Push

Please also have a look at the latest push daemon: Pushr, a push daemon using Redis for queueing. It's fast and lightweight!

Features

• Multi-App
• Multi-Provider (APNS, GCM, C2DM)
• Integrated feedback processing
• Rake task to cleanup the database
• Database for storage (no external dependencies)

Installation

Add to your GemFile

gem 'push-core'

and add the push provider to you Gemfile:

For APNS (iOS: Apple Push Notification Services):

gem 'push-apns'

For C2DM (Android: Cloud to Device Messaging, deprecated by Google, not this gem):

gem 'push-c2dm'

For GCM (Android: Google Cloud Messaging):

gem 'push-gcm'

And run bundle install to install the gems.

To generate the migration and the configuration files run:

rails g push
bundle exec rake db:migrate

Configuration

The configuration is in the database and you add the configuration per push provider with the console (rails c):

APNS (see):

Push::ConfigurationApns.create(app: 'app_name', connections: 2, enabled: true,
    certificate: File.read('certificate.pem'),
    feedback_poll: 60,
    sandbox: false)

The skip_check_for_error parameter is optional and can be set to true or false. If set to true the APNS service will not check for errors when sending messages. This option should be used in a production environment and improves performance. In production the errors are reported and handled by the feedback service.

C2DM (see):

Push::ConfigurationC2dm.create(app: 'app_name', connections: 2, enabled: true,
    email: '<email address here>',
    password: '<password here>')

GCM (see):

Push::ConfigurationGcm.create(app: 'app_name', connections: 2, enabled: true,
    key: '<api key here>')

You can have each provider per app_name and you can have more than one app_name. Use the instructions below to generate the certificate for the APNS provider. If you only want to prepare the database with the configurations, you can set the enabled switch to false. Only enabled configurations will be used by the daemon.

Generating Certificates for APNS

1. Open up Keychain Access and select the Certificates category in the sidebar.

2. Expand the disclosure arrow next to the iOS Push Services certificate you want to export.

3. Select both the certificate and private key.

4. Right click and select Export 2 items....

5. Save the file as cert.p12, make sure the File Format is Personal Information Exchange (p12).

6. If you decide to set a password for your exported certificate, please add a certificate_password field with your password to the Push::ConfigurationApns.

7. Convert the certificate to a .pem, where <environment> should be development or production, depending on the certificate you exported.

   openssl pkcs12 -nodes -clcerts -in cert.p12 -out <environment>.pem

8. Move the .pem file somewhere where you can use the File.read to load the file in the database.

Daemon

To start the daemon:

bundle exec push <environment> <options>

Where <environment> is your Rails environment and <options> can be:

-f, --foreground                 Run in the foreground. Log is not written.
-p, --pid-file PATH              Path to write PID file. Relative to Rails root unless absolute.
-P, --push-poll N                Frequency in seconds to check for new notifications. Default: 2.
-n, --error-notification         Enables error notifications via Airbrake, Bugsnag or Honeybadger.
-F, --feedback-poll N            Frequency in seconds to check for feedback for the feedback processor. Default: 60. Use 0 to disable.
-b, --feedback-processor PATH    Path to the feedback processor. Default: lib/push/feedback_processor.
-v, --version                    Print this version of push.
-h, --help                       You're looking at it.

Sending notifications

APNS:

Push::MessageApns.create(
    app: 'app_name',
    device: '<APNS device_token here>',
    alert: 'Hello World',
    sound: '1.aiff',
    badge: 1,
    expiry: 1.day.to_i,
    attributes_for_device: {key: 'MSG'})

Silent Push Notification via APNS:

Push::MessageApns.create(
    app: 'app_name',
    device: '<APNS device_token here>',
    alert: nil,
    sound: nil,
    badge: 1,
    content_available: 1,   # see footnote
    expiry: 1.day.to_i,
    attributes_for_device: nil)

Use content_available: 1 if the iOS device should start your app upon receiving the silent push notification.

C2DM:

Push::MessageC2dm.create(
    app: 'app_name',
    device: '<C2DM registration_id here>',
    payload: { message: 'Hello World' },
    collapse_key: 'MSG')

GCM:

Push::MessageGcm.create(
    app: 'app_name',
    device: '<GCM registration_id here>',
    payload: { message: 'Hello World' },
    collapse_key: 'MSG')

Feedback processing

The push providers return feedback in various ways and these are captured and stored in the push_feedback table. The installer installs the lib/push/feedback_processor.rb file which is by default called every 60 seconds. In this file you can process the feedback which is different for every application.

Maintenance

The push-core comes with a rake task to delete all the messages and feedback of the last 7 days or by the DAYS parameter.

bundle exec rake push:clean DAYS=2

Heroku

Push runs on Heroku with the following line in the Procfile.

push: bundle exec push $RACK_ENV -f

Capistrano

Capistrano recipe using the pid file.

after "deploy:stop",    "push:stop"
after "deploy:start",   "push:start"
before "deploy:restart", "push:restart"

set(:pushd_pid_file) { "#{current_path}/tmp/pids/push_daemon.pid" }

namespace :push do
  desc 'Start the push daemon'
  task :start, :roles => :worker do
    run "cd #{current_path} ; nohup bundle exec push #{rails_env} -p #{pushd_pid_file} >> #{current_path}/log/push.log 2>&1 &", :pty => false
  end

  desc 'Stop the push daemon'
  task :stop, :roles => :worker do
    run "if [ -d #{current_path} ] && [ -f #{pushd_pid_file} ] && kill -0 `cat #{pushd_pid_file}`> /dev/null 2>&1; then kill -SIGINT `cat #{pushd_pid_file}` ; else echo 'push daemon is not running'; fi"
  end

  desc "Restart the push daemon"
  task :restart, :roles => :worker do
    stop
    start
  end
end

Mina

If you're using (Mina) [https://github.com/mina-deploy/mina] for deployment, you can use (mina-push-core) [https://github.com/starchow/mina-push-core] to make the push-core work on the server.

Prerequisites

• Rails 3.2.x
• Ruby 1.9.x

Thanks

This project started as a fork of Ian Leitch RAPNS project. The differences between this project and RAPNS is the support for C2DM and the modularity of the push providers.