how to run php script for sending push notification

Question

I need help implementing push notifications in swift. I followed the ray wenderlich tutorial http://www.raywenderlich.com/32960/apple-push-notification-services-in-ios-6-tutorial-part-1 but it does not mention how you actually call or run the php push notification script in Xcode. This is how I am attempting to call the script right now:

    let request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: NSURL(string: "http://website.com/pushNotification")!)
    request.HTTPMethod = "POST"

    let dataDictionary:[String:String] = ["NotificationData":"\(deviceTokenString)<*&*>password<*&*>my first push notification"]

    let data:NSData = try! NSJSONSerialization.dataWithJSONObject(dataDictionary, options: [])
    request.HTTPBody = data

    request.addValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")

    // Create a NSURLSession task with completion handler
    let task:NSURLSessionDataTask = NSURLSession.sharedSession().dataTaskWithRequest(request, completionHandler: { (data:NSData?, response:NSURLResponse?, error:NSError?) -> Void in

        // Convert the data into a dictionary
        let response:[String:String] = (try! NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data!, options: NSJSONReadingOptions.MutableContainers)) as! [String:String]


        // Check if there was an error
        if let result = response["result"] {
            if result == "success"{

                NSLog("Message deleviered successfully")


            }
            else if result == "error"{
                NSLog("Message could not be deleviered")
            }

        }

    })

    // Run the task
    task.resume()

Heres the php script it hits:

<?php


// Get the data from the request
$json = file_get_contents('php://input');
$data = json_decode($json, true);
$pushData = $data['NotificationData'];

// Format data
$keywords = explode("<*&*>", $pushData);

// Assign data into variables
$deviceToken = $keywords[0];
$passphrase = $keywords[1];
$message = $keywords[2];

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

$ctx = stream_context_create();
stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'local_cert', 'signingcertificate.p12');
stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'passphrase', $passphrase);

// Open a connection to the APNS server
$fp = stream_socket_client(
    'ssl://gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195', $err,
    $errstr, 60, STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT|STREAM_CLIENT_PERSISTENT, $ctx);

if (!$fp) {
    //exit("Failed to connect: $err $errstr" . PHP_EOL);
}


// Create the payload body
$body['aps'] = array(
    'alert' => $message,
    'sound' => 'default'
    );

// Encode the payload as JSON
$payload = json_encode($body);

// Build the binary notification
$msg = chr(0) . pack('n', 32) . pack('H*', $deviceToken) . pack('n', strlen($payload)) . $payload;

// Send it to the server
$result = fwrite($fp, $msg, strlen($msg));

if (!$result) {
    echo '{"result" : "error"}';
}
else {
    echo '{"result" : "success"}';
}
// Close the connection to the server
fclose($fp);

?>

But then Xcode gives me this error:

fatal error: 'try!' expression unexpectedly raised an error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=3840 "JSON text did not start with array or object and option to allow fragments not set." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=JSON text did not start with array or object and option to allow fragments not set.}: file /Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/swiftlang_PONDEROSA/swiftlang_PONDEROSA-700.1.101.6/src/swift/stdlib/public/core/ErrorType.swift, line 50

Im almost positive the error has something to do with the way I call for the php script but I don't know how this type of php script should be called. Please help! Any suggestions or insight you have will be appreciated!

Answer 1

The link does tell you what to do with the PHP script. You aren't suppose to call that through Xcode.

As the tutorial states:

As I've mentioned a few times before, you need to set up a server that sends the push notifications to your app. For this first test, you're not going to set up a server just yet. Instead, I'll give you a very simple PHP script that sets up a connection to APNS and sends a push notification to a device token that you specify. You can run this straight from your Mac.

...

You should copy the device token from the app into the $deviceToken variable. Be sure to leave out the spaces and brackets; it should just be 64 hexadecimal characters. Put your private key's passphrase into $passphrase, and the text you wish to send in $message. Copy your ck.pem file into the SimplePush folder. Remember, the ck.pem file contains both your certificate and the private key.

Then open a Terminal and type: .....

The PHP is a simple example of what your server would do. You need to build the server as well that will invoke a call to apple's APNS when a certain event occurs. The mobile app itself doesn't invoke a push notification.