Using Appcelerator Cloud Serives Push Notification Part I

I will show you how to you can implement push notification services provided by appcelerator cloup services. Here we will try to send notification to an iOS device which is subscribed to a channel. Before starting you must check that you have TitaniumStudio with latest SDK installed.

Lets get started:-

Handling Client Side

1. Open TitaniumStudio -> New -> Mobile App Project

   New Dialog will appear, Here don't change Alloy from the side menu then select “Default Alloy Project” and click next

   Enter Project name, App Id and just select iPhone in deployment targets and you must select the “cloud-enable this application” checkbox. As shown in the figure below:

   
2. add ti.cloud and ti.cloudpush to your project in modules as shown in the following figure
3. add the following code in acsPush.js under lib folder.

   var Cloud = require("ti.cloud");
   var osname = Ti.Platform.osname;
   var channel = "";
   
   var receivePush = function(e) {
   	Ti.API.info('got pushCallback');
   	Ti.API.debug(JSON.stringify(e));
   	if (osname != "android") {
   		// Do Something here?
   		alert("Notification received: " + JSON.stringify(e));
   	} else {
   		//var extras = e.extras;
   		setTimeout(function() {
   			// Do Something here?
   			alert("Notification received: " + JSON.stringify(e));
   		}, 750);
   	}
   };
   
   function deviceTokenError(e) {
   	Ti.API.error('Failed to register for push notifications! ' + e.error);
   }
   
   function deviceTokenSuccess(e) {
   	Ti.API.debug('got retrieveDeviceToken success');
   	Ti.API.debug('e=' + JSON.stringify(e));
   	Ti.API.debug('channel=' + channel);
   	subscribeToChannel(e.deviceToken);
   }
   
   function subscribeToChannel(token) {
   	Cloud.PushNotifications.subscribeToken({
   		device_token : token,
   		channel : channel,
   		type : Ti.Platform.name == 'android' ? 'android' : 'ios'
   	}, function(e) {
   		if (e.success) {
   			Ti.API.info('subscribed');
   			Ti.App.fireEvent('push:register', {
   				token : token
   			});
   
   		} else {
   			Ti.API.error('Error:\n' + ((e.error && e.message) || JSON.stringify(e)));
   		}
   	});
   }
   
   if (osname != "android") {
   
   	exports.registerForPush = function(username) {
   		channel = username;
   
   		Ti.API.info('registering for PUSH');
   		Ti.API.info('platform=' + Ti.Platform.version.split(".")[0]);
   
   		// Check if the device is running iOS 8 or later
   		if (parseInt(Ti.Platform.version.split(".")[0]) >= 8) {
   			function registerForPush() {
   				Ti.Network.registerForPushNotifications({
   					success : deviceTokenSuccess,
   					error : deviceTokenError,
   					callback : receivePush
   				});
   				// Remove event listener once registered for push notifications
   				Ti.App.iOS.removeEventListener('usernotificationsettings', registerForPush);
   			};
   
   			// Wait for user settings to be registered before registering for push notifications
   			Ti.App.iOS.addEventListener('usernotificationsettings', registerForPush);
   
   			// Register notification types to use
   			Ti.App.iOS.registerUserNotificationSettings({
   				types : [Ti.App.iOS.USER_NOTIFICATION_TYPE_ALERT, Ti.App.iOS.USER_NOTIFICATION_TYPE_SOUND, Ti.App.iOS.USER_NOTIFICATION_TYPE_BADGE]
   			});
   
   		} else {
   			// For iOS 7 and earlier
   			Ti.Network.registerForPushNotifications({
   				// Specifies which notifications to receive
   				types : [Ti.Network.NOTIFICATION_TYPE_BADGE, Ti.Network.NOTIFICATION_TYPE_ALERT, Ti.Network.NOTIFICATION_TYPE_SOUND],
   				success : deviceTokenSuccess,
   				error : deviceTokenError,
   				callback : receivePush
   			});
   		}
   
   	};
   
   } else  {
   
   	var CloudPush = require('ti.cloudpush');
   
   	exports.registerForPush = function(username) {
   		channel = username;
   		Ti.API.info('registering for PUSH');
   		CloudPush.retrieveDeviceToken({
   			success : deviceTokenSuccess,
   			error : deviceTokenError
   		});
   		CloudPush.showTrayNotificationsWhenFocused = true;
   		CloudPush.addEventListener('callback', receivePush);
   
   	};
   
   }
   
   

4. In index.js file under controller folder add the following code.

   var acs = require('/js/acsPush');
   	acs.registerForPush("library");

Before continuing you must have the following files ready

• you must created a iOS development certificate.
• Apple Id with push notification enabled. (must be same as your appId)
• Apple Push Notification certificate.

Please refer to second part of this tutorial to know how to handle server side thingz...