Store Firebase Cloud Message in Realtime Database

Question

When you send a cloud message via the Firebase console, is it possible to store the text of that message as a value and a timestamp as the key in the same project's realtime database? If so, how? My end goal is to have a history of notifications and the time at which they were sent visible to users in my app. Thank you!

Answer 1

Thanks to urgentx pointing me in the right direction, I found a solution in a Firebase HTTP Cloud Function. The URL to call it looked like this (spaces and punctuation are allowed as notification text):

https://[REGION]-[MY-APP-ID].cloudfunctions.net/notification?password=[PASSWORD]&notification=[NOTIFICATION]

Below is the index.js file. I had to write code in Android Studio to subscribe each device to the all-devices topic.

const functions = require('firebase-functions');
const admin = require('firebase-admin');
admin.initializeApp();

function format(number) {
  if (number.toString().length < 2) {
    return "0" + number;
  }
  return number;
}

exports.notification = functions.https.onRequest((request, response) => {
    if (request.query.password == "[PASSWORD]") {
        var message = {
            "notification": {
              "body": request.query.notification
            },
            "topic": "all-devices"
        };
        admin.messaging().send(message);
        var nowUTC = new Date();
        var nowEDT = new Date(nowUTC.getFullYear(), nowUTC.getMonth(), nowUTC.getDate(), nowUTC.getHours() - 4, nowUTC.getMinutes(), nowUTC.getSeconds());
        var timestamp = nowEDT.getFullYear() + ":" + format(nowEDT.getMonth()) + ":" + format(nowEDT.getDate()) + ":" + format(nowEDT.getHours()) + ":" + format(nowEDT.getMinutes()) + ":" + format(nowEDT.getSeconds());
        var JSONString = "{\"" + timestamp + "\":\"" + request.query.notification + "\"}";
        admin.database().ref("/notifications").update(JSON.parse(JSONString));
        response.send("Request to server sent to send message \"" + request.query.notification + "\" at timestamp " + timestamp + " and store in database. Await notification and check database if confirmation is needed.");
    } else {
        response.send("Password incorrect. Access denied.");
    }
});

Below is the code that subscribed the device to the all-devices topic.

FirebaseMessaging.getInstance().subscribeToTopic("all-devices")
                .addOnCompleteListener(new OnCompleteListener<Void>() {
                    @Override
                    public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<Void> task) {
                    }
                });

Answer 2

You will be sending the notifications via either your own server or a Google cloud function. You can store the text when you send a notification using those.