Question

I am developing an application for ios 5.1. I have now set up push notifications which can be sent from the Mac program “pushmebaby”.
My question is how can you send a push notification to all devices every time a RSS Feed gets a new entry (probably via PHP?)?

thank you!

Answer 1

From my understanding, you need to keep track of all the device ids (how? Personally I created a database). When the person first installs the app and signs up for the notification service, the app should send you the device id and username(some type of key) to your server.

VB Sending push notifications ANPSLibrary this is just a function I created to sent push notifications, you need to call this function inorder to send the notification.

Imports System.Net
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates
Imports System.Security.Cryptography
Imports System.Net.Security
Imports System.Net.Sockets
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Runtime.Serialization
Imports System





Public Class PushNotification



    'Send PushNotifications
    '///sanbox is true, if we are developing, and false if we are out of developing
    '///testDeviceToken is the id of the device you want to send the push notfication to
    '///Message is the message we want the to send to the device
    '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
    Public Shared Function sendrequest(ByVal sandbox As Boolean, ByVal testDeviceToken As String, ByVal Message As String)

        Dim strHost As String
        Dim strP12FileName As String
        Dim strP12FilePassword As String
        Dim strJsonMsg As String
        Dim certificate As X509Certificate2
        Dim certificateCollection As X509CertificateCollection
        Dim nPort As Integer = 2195
        Dim apnsClient As TcpClient
        Dim apnsStream As SslStream


        Try
            ' Sets the Host to the correct server. 
            '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
            If sandbox = True Then
                strHost = "gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com"
            Else
                strHost = "gateway.push.apple.com"
            End If


            'The path of the certificate 
            '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
            strP12FileName = "C:\Users\filelocation"
            strP12FilePassword = "password"

            'Putting Message in json format
            '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
            strJsonMsg = "{""aps"":{""alert"":""" & Message & """,""badge"":1}}"


            certificate = New X509Certificate2(strP12FileName, strP12FilePassword)
            certificateCollection = New X509CertificateCollection
            certificateCollection.Add(certificate)

            'builds connection
            '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

            apnsClient = New TcpClient(strHost, nPort)
            apnsStream = New SslStream(apnsClient.GetStream(), True, _
                                       New RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(AddressOf validateServerCertificate), _
                                        New LocalCertificateSelectionCallback(AddressOf selectLocalCertificate))

            apnsStream.AuthenticateAsClient(strHost, certificateCollection, System.Security.Authentication.SslProtocols.Ssl3, False)

            'Turns everything in Bytes
            '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            'Cannot be more than Binary size of 32
            Dim DeviceToken((testDeviceToken.Length / 2) - 1) As Byte
            For i As Integer = 0 To 31
                DeviceToken(i) = Byte.Parse(testDeviceToken.Substring(i * 2, 2), System.Globalization.NumberStyles.HexNumber)
            Next


            'Cannot be more than Binary size of 256
            Dim payload() As Byte = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(strJsonMsg)

            Dim DeviceTokenSize() As Byte = BitConverter.GetBytes(IPAddress.HostToNetworkOrder(Convert.ToInt16(DeviceToken.Length)))
            Dim payloadSize() As Byte = BitConverter.GetBytes(IPAddress.HostToNetworkOrder(Convert.ToInt16(payload.Length)))

            'Creates a Byte Array
            '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
            Dim NotificationSize As Integer = 1 + DeviceTokenSize.Length + DeviceToken.Length + payloadSize.Length + payload.Length
            Dim Notification(NotificationSize) As Byte

            Notification(0) = 0
            Buffer.BlockCopy(DeviceTokenSize, 0, Notification, 1, DeviceTokenSize.Length)
            Buffer.BlockCopy(DeviceToken, 0, Notification, 1 + DeviceTokenSize.Length, DeviceToken.Length)
            Buffer.BlockCopy(payloadSize, 0, Notification, 1 + DeviceTokenSize.Length + DeviceToken.Length, payloadSize.Length)
            Buffer.BlockCopy(payload, 0, Notification, 1 + DeviceTokenSize.Length + DeviceToken.Length + payloadSize.Length, payload.Length)

            'Sends the Notification and closes and stream
            '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
            apnsStream.Write(Notification)
            apnsStream.Close()
        Catch




        Finally
            'cleaning
            strHost = Nothing
            strP12FileName = Nothing
            strP12FilePassword = Nothing
            strJsonMsg = Nothing
            certificate = Nothing
            certificateCollection = Nothing
            nPort = Nothing
            apnsClient = Nothing
            apnsStream = Nothing
        End Try
        Return True

    End Function
    'This is needed for RemoteCertificateValidationCallback
    Public Shared Function validateServerCertificate(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal certificate As X509Certificate, ByVal chain As X509Chain, ByVal sslPolicyErrors As SslPolicyErrors)

        Return True 'Dont care about server's cert

    End Function
    'This is needed for LocalCertificateSelectionCallback
    Public Shared Function selectLocalCertificate(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal targetHost As String, ByVal localCertificates As X509CertificateCollection, _
        ByVal remoteCertificate As X509Certificate, ByVal acceptableIssuers As String())

        Dim certificate As X509Certificate2
        certificate = New X509Certificate2("C:\Users\filelocation", "password")
        Return certificate

    End Function

End Class

VB drive// essentially create a form, with 2 textboxs, one for input for the device token, and one for the message. then create the driver below

Imports ANPSLibrary
Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

    End Sub

    Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click


        PushNotification.sendrequest(True, txtToken.Text, txtMsg.Text)
    End Sub
End Class