifications that are sent for that tag.

Add the following code snippet to your iOS mobile application to subscribe to a list of tags.

// Subscribe to the given tag
enPush.subscribeToTags(tagName: "<tag_name>") { response, statusCode, error in
   /**.....*/
});

Retrieve subscribed tags

The retrieveSubscriptionsWithCompletionHandler API returns the list of tags to which the device is subscribed. Use the following code snippets in the mobile application to get the subscription list.

// Get a list of tags that to which the device is subscribed.
enPush.retrieveSubscriptionsWithCompletionHandler { response, statusCode, error in
   /**.....*/
}

Unsubscribe from tags

The unsubscribeFromTags API removes the device subscription from the list tags. Use the following code snippets to allow your devices to get unsubscribe from a tag.

// unsubscibe from the given tag ,that to which the device is subscribed.
enPush.unsubscribeFromTags(tagName: "<tag_name>") { response, statusCode, error in
   /**.....*/
}

Receiving push notifications on iOS devices

To receive push notifications on iOS devices, add the following Swift method to the appDelegate.swift of your application:

func application(_ application: UIApplication, didReceiveRemoteNotification userInfo: [AnyHashable : Any], fetchCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping (UIBackgroundFetchResult) -> Void) {

   //UserInfo dictionary will contain data sent from the server
}

Interactive notifications

1. To enable interactive push notifications, the notification action parameters must be passed in as part of the notification object. The following is a sample code to enable interactive notifications:

let actionOne = ENPushNotificationAction(identifierName: "FIRST", buttonTitle: "Accept", isAuthenticationRequired: false, defineActivationMode: .foreground)

let actionTwo = ENPushNotificationAction(identifierName: "SECOND", buttonTitle: "Reject", isAuthenticationRequired: false, defineActivationMode: .destructive)

let category = ENPushNotificationActionCategory(identifierName: "category", buttonActions: [actionOne, actionTwo])

let notificationOptions = ENPushClientOptions()
notificationOptions.setInteractiveNotificationCategories(categoryName: [category])
enPush.initialize(instanceGUID, destinationID, apiKey, notificationOptions)

1. Implement the callback method on AppDelegate.swift:

   func userNotificationCenter(_ center: UNUserNotificationCenter, didReceive response: UNNotificationResponse, withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping () -> Void) {
      switch response.actionIdentifier {
         case "Accept":
         print("Clicked Accept")
         case "Reject":
         print("Clicked Reject")
         default:
      }
      completionHandler()
   }
   

This callback method is invoked when user clicks the action button. The implementation of this method must perform tasks that are associated with the specified identifier and run the block in the completionHandler parameter.

Adding custom DeviceId for registration

To send DeviceId use the setDeviceId method of ENPushClientOptions class.

let options = ENPushClientOptions();
options.setDeviceId(deviceId: "YOUR_DEVICE_ID");

Remember to keep custom DeviceId unique for each device.

Enabling rich media notifications

Rich media notifications are supported on iOS 10 or later. To receive rich media notifications, implement UNNotificationServiceExtension. The extension will intercept and handle the rich media notification.

In the didReceive() method of your service extension, add the following code to retrieve the rich push notification content.

override func didReceive(_ request: UNNotificationRequest, withContentHandler contentHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationContent) -> Void) {
   self.contentHandler = contentHandler
   bestAttemptContent = (request.content.mutableCopy() as? UNMutableNotificationContent)
   ENPushRichPushNotificationOptions.didReceive(request, withContentHandler: contentHandler)
}