How and What to send to APN from server so that APN send the notification to device?

Question

I am an iOS developer and i was asked to what type(whole ie header as well as body) of request to hit APN to get notification to device.

I read many tutorial for setup of server for APN but I am unable to understand as i have no knowledge about PhP and Node Js. After reading apple document , I came to know that it uses http/2 and other various tag and value. But i am unable to construct full request. Any help is highly appreciated.

Answer 1

To send an APNs request using PHP, you need these requirements:

1. A .pem certificate which should exist in the same path of your php script.
2. The Device Token, which is needed to send the notification to a specific device.

Then you can try the following code:

<?php
    $apnsServer = 'ssl://gateway.push.apple.com:2195';
    $privateKeyPassword = '1234'; // your .pem private key password

    $message = 'Hello world!';

    $deviceToken = 'YOUR_DEVICE_TOKEN_HERE';

    $pushCertAndKeyPemFile = 'PushCertificateAndKey.pem'; // Your .pem certificate
    $stream = stream_context_create();
    stream_context_set_option($stream,
    'ssl',
    'passphrase',
    $privateKeyPassword);
    stream_context_set_option($stream,
    'ssl',
    'local_cert',
    $pushCertAndKeyPemFile);

    $connectionTimeout = 20;
    $connectionType = STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT | STREAM_CLIENT_PERSISTENT;
    $connection = stream_socket_client($apnsServer,
    $errorNumber,
    $errorString,
    $connectionTimeout,
    $connectionType,
    $stream);
    if (!$connection){
    echo "Failed to connect to the APNS server. Error no = $errorNumber<br/>";
    exit;
    } else {
    echo "Successfully connected to the APNS...";
    }
    $messageBody['aps'] = array('alert' => $message,
    'sound' => 'default',
    'badge' => 2,
    );
    $payload = json_encode($messageBody);
    $notification = chr(0) .
    pack('n', 32) .
    pack('H*', $deviceToken) .
    pack('n', strlen($payload)) .
    $payload;
    $wroteSuccessfully = fwrite($connection, $notification, strlen($notification));
    if (!$wroteSuccessfully){
    echo "Could not send the message.";
    }
    else {
    echo "Successfully sent the message.";
    }
    fclose($connection);

?>

Refer to this link for more details.

Answer 2

We just use plain CURL to do http2 requests to APNS

Pre-requisites: You have a valid SSL cert converted to a .PEM from Developer console

/usr/local/Cellar/curl/7.50.0/bin/curl -v \
-d '{"aps":{"alert":"Hello","content-available": 1, "sound": ""}}' \
-H "apns-topic: com.yourapp.bundleid" \
-H "apns-expiration: 1" \
-H "apns-priority: 10" \
--http2 \
--cert /Users/PATHTOPEM/key.pem:YOURPASSWORD \
https://api.push.apple.com/3/device/YOURDEVICETOKEN

Or if you are wary of using the terminal try this MacOS app to send push notifications, it is so easy.

Pre-requisites: You need to have the cert signing authority and the private SSL cert in your keychain.

https://github.com/noodlewerk/NWPusher