azure-xplat-mobile-push-notifications

Azure Notification Hubs

Cross platform mobile push notifications

Universal Windows Platform and Xamarin

Thomas Stringer @tr_stringer Microsoft Technical Evangelist

Why?

• Cross platform notifications (UWP, iOS, Android, Kindle, etc.)
• Single area of responsibility (Azure Notification Hubs)
• Managed platform notification services (GCM, WNS, APNS)
• Client-side libraries to register and consume
• Server-side libraries to register and notify (.NET, Node.js, PHP, Java, etc.)

... because cross platform push notifications are hard

Architecture

Image source: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/notification-hubs-overview/

Notification Hub Setup

• Unique name for notification hub, namespace, resource group, etc.

the two different listener connection strings are going to be significant going forward so the apps know how to access the notification hub

Universal Windows Platform (UWP)

Setup Overview

• UWP application
• Windows Store association
• Notification Hub configuration
• Testing notifications

[UWP] Windows Store Association

• the Windows Store app creation can be on https://developer.microsoft.com or in Visual Studio
• the association with the UWP app and the Store app is done in Visual Studio

• navigate to https://apps.dev.microsoft.com
• click on your app
• these two items are found on the current page which we will use later

[UWP] Notification Hub configuration

[UWP] Client Code

using Windows.Networking.PushNotifications;

[UWP] Client Code

PushNotificationChannel channel = 
	await PushNotificationChannelManager
		.CreatePushNotificationChannelForApplicationAsync();

NotificationHub hub = 
	new NotificationHub("hub-name", "listen-connection-string");

Registration registration = await hub.RegisterNativeAsync(channel.Uri);

if (registration.RegistrationId != null)
	channel.PushNotificationReceived += 
		Channel_PushNotificationReceived;
					

[UWP] Notification Received Event Handler

private async void Channel_PushNotificationReceived(
	PushNotificationChannel sender, 
	PushNotificationReceivedEventArgs args)
{
	if (args.NotificationType == PushNotificationType.Raw)
	{
		// do something with args.RawNotification.Content
	}
}
					

Android with Xamarin

What and Why?

• Xamarin.Android makes possible to develop Android apps with C#
• Write Android apps with Visual Studio or Xamarin Studio
• It's free
• Ability to share code with Xamarin.iOS and UWP
• Azure Notification Hubs push notifications possible

Xamarin.Android

Setup Overview

• Xamarin.Android application
• Google Cloud Messaging registration
• Notification Hub configuration
• Testing notifications

[Xamarin.Android] Google Cloud Messaging

[Xamarin.Android] Dependencies

Add the following components to your Xamarin.Android project

using Gcm.Client;
using WindowsAzure.Messaging;
					

[Xamarin.Android] Initialize Notifications

GcmClient.CheckDevice(this);
GcmClient.CheckManifest(this);
GcmClient.Register(this, "google-project-number");
					

[Xamarin.Android] Push Notification Overview

• Service class with a base class of GcmServiceBase
  • Has ServiceAttribute on the class
  • This handles OnMessage(), OnRegistered(), OnUnRegistered, and OnError()
• Receiver class that has a base class of GcmBroadcastReceiverBase<GcmServiceClass>
  • The GcmServiceClass is the above class that had a base class of GcmServiceBase

More information found in Azure documentation

Testing Push Notifications

• Use the browser Azure management in the section DEBUG
• Write a test app (C# console app, Node.js, etc.)
  • Recommended for long-term testing
  • Able to automate this type of testing

iOS with Xamarin

Coming soon! Please see the Azure Notification Hubs documentation on Xamarin.iOS and push notifications

Further In Depth Reading

• Registration and installation management Azure Docs
• Send notifications from a console app Azure Docs
• Targeted notifications with tags Azure Docs
• Use templates to make cross-platform payloads easy Azure Docs

Questions?

Feedback? @tr_stringer