#node-apn
A Node.js module for interfacing with the Apple Push Notification service.
- Fast
- Maintains a connection to the server to maximise notification batching and throughput.
- Enhanced binary interface support, with error handling
- Automatically sends unsent notifications if an error occurs
- Feedback service support
- Complies with all best practises laid out by Apple
Via npm:
$ npm install apn
As a submodule of your project (you will also need to install q)
$ git submodule add http://github.com/argon/node-apn.git apn
$ git submodule update --init
This is intended as a brief introduction, please refer to the documentation in doc/
for more details.
var apn = require('apn');
Create a new connection to the APN gateway server, passing a dictionary of options to the constructor. If you name your certificate and key files appropriately (cert.pem
and key.pem
) then the defaults should be suitable to get you up and running. By default the module will connect to the sandbox environment unless the environment variable NODE_ENV=production
is set. For more information consult the documentation (in doc/apn.markdown).
var options = { };
var apnConnection = new apn.Connection(options);
Help with preparing the key and certificate files for connection can be found in the wiki
To send a notification first create a Device
object. Pass it the device token as either a hexadecimal string, or alternatively as a Buffer
object containing the token in binary form.
var myDevice = new apn.Device(token);
Next, create a notification object, set the relevant parameters (See the payload documentation for more details.) and use the pushNotification
method on the connection to send it.
var note = new apn.Notification();
note.expiry = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 3600; // Expires 1 hour from now.
note.badge = 3;
note.sound = "ping.aiff";
note.alert = "\uD83D\uDCE7 \u2709 You have a new message";
note.payload = {'messageFrom': 'Caroline'};
apnConnection.pushNotification(note, myDevice);
The above options will compile the following dictionary to send to the device:
{"messageFrom":"Caroline","aps":{"badge":3,"sound":"ping.aiff","alert":"\uD83D\uDCE7 \u2709 You have a new message"}}
Apple recommends checking the feedback service periodically for a list of devices for which there were failed delivery attempts.
Using the Feedback
object it is possible to periodically query the server for the list. Many of the options are similar to that of Connection
.
Attach a listener to the feedback
event to receive the output as two arguments, the time
returned by the server (epoch time) and a Buffer
object containing the device token - this event will be emitted for each device separately. Alternatively you can enable the batchFeedback
option and the feedback
event will provide an array of objects containing time
and device
properties.
var options = {
"batchFeedback": true,
"interval": 300
};
var feedback = new apn.Feedback(options);
feedback.on("feedback", function(devices) {
devices.forEach(function(item) {
// Do something with item.device and item.time;
});
});
By specifying a time interval (in seconds) Feedback
will periodically query the service without further intervention.
More information about the feedback service can be found in the feedback service documentation.
If you experience difficulties sending notifications or using the feedback service you can enable debug messages within the library by running your application with DEBUG=apn
or DEBUG=apnfb
set as an environment variable.
You will need the debug
module which can be installed with npm install debug
.
You are encouraged to read the extremely informative Troubleshooting Push Notifications Tech Note in the first instance, in case your query is answered there.
If you have any questions or difficulties working with the module, the node-apn Google group should be your first port of call.
Please include as much detail as possible - especially debug logs, if the problem is reproducible sample code is also extremely helpful. GitHub Issues should only be created for verified problems and enhancements, this will allow them to be tracked more easily.
- Local and Push Notification Programming Guide: Apple Push Notification Service
- Apple Technical Note: Troubleshooting Push Notifications
- List of Projects, Applications and Companies Using Node-apn
Written and maintained by Andrew Naylor.
Thanks to: Ian Babrou, dgthistle, Keith Larsen, Mike P, Greg Bergé, Asad ur Rehman, Nebojsa Sabovic, Alberto Gimeno, Randall Tombaugh, Michael Stewart, Olivier Louvignes, porsager, Craig Hockenberry
Released under the MIT License
Copyright (c) 2013 Andrew Naylor
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.