Implement Push Notifications

Introduction

This how-to will walk you through the steps needed to implement push notifications in your application.

This how-to teaches you how to do the following:

• Import the PushNotifications module
• Add the push notification widget and administrator pages
• Update several project files with the necessary dependencies
• Obtain FCM/APNs access/credentials and configure them with your application
• Build the hybrid mobile package

Importing the PushNotifications Module from the Marketplace

The Push Notifications Connector module is published in the Mendix Marketplace. To import it into your project, click the Marketplace icon in the top right of Mendix Studio Pro. Search for “Push Notifications Connector” and click the title of the result:

On the resulting page, click the green Download button. Make sure that Add as a new module is selected, and then click Import:

Installing Module Dependencies

The PushNotifications module has the following dependencies:

• Encryption
• Community Commons Function Library
• Nanoflow Commons
• Native Mobile Resources

To include these dependencies, download them from the Marketplace in a way similar to how you installed the PushNotifications module. While importing, you may get a pop-up window with information about overwriting project files, which you can confirm by clicking OK.

If your project is using an older version of the Encryption module, it might trigger an error for referencing a non-existent layout. You can fix this by assigning the primary layout of the Encryption.ResponsiveLayout_Certificate layout to another layout (please note that in this specific use case, it is not important which layout is used). This does not apply to version 1.3.1 and above.

After importing the module and the dependencies, your error dock will inform you that entity access is out of date. To fix this error, double-click the error and then click Update security at the top of the domain model pane.

Including the Push Notifications Snippet in the Application’s Layouts

To properly register your device with a third-party remote push service (FCM or APNs) and display in-app notifications, you should put the widget on the pages of your app. You can accomplish this by dragging the Online_Snippet or Offline_Snippet (located in the _USE ME folder in the PushNotifications module) into the layouts used by your app. Which of these two you should pick depends on whether your Mendix hybrid app uses an online profile or an offline profile. Note that push notifications do not currently work on the desktop.

If your app is offline-compatible, ensure that a sync button is available to the user so that device registration requests will be synchronized with the server. For more information, see Offline and Navigation.

Starting Connectors from Your After-Startup Microflow

The PushNotifications module contains a microflow named AfterStartup_PushNotifications that will start the APNs connector for you. Call this microflow from your AfterStartup microflow.

If your project already has an AfterStartup microflow configured, it is recommended that you either:

• create a new microflow, from which you will call both the existing AfterStartup microflow and the AfterStartup_PushNotifications microflow, and then set this as the AfterStartup microflow for your app
• add a new action to the existing AfterStartup microflow to run the AfterStartup_PushNotifications microflow

Setting Up the Administration Pages

Add the PushNotifications_Administration page to the project navigation, so it can be reached after you deploy your app. This page contains three tabs:

• Pending Messages – shows all the messages that are queued either because they were sent using the QueueMessage action or because previous attempts to send them failed
• Devices – contains a list of all the devices registered with the application and is useful for testing purposes
• Configuration – configures your application so that it can reach the respective services (APNs and FCM) later on

Setting Up the Project Security for Your Module

On the User roles tab of the Project Security dialog box, include the following:

• The PushNotifications.Administrator role as part of the main Administrator role
• The PushNotifications.User role as part of the main User role
• The PushNotifications.Anonymous role role as part of the main Anonymous role (if your application allows anonymous users)

Deploying Your App

At this point, all the implementation steps are done and you can deploy your application to Mendix Cloud. If you are using a Free App, simply click Run.

Setting Up Access to APNs or FCM

Below are instructions for setting up access to APNs or FCM and configuring them in your application. Mendix recommends starting with FCM, because it is significantly less complicated than setting up APNs. You can return to this section later to set up APNs.

Open your Mendix app, sign in as an Admin, and open the PushNotifications_Administration page. Scroll to the FCM section and create or edit a configuration.

Configure FCM as follows:

1. Select the Enabled checkbox.
2. Enter a name for the new configuration.
3. Enter your Firebase project ID (located on the Firebase console website).
4. Upload your private key (which you downloaded when you created a service account).

For more details, see How to Set Up the Apple Push Notification Server and How to Set Up the Firebase Cloud Messaging Server.

Building the Hybrid Mobile Application

You now need to build the hybrid mobile application. For an explanation on how to do this, see How to Publish a Mendix Hybrid Mobile App.

Read More

• Microflows
• Test the Push Notifications Implementation