If you are trying to send a Push Notification to your IOS6 iPhone/iPad Sencha Touch 2.2 Application may be you have found some issues. In this article we will see how to configure certificates, setup Sencha package.json and send notifications using PHP and C#.

Introduction

According to Sencha documentation – http://docs.sencha.com/touch/2.2.1/#!/api/Ext.device.Push – it’s possible to enable the App in the notification service with the following code

Ext.device.Push.register({
 type: Ext.device.Push.ALERT|Ext.device.Push.BADGE|Ext.device.Push.SOUND,
 success: function(token) {
 console.log('# Push notification registration successful:');
 console.log(' token: ' + token);
 },
 failure: function(error) {
 console.log('# Push notification registration unsuccessful:');
 console.log(' error: ' + error);
 },
 received: function(notifications) {
 console.log('# Push notification received:');
 console.log(' ' + JSON.stringify(notifications));
 }
});

It’s simple but dosen’t work so easily. You have to generate correct push certificates at developer.apple.com and configure correctly the sencha package.json.

Let’s do it step-by-step. I’m assuming that you are already familiar with IOS Native Push Notifications. Give a look at this http://www.raywenderlich.com/32960/apple-push-notification-services-in-ios-6-tutorial-part-1.

Using this tutorial on 30′ you are able to have a Native App with Push Notifications. Now let see the important steps for Sencha Touch 2.

Certificates

Go on developer.apple.com and click on Profiles

When you are in, select Identifiers -> App IDs -> <your app> (appname in the screen shot)

and press Edit

Create the certificate the first time and then download it. In this example the certificate downloaded is named aps_development.cer.

Once you have the certificate you need to transform it in .pem with only public cert and key.

  
openssl x509 -in aps_development.cer -inform der -out appnameCert.pem
openssl pkcs12 -nocerts -out appnameKey.pem -in appnameKey.p12
cat appnameCert.pem appnameKey.pem > ck.pem

appnameKey.p12 is the private key used to generate the push notification certificate from your pc. You can export it using the Keychain Acceess.

Now you can send push notification. Before writing code let’s try to test it using openssl cmd line tool

  openssl s_client -connect gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195 -cert appnameCert.pem -key appnameKey.pem

If the Apple server replies and you can write some characters on the console means that you have created a valid certificate. We are ready to setup Sencha and the Push Server.

Configure Sencha Touch

In order to setup push notification you need to edit package.json with the following values. Be aware to use exactly the names reported on the Apple developer portal for your App. In this example I’m using the ones reported in the following screenshot

Please pay attention at applicationName, applicationId and bundleSeedId.

"applicationName": "appname",
"applicationId": "com.app.it",
"bundleSeedId": "W7ZXX7HU42",
"certificateAlias": "iPhone Developer",
"platform": "iOS",
"configuration": "Debug",
"certificatePassword": "your_pwd",
"provisionProfile": "your_provisioning_file.mobileprovision",

I’ve omitted all other configurations that remains the default one.

In order to enable push notification you have to manual entitle your app. Follow the entitlement file (please note the application identifier = SeedId + applicationId. In the example: W7ZXX7HU42.com.app.it).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>application-identifier</key>
        <string>W7ZXX7HU42.com.app.it</string>
        <key>aps-environment</key>
        <string>development</string>
        <key>get-task-allow</key>
        <true/>
        <key>keychain-access-groups</key>
        <array>
            <string>W7ZXX7HU42.*</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</plist>

NOTE: When the app go in production change aps-enviroment to production

 <key>aps-environment</key>
 <string>production</string>

Now build you Sencha App and apply the entitlement

export PATH=~/bin/Sencha/Cmd/3.1.2.342:~/bin/Sencha/Cmd/3.1.2.342:~/bin/Sencha/Cmd/3.0.2.288:/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/ubersvn/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/X11/bin:/usr/local/deployd/bin:/usr/local/git/bin
sencha app build native

codesign -f -dvvv -s "iPhone Developer" --entitlements entitl.plist build/appname/native/appname.app

The appname.app can be copied on your device and you are ready to receive push notifications.

Push notification server

The are several ways to send push notifications to your app. The are several cloud services, like parse.com; open source services such deployd.com; open source libraries in nodejs, c#, php, java…

A simple solution is to try SimplePush, a PHP class that send notifications to apple server.

The code uses ck.pem certificate. Just change the $deviceToken and the $passphrase. Save it on a file push.php and execute it: php push.php. A notification will be shown on your iPhone.

<?php
// Put your device token here (without spaces):
$deviceToken = 'b9a12ac7b782a1fe74cca9db1a2c511399cd9966f8f590d38975af6756112427';
// Put your private key's passphrase here:
$passphrase = 'your_pwd';
// Put your alert message here:
$message ='Grande giove!';
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
$ctx = stream_context_create();
stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'local_cert', 'ck.pem');
stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'passphrase', $passphrase);
// Open a connection to the APNS server
$fp = stream_socket_client(
    'ssl://gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195', $err,
    $errstr, 60, STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT|STREAM_CLIENT_PERSISTENT, $ctx);
if (!$fp)
    exit("Failed to connect: $err $errstr" . PHP_EOL);
echo 'Connected to APNS' . PHP_EOL;
// Create the payload body
$body['aps'] = array(
    'alert' => $message,
    'sound' => 'default'
    );
// Encode the payload as JSON
$payload = json_encode($body);
// Build the binary notification
$msg = chr(0) . pack('n', 32) . pack('H*', $deviceToken) . pack('n', strlen($payload)) . $payload;
// Send it to the server
$result = fwrite($fp, $msg, strlen($msg));
if (!$result)
    echo 'Message not delivered' . PHP_EOL;
else
    echo 'Message successfully delivered' . PHP_EOL;
// Close the connection to the server
fclose($fp);

When Sencha registers the Push notification on your device it give you back the device token. You can send it to your server and use it for notification. If you have problems you can double check the device token with a simple IOS app that log on console the device token.

#import "itAppDelegate.h"
@implementation itAppDelegate

- (void)dealloc
{
    [_window release];
    [super dealloc];
}

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
    // Let the device know we want to receive push notifications
	[[UIApplication sharedApplication] registerForRemoteNotificationTypes:
     (UIRemoteNotificationTypeBadge | UIRemoteNotificationTypeSound | UIRemoteNotificationTypeAlert)];
    
    return YES;
}
							
- (void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
    // Sent when the application is about to move from active to inactive state. This can occur for certain types of temporary interruptions (such as an incoming phone call or SMS message) or when the user quits the application and it begins the transition to the background state.
    // Use this method to pause ongoing tasks, disable timers, and throttle down OpenGL ES frame rates. Games should use this method to pause the game.
}

- (void)applicationDidEnterBackground:(UIApplication *)application
{
    // Use this method to release shared resources, save user data, invalidate timers, and store enough application state information to restore your application to its current state in case it is terminated later. 
    // If your application supports background execution, this method is called instead of applicationWillTerminate: when the user quits.
}

- (void)applicationWillEnterForeground:(UIApplication *)application
{
    // Called as part of the transition from the background to the inactive state; here you can undo many of the changes made on entering the background.
}

- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
    // Restart any tasks that were paused (or not yet started) while the application was inactive. If the application was previously in the background, optionally refresh the user interface.
}

- (void)applicationWillTerminate:(UIApplication *)application
{
    // Called when the application is about to terminate. Save data if appropriate. See also applicationDidEnterBackground:.
}

- (void)application:(UIApplication*)application didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:(NSData*)deviceToken
{
	NSLog(@"My token is: %@", deviceToken);
}

- (void)application:(UIApplication*)application didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError:(NSError*)error
{
	NSLog(@"Failed to get token, error: %@", error);
}

@end

PushSharp

PushSharp is a well known C# library to send push notification to IOS, Android and other devices.

In order to send a notification with PushSharp you need (again 🙂 ) to convert your certificate in .p12

openssl x509 -in aps_development.cer -inform DER -out apn_developer_identity.pem -outform PEM
openssl pkcs12 -export -in apn_developer_identity.pem -inkey appnameKey.pem -certfile appname.certSigningRequest -name "apn_developer_identity" -out ck.p12

Now you can send notifications!

var push = new PushBroker();
String path = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory,".\\Resources\\certificate\\ios_cert\\ck.p12");
//Registering the Apple Service and sending an iOS Notification
var appleCert = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(path);
push.RegisterAppleService(new ApplePushChannelSettings(false, appleCert, "your_pwd"));
//Send a notification
push.QueueNotification(new AppleNotification()                                        .ForDeviceToken("b9a12ac7b782a1fe74cca9db1a2c559399cd9966f8f590118975af6756112427")
.WithAlert("Grande giove!")
.WithBadge(7)
.WithSound("sound.caf"));