Part 7: Send Your First Test Push Notification

Last modified: August 20, 2024

Introduction

After configuring the Push Notifications module and implementing push notifications in your native app or your progressive web app it is now time to send your first test push notification.

Sending the Test Notification

To send your first test notification, do the following:

  1. Login to your web application.

  2. Go to the push notification administration page you added earlier to your navigation.

  3. Go to the Devices tab.

  4. Select the your test device.

  5. Click New Message (or double-click your test device).

  6. Fill in any Title/Body that you want for your notification.

  7. Set the Action name to Example.

  8. Leave the remaining fields to the defaults.

  9. Click Send:

    test entity

You should now receive the notification on your device. If the application is already opened, the action will log a message (on log node ExampleNotification) and show a dialog box in the app.

If the app is not open (or running in the background) it will deliver and show the notification in the usual location for Android or iOS devices. Click on the notification to trigger the in-app action.

Congratulations, you have just sent your first push notification!

If you did not receive the message, check the application’s logs to see if the message was sent successfully. See the troubleshooting section below for solutions to the most common issues.

Troubleshooting Notification Issues

Issue Cause Solution
Sending a message causes a SenderId mismatch error or 403: Forbidden. Your native mobile app registered the device within your Mendix applications, but not with Firebase. Follow the Build Your Native App section in Build a Native App with Push Notifications Enabled and make sure you add the google-services.json file.
Sending a message causes a Request contains an invalid argument error or 400: Bad Request. Your Project ID does not match the project_id in your private key json file. Upload the correct file or generate a new private key in Firebase and upload it.
Mendix Runtime exception on JavaAction ‘DecryptString’: Key should not be empty. This module depends on the Encryption module, which requires a key. Set the constant EncryptionKey in the Encryption module with a key of exactly 32 characters.
Error sending message: Error reading credentials from stream, ’type’ field not specified. at PushNotifications.SendFCMMessages (JavaAction : ‘GetFCMAccessToken’). The wrong private key file was uploaded. Upload the correct file or generate a new private key in Firebase and upload it.
Not receiving push notifications on a PWA Push notifications on PWAs are only shown when the app is in the background or closed Close the app and try again
Registration fails on a PWA on iOS To receive push notifications on iOS the app must be served over https and added to the home page Deploy your app and add it to the home page via the Share button in Safari and try again
Clicking on a push notification does not open the PWA Push notifications for PWAs require a Web link to be set. Make sure the Web link is set to a valid path of your application (for example “/”)
Application no longer starts after changing index.html Firebase is not found Ensure that the script tags that load Firebase are placed above the script tag that loads mxui.js