Enable Push Notifications in Your Branded MDK Client

1. Open the Firebase console, login with your Google account and click Add Project.

   

2. Provide a Project Name, click Continue.

   

3. Uncheck Enable Google Analytics for this project option and click Create Project.

   

4. Once the project is ready, click Continue.

5. Click Android icon to add Firebase to your Android app.

   

6. Provide a unique name to Android package name, click Register app.

   

7. Download goole-services.json config file, click Next.

   

8. In the following step, click Next and then click Continue to console.

   

In order to implement Push Notifications, a paid Apple developer account is required. Students or other developers with a personal Apple ID for their team will not be able to use push notifications, because they will not have access to the Developer Portal to generate the required certificate.

To enable your app for push notifications, you need to carry out the following tasks:

• Obtain a certificate signing request
• Register an iOS App ID
• Create a new development certificate .CER file
• Install the .CER file and create the .p12 file
• Register your device

1. Obtain a certificate signing request

   In order to use the Apple Push Notification service, you need to create a CSR file.

   On your Mac, open the Keychain Access application, and navigate to Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Request a Certificate From a Certificate Authority…

   

   In the dialog, enter the email address which is associated with your Apple Developer account. Also, make sure you check the Request is saved to disk option.

   

   Click Continue.

   Choose a folder to store the certificate – it is good practice to store generated files in a separate folder for each project – and click Save.

   Once you see a dialog saying the certificate is saved successfully, click Done to finish.

   

2. Register an iOS App ID

   Go to your Apple Developer Account and click Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles.

   

   Click + icon to register a unique Identifiers for your application.

   

   Select App IDs and click Continue.

   

   Provide a unique Bundle ID name and Description.

   

   Scroll down and select the Push Notifications capability from the list, click Continue.

   

   In the following screen, select option for Deployment Details and then click Continue.

   Confirm your App ID by clicking on Register.

3. Create a new development certificate .CER file

   Under Identifiers, search for the App ID that you registered in previous step.

   

   Scroll down and select the Push Notifications capability, click Configure.

   

   To configure push notifications for the App ID com.sap.mdk.demo, a Client SSL Certificate is required that will allow the notification server to connect to the Apple Push Notification Service. Each App ID requires its own Client SSL Certificate.

   Click Create Certificate to start the process for creating the needed .CER file.

   

   Click Choose File and browse to the downloaded Signing Request CSR file, click Continue.

   Apple will now create a .CER file for you which is issued by the Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority.

   

   Click Download to download your certificate.

   

4. Install the .CER file and create the .p12 file

   In order to configure the APNS on SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services, you need to install the .CER file and create the needed .p12 file.

   A .p12 file is a encrypted container for the certificate and private key. This file is needed by Mobile Services for the APNS configuration.

   Locate your downloaded .CER file and double-click it in order to install the certificate.

   In case the Add Certificate dialog pops up make sure to choose Login from the dropdown and click Add.

   If the certificate is added correctly to the Keychain you should see it in the MyCertificates section, make sure you selected login as keychain.

   

   Select the certificate as well as the private key and right-click to export those two items.

   

   Make sure that in the dropdown Personal Information Exchange (.p12) is selected and click Save. You will be prompted to enter a password, click OK to export the files.

   

5. Register your device

   Click + icon to register your iOS device.

   

   Provide Device Name & Device ID (UDID) and then click Continue.

   

1. In Firebase console page, click gear icon and then click Project Settings.

   

2. Navigate to Cloud Messaging tab, copy the Server key.

   

3. In Mobile Services cockpit, navigate to Mobile Applications | Native/Hybrid | com.sap.mdk.demo | Mobile Push Notification. Paste the Server Key value in Android push settings in Mobile Services cockpit.

   

4. Repeat the above step for Sender ID and then click Save.

1. In Mobile Services cockpit, navigate to the Mobile Push Notification feature for app id com.sap.mdk.demo.

   

2. Provide the following details to the Apple panel:

   Field Name	Value
   APNS Endpoint	Select Sandbox
   Authenticate	Select Certificate
   Certificate	Browse to the.p12certificate you just exported
   Password	Enter the password you provided during the export

3. Click Save. You have now successfully configured the APNS Endpoint on the server side in Mobile Services cockpit.

   

1. You can create a client by running ./create-client.command and providing the path to a valid .mdkproject directory.

   

   You can run the create-client command from any directory. The resulting MDK client will be created in the directory where the create-client command is run from.

2. You will be asked whether you would like to build for iOS or Android or All?

   

   All option was chosen in this tutorial as you will learn how to create the MDK client for iOS and Android.

3. Then, you will be asked whether you would like to build for device or simulator?

   

device option was chosen for this tutorial.

Once the create-client.command script executed successfully, you will see Application ready message in terminal console.

You will also find your app created under the MDKClient_SDK folder.

1. You can create a client by running create-client.cmd and providing the path to a valid .mdkproject directory.

   

   You can run the create-client cmd from any directory. The resulting MDK client will be created in the directory where the create-client cmd is run from.

2. Once the create-client.cmd script executed successfully, you will see Application ready message in terminal console.

   

You will also find your app created under the MDKClient_SDK folder.

1. In this step, you will run the app on an android device. Attach the device to your Mac or Windows machine and run tns device android command to print a list of attached devices.

   

   Make sure Developer option and USB debugging option is enabled in android device.

2. Copy the Device Identifier value for your device.

3. In terminal or command line window, navigate to the app name folder Demo Sample App (in MDClient_SDK path) and use tns run android --device <device identifier> command to run the MDK client on android device.

   

   To run the MDK client on Android simulator, use tns run android --emulator command. Make sure that you have created a virtual device in Android Studio prior to running this command.

   Before trying to launch the client on Android emulator, make sure that you have already configured a virtual device (Android Studio>AVD Manager). Otherwise, you may get error like No emulator image available for device identifier.

   Once, above command gets successfully executed, you will see new MDK client up and running in Android device.

   

4. Tap START to connect MDK client to SAP Cloud Platform.

5. Enter Email address and password to login to SAP Cloud Platform and tap Log On to authenticate.

   

6. Tap AGREE on End User License Agreement.

   

7. Choose a passcode with at least 8 characters for unlocking the app and tap NEXT.

   

8. Confirm the passcode and tap DONE.

   

9. The MDK client receives deployed metadata definitions as a bundle. Click OK to confirm.

   

10. If push registration is successful, a message should show Push Notification Registered. Click OK.

    

    You can always interrupt running process in terminal window by pressing CTRL-C.

    To build an APK for an Android device, use tns build android --release. More information about archiving can be found in NativeScript documentation here.

    It is time now to send the first push notification from the SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services push notification feature.

11. Navigate to Mobile Services cockpit. In Mobile Push Notification feature, switch to Push Registrations tab.

12. There you will find information about user registered for push notification and also details about Push providers. Identify your Device ID and click Send Notification.

    

13. In notification dialog, type a notification message and click Send.

    

You will see a success toast message.

After sending notification, mobile device should receive the message.

1. In this step, you will run the app on an iOS device. Attach the device to your Mac and run tns device ios command to print a list of attached devices.

   

2. Copy the Device Identifier value for your device.

3. In terminal window, navigate to the app name folder Demo Sample App (in MDClient_SDK path) and use tns run ios --device <device identifier> command to run the MDK client on iOS device.

   

   You can also run the app in Xcode. Open the project in Xcode with the command open platforms/ios/<app name>.xcworkspace, or open the workspace using the File -> Open... dialog in Xcode. Configure the application’s code signing settings, then run the application for the target device.

   Once, above command gets successfully executed, you will see new MDK client up and running in your device.

   

4. Tap Start to connect MDK client to SAP Cloud Platform.

5. Enter Email address and password to login to SAP Cloud Platform and tap Log On to authenticate.

   

6. Tap Agree on End User License Agreement.

   

7. Choose a passcode with at least 8 characters for unlocking the app and tap Next.

   

8. Confirm the passcode and tap Done.

   

9. The MDK client receives deployed metadata definitions as a bundle. Click OK to confirm.

   

   You will also notice that it will first ask permission to display notifications.

   

10. If push registration is successful, a message should show Push Notification Registered. Click OK.

    

    You can always interrupt running process in terminal window by pressing CTRL-C.

    To build an IPA for an iOS device, use tns build ios --for-device --release. This can also be accomplished in Xcode by opening the workspace and selecting the Archive option. More information about archiving can be found in Apple’s documentation here.

    It is time now to send the first push notification from the SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services push notification feature.

11. Navigate to Mobile Services cockpit. In Mobile Push Notification feature, switch to Push Registrations tab.

12. There you will find information about user registered for push notification and also details about Push providers. Identify your Device ID and click Send Notification.

    

13. In notification dialog, type a notification message and click Send.

    

You will see a success toast message.

After sending notification, mobile device should receive the message.

If you have Apple watch connected to the iPhone device, you can also see same push notification on the Apple Watch.

MDK supports rich push notification. MDK does not run on smart watches or as an Apple watch application.