Chapter 16. Push notification services
This chapter covers
- An overview of Apple’s push notification system
- Preparing your application to use push notifications
- Creating a simple push notification provider server in PHP
As mobile devices become more popular, developers must face new and exciting challenges. One of these major challenges has been around since the dawn of mobile software. It’s related to background processes. What is the best way to update application data without the user explicitly running the application? Push notifications are Apples’s solution. In this chapter we’ll look at Apple’s push notification system, how to prepare an application to work with push notifications, and how to create a notification provider on a server. First though, let’s examine what exactly push notifications are.
A classic example of the problem of presenting the user with real-time data updates is an instant messenger program. Instant messaging allows users to send quick chat messages to their contacts who are online. If a contact isn’t online, they can’t receive the chat messages. In order to maintain constant communication, you must stay online indefinitely.