Mobile: Push for

Sync & Notifications

By Mike Willbanks
Software Engineering Manager
CaringBridge
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Software Engineering Manager at CaringBridge
Open Source Contributor
Organizer of MNPHP

Where you can find me:
Twitter: mwillbanks
G+: Mike Willbanks
IRC (freenode): lubs
Blog: http://blog.digitalstruct.com

About Mike
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Overview of Push Notifications
Android Push Notifications (C2DM)
Apple Push Notifications (APNS)
Microsoft Push Notifications
BlackBerry Push Notifications
Questions
Although you can bring them up at anytime!

Agenda
Overview
What are they?
What is the benefit?
High level; how do these things work?

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Push Notifications
Are a message pushed to a central location and delivered to you.
Are (often) the same thing at a pub/sub model.
In the Mobile Space
These messages often contain other technologies such as alerts, tiles,
or raw data.
What Are They
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In Pictures
Benefits of Push Notifications
The benefits of push notifications are numerous; the
question is if you have an app and you are running services
to poll; why would you do such a thing!

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One word Battery Life
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Impact of Polling
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Push notification services for mobile are highly efficient; it
runs in the device background and enables your application
to receive the message.
The other part of this; if you implemented it otherwise you
would be polling. This not only wastes precious battery but
also wastes their bandwidth.
NOTE: This is not always true; if you are sending data to the phone
more often than a poll would do in 15 minutes; you are better off
implementing polling.
Battery Life
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Can We Deliver?
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When you poll; things are generally 15+ minutes out to save
on battery. In a push notification these happen almost
instantly.
Weve generally seen within 1-3s between sending a push
notification to seeing it arrive on the device.
Additionally; push notifications can be sent to the device
even if it is offline or turned off.
However, not all messages are guaranteed for delivery
You may hit quotas
Some notification servers only allow a single message to be in
queue at 1 time (some group by collapse key), and others remove
duplicates.
Delivery
How These Things Work
The 10,000 foot view.
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10,000 Foot View of C2DM
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10,000 Foot View of APNS
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10,000 Foot View of Windows Push
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10,000 Foot View of who?
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Oh, thats right Blackberry!
Walking Through Android
Understanding C2DM
Anatomy of a Message
Pushing Messages
Displaying Items on the Client

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It allows third-party application servers to send lightweight
messages to their Android applications.
C2DM makes no guarantees about delivery or the order of
messages.
An application on an Android device doesnt need to be
running to receive messages.
It does not provide any built-in user interface or other
handling for message data.
It requires devices running Android 2.2 or higher that also have
the Market application installed.
It uses an existing connection for Google services (Through the
Google Market)

Understanding C2DM
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First things first you must sign up to actually utilize C2DM
http://code.google.com/android/c2dm/signup.html
C2DM only works on Android w/ Google Market; if you use get a
new Amazon Kindle Fire it would not work there.
We will be utilizing a library based on ZF
https://github.com/mwillbanks/Zend_Service_Google_C2dm

Registering for C2DM
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Anatomy of the Mobile App
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We must update the Manifest file to state additional
permissions.
We will then create a broadcast receiver that will handle
the messages and registration.
How the Application Works
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Example Manifest
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Handling the Registration (or Unregistering)
Registration / Registration Updates and Unregistering.
Registration is generally on app start up.


Be nice and allow your users to unregister from the push
notification service
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Example Receiver
More at: http://bit.ly/bxOoMO towards end of article.
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Enough Java already; it is a PHP conference!
Implementing the actual server is quick and pain free
At least in my opinion (I did build this PHP implementation of
C2DM)
Some limitations
200K messages per day by default; use them wisely however you
may request more.
1K message payload maximum.
You must implement incremental back off.
Implementing a Server
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How the Server Works
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Example is on GitHub:
https://github.com/mwillbanks/Zend_Service_Google_C2dm
Code was a little too large to attempt to fit it into a slide
Using Zend_Service_Google_Gdata
Apple Push Notifications
A brief walk-through on implementing notifications on the
iPhone.
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The maximum size allowed for a notification payload is 256
bytes.
It allows third-party application servers to send lightweight
messages to their iPhone/iPad applications.
Apple makes no guarantees about delivery or the order of
messages.
An application on an iPhone/iPad device doesnt need to be
running to receive messages.
Message adheres to strict JSON but is abstracted away for us in
how we will be using it today.
Messages should be sent in batches.
A feedback service must be listened to.
Understanding APNS
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You must create a SSL certificate and key from the
provisioning portal
After this is completed the provisioning profile will need to
be utilized for the application.
Lastly, you will need to install the certificate and key on the
server.
In this case; you will be making a pem certificate.
Preparing to Implement Apple Push Notifications
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Anatomy of the Application
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Registration
The application calls the registerForRemoteNotificationTypes:
method.
The delegate implements the
application:didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:
method to receive the device token.
It passes the device token to its provider as a non-object, binary
value.
Notification
By default this just works based on the payload; for syncing you
would implement this on the launch.

How the Application Works
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Example of Handling Registration
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Example of Handling Remote Notification
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Phew, through the Objective C.
We will be leveraging APNS-PHP for this example as it
encompasses everything you will need to be able to send
notifications.
http://code.google.com/p/apns-php/
Implementing the Server
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How the Server Works
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Example APNS-PHP Server
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Example APNS-PHP Feedback Loop
Microsoft Push Notifications
Well, I am not certain if they will find the market share yet
but hey; some people need to build apps for it!
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It allows third-party application servers to send lightweight
messages to their Windows Mobile applications.
Microsoft makes no guarantees about delivery or the order of
messages. (See a pattern yet?)
3 types of messages: Tile, Toast or Raw
Limitations:
One push channel per app, 30 push channels per device, additional
adherence in order to send messages
3K Payload, 1K Header
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402537.aspx
Understanding MPNS
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Upload a TLS certificate to Windows Marketplace
The Key-Usage value of the TLS certificate must be set to include
client authentication.
The Root Certificate Authority (CA) of the certificate must be one
of the CAs listed at: SSL Root Certificates for Windows Phone.
Stays authenticated for 4 months.
Set Service Name to the Common Name (CN) found in the
certificate's Subject value.
Install the TLS certificate on your web service and enable HTTP
client authentication.
We will be using the following PHP class for this:
http://phpwindowsphonepush.codeplex.com/
Certainly not the most beautiful code but it works.
Preparing to Implement MPNS
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Anatomy of MPNS
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Registering for Push
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Implementing the Callbacks for Notifications
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Real easy, real fast and a simple class
Im not too fond on the code to repeat myself but it would be easy
to clean up
http://phpwindowsphonepush.codeplex.com/
Pretty much nothing else left to do but show you the
options!
Implementing the Server
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Example Implementing MPNS w/ PHP
BlackBerry Push Notifications
Are these even going to be needed in another year?
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It allows third-party application servers to send lightweight
messages to their BlackBerry applications.
Allows a whopping 8K or the payload
Uses WAP PAP 2.2 as the protocol
Mileage may vary
Only a sample php push server has ever been published.
Looks to be mainly for the Browser: http://bit.ly/fYl6rr

Understanding BlackBerry Push
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Anatomy of BB Push
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They have a Sample but it is deep within their Push SDK.
Many of which are pre-compiled.
Documentation is hard to follow and the sample isnt exactly
straight forward:
Install the SDK then go to BPSS/pushsdk-low-level/sample-push-
enabled-app/ and unzip sample-push-enabled-app-1.1.0.16-sources.jar
You will see several areas to get the push notifications going Lets
take a look.
Application Code
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You need to register with BlackBerry and have all of the
application details ready to go:
https://www.blackberry.com/profile/?eventId=8121
Download the PHP library:
Updated to be OO; non-tested and a bit sloppy:
https://github.com/mwillbanks/BlackBerryPush
Original source: http://bit.ly/nfbHXp
Preparing to Implement
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Be aware this code is highly alpha never been tested.




Let me know how it goes Will be refactoring it and testing
it in the future.
Implementing BB Push w/ PHP
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ZF 2
I am looking as time permits to contribute implementations of the
4 big players push notification implementations to Zend
Framework. I am not sure when I will find the time but at some
point
BlackBerry
Who knows where they will end up. All I know is that developing
for it seems painful and the documentation is certainly not what I
would like to see.
There is a large need for a quality implementation but at the same
point developers are not highly interested in their platform.
Moving Forward
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Main Sites
Apple Push Notifications:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/NetworkingInternet/Con
ceptual/RemoteNotificationsPG/Introduction/Introduction.html
Google C2DM (Android): http://code.google.com/android/c2dm/
Microsoft Push Notifications: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ff402558(v=vs.92).aspx
BlackBerry Push Notifications:
http://us.blackberry.com/developers/platform/pushapi.jsp
Push Clients:
Apns-php: http://code.google.com/p/apns-php/
ZF C2DM: https://github.com/mwillbanks/Zend_Service_Google_C2dm
MS: http://phpwindowsphonepush.codeplex.com/
BlackBerry: https://github.com/mwillbanks/BlackBerryPush
Might be broken but at least better than what I found anywhere else

Resources
Questions?
Give me feedback: http://joind.in/3766
Slides will be posted at joind.in later this afternoon.