I am building the backend for our company's mobile app and we need to send notifications to users from API based on some events. I need some advice on how I can implement this. I am looking for a platform where I can send notifications for both IOS and Android. I recently came across Firebase and got some info that the mobile-app will send a device token to the server, then we will handle the push notification using this token. My assumption here is, I need to save this device token for all the users in a database and send the notification as necessary. Is this the best approach or are there any other good approaches for this? I am pretty sure there will a lot of solutions where I do not have to handle this myself (in database)
I was also looking into Azure Notification Hub for this, but the cons I felt here is that my UI guy (outsourced) is developing the application in React Native and I have not seen any good examples of React Native using Azure Notification Hub.
I am expecting around 1000 users for my application and I am developing my backend in ASP.NET WebAPI. Mostly I will have 2 types of notification
Push notification to specific user.
Push Notification regarding new installations to all the users
Well, according to my experience the best way and the easiest way is using firebase. You will have a lots of option there. In fact according to their comment, whether you're a beginner, intermediate or advanced React Native developer you can be up and running with React Native Firebase in no time.
https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-native-firebase
For more information and adding a project:
https://rnfirebase.io
Firebase getting start:
https://github.com/invertase/react-native-firebase-starter
How does it work?
Firebase Cloud Messaging architecture diagram
An FCM implementation includes two main components for sending and receiving:
A trusted environment such as Cloud Functions for Firebase or an app server on which to build, target, and send messages.
An iOS, Android, or web (JavaScript) client app that receives messages.
You can send messages via the Admin SDK or the HTTP and XMPP APIs. For testing or for sending marketing or engagement messages with powerful built-in targeting and analytics, you can also use the Notifications composer.
last comment copy-right: https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/
Related
I want to get generated registration token which generated by a client such as (Web JS, Android/IOS App...) via robot todo automation testing
I'm thinking to use mountebank to add JS SDK but not simple because related to grant notification permission issue (It's required to able to generate registration token)
Anybody have an idea to get that token via robot please share
Thanks in advance!!!
What is FCM?
Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is a cross-platform messaging solution that lets you reliably send messages at no cost.
Using FCM, you can notify a client app that new email or other data is available to sync. You can send notification messages to drive user re-engagement and retention. For use cases such as instant messaging, a message can transfer a payload of up to 4KB to a client app.
Using deprecated Google Cloud Messaging APIs? Learn more about how to migrate to FCM.
https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging
Google is deprecating Google Cloud messaging in favor of Firebase Cloud Messaging:
Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is the new version of GCM. It inherits
the reliable and scalable GCM infrastructure, plus new features! See
the FAQ to learn more. If you are integrating messaging in a new app,
start with FCM. GCM users are strongly recommended to upgrade to FCM,
in order to benefit from new FCM features today and in the future.
From some tests I made on my servers, the FCM URL (https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send) works with GCM projects, and vice-versa - the GCM URL (https://android.googleapis.com/gcm/send) works with FCM projects.
Migrating all existing GCM push sending code to FCM would save a lot of trouble and refactoring (I will not have to check, for each push, whether the app version is FCM or GCM).
Is this backward and forward compatibility officially supported or documented?
If you refer to #IanBarber's answer here:
The tokens are different. Firebase Cloud Messaging (GCM) use gets registration tokens from the Instance ID API which means you'll get different tokens between that and GCM2.
You'll need to send that new token back to your server to send messages. On the server side the APIs should be fully compatible (just new endpoints for FCM).
However, if you're looking for any official documentation, I don't think there is one that explicitly states it. Since as much as possible, Google encourages the use of the corresponding APIs, endpoints, etc. depending on what you really intend to use.
I am in the process of developing a new site and have decided to add progressive web app capabilities to the site. I have set it all up correctly and I can send push notifications to devices with whom I know the endpoint via FCM with a cURL command.
My question is how do you send one to all users who have enabled notifications on my site without knowing a list of all users unique endpoints.
If you are using the Firebase Cloud Messaging Web SDK you should be able to get the Firebase token and subscribe that token a topic using the server side API and then you can message the topic.
NOTE: This requires the use of the Firebase Web SDK to work. This is not supported with the raw Web Push API.
I've been looking everywhere for an answer to this, it says it goes something like server > GCM > client, the client must register and then it sends the registration token back to the server, but the 'client' part im confused about, does this only work on applications on the device? or can the app be on a website too? so for example if my app is a website, can I have the registration process on a website instead of an actual app on the device?
Yes, the currently listed client apps are Chrome, Android and iOS. Fortunately, you can use Progressive Web Apps to handle push notifications to websites.
The usual prerequisites are listed there, such as creating the Google Developer Console project, and other PWA fundamental configurations (add, register, and install Service Workers). The succeeding steps are PWA-specific implementations for you to have push notification implemented on the web page.
Happy coding!
I am using Firebase, but I don't know what is different between notifications in Firebase and FCM.
I think notifications of Firebase can only send messages, whereas FCM can send and get messages.
Is it right?
Firebase Notifications is built on Firebase Cloud Messaging and shares the same FCM SDK for client development. For testing or for sending marketing or engagement messages with powerful built-in targeting and analytics, you can use Notifications. For deployments with more complex messaging requirements, FCM is the right choice.
https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/#how_does_it_work
Use the Notifications console GUI to compose and send notifications to all supported message targets. Firebase Cloud Messaging handles the routing and delivery to targeted devices.
Firebase Notifications offer a console which users can use to send a notification without writing a single line of code. So, it is used to create and send the notification
Firebase Cloud Messaging is a cross-platform messaging solution that lets you reliably deliver messages at no cost. So, it is used to route and deliver the message/notification
source:
https://firebase.google.com/docs/notifications/
https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpTSpVh9SfY