Question

I have an iPhone app I’m working on that grabs data off a json-feed and puts it into a table. This happens when the app is loaded or when the user taps a refresh button. But now I’ve started experimenting with parse.com and push notifications and gotten them to work, but I’m not really sure how to use it. I can use a php request to send notifications via parse to the phone, and I can probable figure out how to do that, BUT (and here is my question):

How would I go about creating a service that checks a json-feed for new items/data? What language would I use for creating this, what server do I need and can I set it up so that when it finds something new a push notification is sent with a POST request?

Very thankful for any help.

Answer 1

You can always use POST request for your notification. Here is what exactly Parse says and I quote:

6.2. REST API

You can use the Parse REST API to send push notifications to any
channel by sending a POST request. Here is an example of a broadcast
notification containing the message “Hello World!” sent using curl.
Detailed information about the required format can be found in the
REST documentation.

curl -X POST \
  -H "X-Parse-Application-Id: ${APPLICATION_ID}" \
  -H "X-Parse-REST-API-Key: ${REST_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "channel": "",
        "type": "ios",
        "data": { "alert":"Hello World!" } }' \
  https://api.parse.com/1/push

And using Corn Job to check with interval may be a solution but a better solution for being reliable and sending on-time push notification is instead of checking your json/feed lets do the POST request whenever you add a new items/data with proper data. (Unless this part it’s not up to you and you are using other’s json/feed?!)

By the way check this out too (if you haven’t yet):
https://parse.com/docs/push_guide/iOS