Push Notifications

• Offline messages. Send a chat message when a recipient is offline. In this case, a push notification will be sent automatically if the user is offline.
• Offline calls. Make a video/audio call with offline opponents. In this case, a push notification will be sent manually.
• Requests to contact list. Send requests to add a user to the contact list. In this case, a push notification will be sent manually).
• User tags. Send notifications to specific user groups defined by tags.

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Before you begin

1. Register a QuickBlox account. This is a matter of a few minutes and you will be able to use this account to build your apps.
2. Configure QuickBlox SDK for your app. Check out Setup page for more details.
3. Create a user session to be able to use QuickBlox functionality. See Authentication page to learn how to do it.

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Configure Firebase project and API key

1. To find your FCM server key, go to your Firebase console => Project Settings => Cloud Messaging.

2. Copy the server key to your Dashboard => YOUR_APP => Push Notifications => Settings, select the environment for which you are adding the key and click the Save key. Use the same server key for development and production zones. You can use both these environments up to you.

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Add Firebase to your Project

1. As part of enabling Firebase services in your Android application, you need to add the google-services dependency to your project-level build.gradle file.

buildscript {

    // ...

    dependencies {
        // ...
        classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:4.3.10'
    }
}

2. Add FCM dependency to your app level build.gradle file.

implementation "com.google.firebase:firebase-core:20.0.0"

3. Include a gms plugin to your app level build.gradle file.

apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'

4. Download the google-services.json file from your Firebase Project dashboard and put it into your app folder in your Android project.
5. Copy the sender ID value following Firebase console => Project Settings => Cloud Messaging.

6. Edit your app AndroidManifest file and add your Firebase sender ID as well as notification type and environment to integrate automatic push subscription.

<meta-data
    android:name="com.quickblox.messages.TYPE"
    android:value="FCM"/>
<meta-data
    android:name="com.quickblox.messages.SENDER_ID"
    android:value="639872757929"/>
<meta-data
    android:name="com.quickblox.messages.QB_ENVIRONMENT"
    android:value="DEVELOPMENT"/>

• com.quickblox.messages.TYPE - can be GCM or FCM.
• com.quickblox.messages.SENDER_ID - your sender ID from google console (for example, 639872757929).
• com.quickblox.messages.QB_ENVIRONMENT - can be DEVELOPMENT or PRODUCTION.

7. Then you need to setup QBFcmPushListenerService and QBFcmPushInstanceIDService in AndroidManifest.

<service android:name="com.quickblox.messages.services.fcm.QBFcmPushListenerService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.firebase.MESSAGING_EVENT"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

<service android:name="com.quickblox.messages.services.fcm.QBFcmPushInstanceIDService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.firebase.INSTANCE_ID_EVENT"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

​

Automatic push subscription

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Enable/Disable push subscription

QBSettings.getInstance().setEnablePushNotification(false);
// by default is true

boolean isEnabled = QBSettings.getInstance().isEnablePushNotification();

​

Track subscription status

QBPushManager.getInstance().addListener(new QBPushManager.QBSubscribeListener() {
    @Override
    public void onSubscriptionCreated() {

    }

    @Override
    public void onSubscriptionError(Exception exception, int resultCode) {
        if (resultCode >= 0) {
            // might be Google play service exception
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onSubscriptionDeleted(boolean delete) {

    }
});

​

Manual push subscription

1. Set SubscribePushStrategy.NEVER as the main strategy.

// default SubscribePushStrategy.ALWAYS
QBSettings.getInstance().setSubscribePushStrategy(SubscribePushStrategy.NEVER)

SubscribeService.subscribeToPushes(context, false);
SubscribeService.unSubscribeFromPushes(context);

2. And then in your class extended from QBFcmPushListenerService you need to handle when the token is refreshed:

@Override
public void onNewToken(String token) {
    boolean tokenRefreshed = true;
    SubscribeService.subscribeToPushes(context, tokenRefreshed);
}

3. Add your class extended from QBFcmPushListenerService to the Manifest file.

<service android:name="your_file_location.YourFilePushListenerService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.firebase.MESSAGING_EVENT"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

<service android:name="com.quickblox.messages.services.fcm.QBFcmPushInstanceIDService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.firebase.INSTANCE_ID_EVENT"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

​

Send push notifications

StringifyArrayList<Integer> userIds = new StringifyArrayList<>();

for (QBUser user : userList) {
    userIds.add(user.getId());
}

QBEvent event = new QBEvent();
event.setUserIds(userIDs);
event.setEnvironment(QBEnvironment.DEVELOPMENT);
event.setNotificationType(QBNotificationType.PUSH);
event.setPushType(QBPushType.GCM);

HashMap<String, Object> customData = new HashMap<>();
customData.put("data.message", "Hello QuickBlox");
customData.put("data.type", "First QuickBlox Push");

event.setMessage(customData);

QBPushNotifications.createEvents(event).performAsync(new QBEntityCallback<QBEvent>() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(QBEvent event, Bundle bundle) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onError(QBResponseException exception) {

    }
});

​

Receive push notifications

BroadcastReceiver pushBroadcastReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
        String message = intent.getStringExtra("message");
        String from = intent.getStringExtra("from");
    }
};

LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).registerReceiver(pushBroadcastReceiver, new IntentFilter("new-push-event"));

@Override
public void onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) {
    String from = remoteMessage.getFrom();
    Map<String, String> data = remoteMessage.getData();
}

​

Troubleshooting

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Push notifications are not received on Android devices

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A subscription is removed after a push is sent and the push isn’t delivered

1. Some other data is set instead of a correct device registration token. For example, a Firebase project ID, Firebase user token, etc.
2. The client app unregistered itself from GCM/FCM. This can happen if the user uninstalls the application or, on iOS, if the APNs Feedback Service reported the APNs token as invalid.
3. The registration token expired. For example, Google might decide to refresh registration tokens or the APNs token may have expired for iOS devices.
4. The client app was updated, but the new version is not configured to receive messages.