Enable Push Notifications in the MDK Public Store Client

Make sure that you have already created a new destination mobileservices_cf as per previous tutorial. This is required to connect SAP Web IDE to Mobile Services on Cloud Foundry environment and have setup initial configuration in SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services as per this tutorial.

This step includes creating the Mobile Development Kit project in the Editor.

1. Launch the SAP Web IDE and select the MDK perspective by clicking on the icon in the left panel.

   Right-click the workspace folder and select New | MDK Empty Project.

   

   More details on MDK template is available in help documentation

2. Enter the Project Name as mdk_push and click Next.

   

   Leave the default values in Application Creation step as it is, click Finish.

   After clicking Finish, the wizard will generate your MDK project mdk_push based on your selections.

In this step, you will create the following actions:

• Push Notification Register action: this will register the device with SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services for push notification.

• Message actions: these will display a message if Push Notification Register action has succeeded or failed.

1. Create a Push Notification Register action.

   Right-click the Actions folder | New MDK Action | choose MDK Other Actions in Category | click Push Notification Register Action | Next.

   

   Provide the below information:

   Property	Value
   Action Name	PushRegister

   

   More details on Push Notification Action is available in help documentation.

   Click Next and then Finish on the confirmation step.

2. Define a success message if the Push Register Notification action is succeeded.

   Right-click the Actions folder | New MDK Action | choose MDK Message Actions in Category | click Message Action | Next.

   

   Provide the below information:

   Property	Value
   Action Name	PushRegisterSuccessMessage
   Type	select Message
   Message	Push Notification registered
   Title	Success
   OKCaption	OK
   OnOK	--None--
   CancelCaption	leave it blank
   OnCancel	--None--

   

   Click Next and then Finish on the confirmation step.

3. Define a failure message if the Push Register Notification action is failed.

   Right-click the Actions folder | New MDK Action | choose MDK Message Actions in Category | click Message Action | Next.

   

   Provide the below information:

   Property	Value
   Action Name	PushRegisterFailureMessage
   Type	select Message
   Message	Push Notification didn't register
   Title	Failure
   OKCaption	OK
   OnOK	--None--
   CancelCaption	leave it blank
   OnCancel	--None--

   

   Click Next and then Finish on the confirmation step.

4. Define Success and Failure actions for PushRegister.action.

   In the action editor for the new action, expand the Common Action Properties and provide the below information:

   Property	Value
   Success Action	PushRegisterSuccessMessage.action
   Failure Action	PushRegisterFailureMessage.action

   When PushRegister.action gets executed successfully then PushRegisterSuccessMessage.action will be triggered or if PushRegister.action fails then PushRegisterFailureMessage.action will be triggered.

   

5. Save the changes to the PushRegister.action.

In the step, you will set and call the Push Register Notification action when app is updated with the new metadata.

It is up to developers how they want to call a Push Register Notification action.

1. Double-click Application.app file, select the PushRegister.action for the OnDidUpdate event.

   

2. Save the changes to Application.app file.

So far, you have learned how to build an MDK application in the SAP Web IDE editor. Now, we deploy this application definition to Mobile Services.

1. Right-click the mdk_push MDK Application in the project explorer pane and select MDK Deploy and Activate.

   

2. Let the default configuration as it is and click Next.

   

   Filter files: will be filtered and ignored in web packing process.

   Externals: are the list of NPM modules that are part of the MDK Client application and should not be validated in the bundle.

3. Click the dropdown for Destination Name and select the mobileservices_cf destination, you will find list of existing application IDs, select the one you have chosen while creating the project.

   

   By default, automatically deploy option is selected, In other words, the application is automatically deployed from Mobile Services to your MDK client.

4. Click Next to finish the deployment from SAP Web IDE.

You should see Application deployed successfully message in console log.

1. Open the SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services cockpit, click + icon to assign a new feature.

   

2. Select Mobile Push Notification, click OK.

   

3. Select SAP Mobile Services Client under Predefined for option, click Save.

   

   Predefined push is supported only for the MDK (SAP Mobile Services client) public store client.

   If you want to enable push notification in your custom MDK client then follow this tutorial.

SAP Web IDE has a feature to generate QR code for app on-boarding.

1. Right click on the mdk_push MDK Application in the project explorer pane and select MDK Deploy and Activate.

   

2. Let the default configuration as it is and click Next.

   

3. Click on QR code icon to populate QR code for app on-boarding.

   

Make sure you are choosing the right device platform tab above.

On Android, the camera app does not support scanning the QR-code. As alternative you can use the Barcode scanner app to scan it.

1. Open the Barcode scanner app and start scanning the QR code showing in SAP Web IDE.

2. Tap Open browser. It will open SAP Mobile Services Client app.

   

3. Tap GET STARTED to connect MDK client to SAP Cloud Platform.

   

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

   

5. Tap AGREE on End User License Agreement.

   

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

   

7. Confirm the passcode and tap DONE.

   

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

   

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

   

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

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

11. 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.

    

12. 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. On iPhone, open your camera app and start scanning the QR code, as shown below.

   

2. Tap the toast message to launch SAP Mobile Services Client. It will open SAP Mobile Services Client app.

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

   

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

   

5. Tap Agree on End User License Agreement.

   

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

   

7. Confirm the passcode and tap Done.

   

8. 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.

   

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

   

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

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

11. 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.

    

12. 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.