Mike Willbanks gave a presentation on leveraging Zend Framework for push notifications. He discussed the benefits of push notifications over polling for mobile apps and provided overviews of push notification services for Android (C2DM), Apple (APNS), and Microsoft (MPNS). He demonstrated how to implement push notifications in mobile apps and servers using the Zend_Mobile_Push component of Zend Framework. BlackBerry push was also briefly discussed though support is not fully implemented. The presentation concluded with questions.

1. MinneBar April 7, 2012
Leveraging
Zend Framework
Sending Push Notifications
By Mike Willbanks
Software Engineering Manager
CaringBridge

2. Housekeeping…
• Talk
 Slides will be online later!
• Me
 Software Engineering Manager at CaringBridge
 MNPHP Organizer
 Open Source Contributor (Zend Framework and various others)
 Where you can find me:
• Twitter: mwillbanks G+: Mike Willbanks
• IRC (freenode): mwillbanks Blog: http://blog.digitalstruct.com
• GitHub: https://github.com/mwillbanks
2

3. Agenda
• Overview of Push Notifications
• Overview of Zend_Mobile [_Push]
• Android Push Notifications (C2DM)
• Apple Push Notifications (APNS)
• Microsoft Push Notifications
• BlackBerry Push Notifications
• Questions
 Although you can bring them up at anytime!
3

4. Overview
What are they?
What is the benefit?
High level; how do these things work?

5. What Are They
• Push Notifications…
 Are a message pushed to a central location and delivered to you.
 Are (often) the same thing at a pub/sub model.
 In the Mobile Space…
• These messages often contain other technologies such as alerts, tiles,
or raw data.
5

6. In Pictures…
6

7. Benefits of Push Notifications
The benefits of push notifications are numerous; the
question is if you have an app and you are running services
to poll; why would you do such a thing!

8. One word… Battery Life
8

9. Impact of Polling
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10. Battery Life
• Push notification services for mobile are highly efficient; it
runs in the device background and enables your application
to receive the message.
• The other part of this; if you implemented it otherwise you
would be polling. This not only wastes precious battery but
also wastes their bandwidth.
 NOTE: This is not always true; if you are sending data to the phone
more often than a poll would do in 15 minutes; you are better off
implementing polling.
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11. Can We Deliver?
11

12. Delivery
• When you poll; things are generally 15+ minutes out to save
on battery. In a push notification these happen almost
instantly.
 We’ve generally seen within 1-3s between sending a push
notification to seeing it arrive on the device.
• Additionally; push notifications can be sent to the device
even if it is offline or turned off.
• However, not all messages are guaranteed for delivery
 You may hit quotas
 Some notification servers only allow a single message to be in
queue at 1 time (some group by collapse key), and others remove
duplicates.
12

13. How These Things Work
The 10,000 foot view.

14. 10,000 Foot View of C2DM
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15. 10,000 Foot View of APNS
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16. 10,000 Foot View of Windows Push
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17. 10,000 Foot View of BlackBerry
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18. Overview of Zend_Mobile_Push
• Created Zend_Mobile component in November because I
was irritated with the other libraries that currently existed.
• More fluid way of sending push notifications.
• Requires Zend Framework 1.x
 Committed in the ZF trunk; waiting for 1.12 release.
• Handles sending push notifications to 3 systems
 APNS, C2DM and MPNS
• Library is located in my GitHub account & ZF Trunk
 https://github.com/mwillbanks/Zend_Mobile
 http://framework.zend.com/svn/framework/standard/trunk/libra
ry/Zend/Mobile/
18

19. Setting up the Library
• svn checkout from ZF OR through github
• Adjust your include_path (likely set in index.php)
• You’re ready to rock!
• Once you upgrade to 1.12 after it is released you won’t
have anything more to do.
19

20. Walking Through Android
Understanding C2DM
Anatomy of a Message
Pushing Messages
Displaying Items on the Client

21. Understanding C2DM
• It allows third-party application servers to send lightweight
messages to their Android applications.
• C2DM makes no guarantees about delivery or the order of
messages.
• An application on an Android device doesn’t need to be
running to receive messages.
• It does not provide any built-in user interface or other
handling for message data.
• It requires devices running Android 2.2 or higher that also have
the Market application installed.
• It uses an existing connection for Google services (Through the
Google Market)
21

22. Registering for C2DM
• First things first – you must sign up to actually utilize C2DM
 http://code.google.com/android/c2dm/signup.html
 C2DM only works on Android w/ Google Market
• Basically excludes: Amazon Kindle Fire.
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23. Anatomy of the Mobile App
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24. How the Application Works
• We must update the Manifest file to state additional
permissions.
• We will then create a broadcast receiver that will handle
the messages and registration.
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25. Example Manifest
25

26. Handling the Registration (or Unregistering)
• Registration / Registration Updates and Unregistering.
• Registration is generally on app start up.
• Be nice and allow your users to unregister from the push
notification service 
26

27. Example Receiver
More at: http://bit.ly/bxOoMO towards end of article.
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28. Implementing a Server
• Some limitations
 200K messages per day by default; use them wisely however you
may request more.
 1K message payload maximum.
 You must implement incremental back off.
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29. How the Server Works
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30. Using Zend_Mobile_Push_C2dm
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31. Apple Push Notifications
A brief walk-through on implementing notifications on the
iPhone.

32. Understanding APNS
• The maximum size allowed for a notification payload is 256
bytes.
• It allows third-party application servers to send lightweight
messages to their iPhone/iPad applications.
• Apple makes no guarantees about delivery or the order of
messages.
• An application on an iPhone/iPad device doesn’t need to be
running to receive messages.
• Message adheres to strict JSON but is abstracted away for us in
how we will be using it today.
• Messages should be sent in batches.
• A feedback service must be listened to.
32

33. Preparing to Implement Apple Push Notifications
• You must create a SSL certificate and key from the
provisioning portal
• After this is completed the provisioning profile will need to
be utilized for the application.
• Lastly, you will need to install the certificate and key on the
server.
 In this case; you will be making a pem certificate.
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34. Anatomy of the Application
34

35. How the Application Works
• Registration
 The application calls the registerForRemoteNotificationTypes:
method.
 The delegate implements the
application:didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:
method to receive the device token.
 It passes the device token to its provider as a non-object, binary
value.
• Notification
 By default this just works based on the payload; for syncing you
would implement this on the launch.
35

36. Example of Handling Registration
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37. Example of Handling Remote Notification
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38. Implementing the Server
• Some Limitations
 Don’t send too many through at a time; meaning around 100K 
• Every once in a while use a usleep
 Max payload is 256 bytes
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39. How the Server Works
39

40. Using Zend_Mobile_Push_Apns
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41. Using Zend_Mobile_Push_Apns Feedback
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42. Microsoft Push Notifications
Well, I am not certain if they will find the market share yet
but hey; some people need to build apps for it!

43. Understanding MPNS
• It allows third-party application servers to send lightweight
messages to their Windows Mobile applications.
• Microsoft makes no guarantees about delivery or the order of
messages. (See a pattern yet?)
• 3 types of messages: Tile, Toast or Raw
• Limitations:
 One push channel per app, 30 push channels per device, additional
adherence in order to send messages
 3K Payload, 1K Header
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402537.aspx
43

44. Preparing to Implement MPNS
• Upload a TLS certificate to Windows Marketplace
 The Key-Usage value of the TLS certificate must be set to include
client authentication.
 The Root Certificate Authority (CA) of the certificate must be one
of the CAs listed at: SSL Root Certificates for Windows Phone.
 Stays authenticated for 4 months.
 Set Service Name to the Common Name (CN) found in the
certificate's Subject value.
 Install the TLS certificate on your web service and enable HTTP
client authentication.
44

45. Anatomy of MPNS
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46. Registering for Push
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47. Implementing the Callbacks for Notifications
47

48. Using Zend_Mobile_Push_Mpns Raw Messages
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49. Using Zend_Mobile_Push_Mpns Toast Messages
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50. Using Zend_Mobile_Push_Mpns Tile Messages
50

51. BlackBerry Push Notifications
Blackberry push notifications are not currently supported…
But we’ll talk about them anyway.

52. Understanding BlackBerry Push
• It allows third-party application servers to send lightweight
messages to their BlackBerry applications.
• Allows a whopping 8K or the payload
• Uses WAP PAP 2.2 as the protocol
• Mileage may vary…
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53. Anatomy of BB Push
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54. Application Code
• They have a “Sample” but it is deep within their Push SDK.
Many of which are pre-compiled.
 Documentation is hard to follow and the sample isn’t exactly
straight forward:
• Install the SDK then go to BPSS/pushsdk-low-level/sample-push-
enabled-app/ and unzip sample-push-enabled-app-1.1.0.16-sources.jar
 Completely uncertain on how to make it all work…
54

55. Preparing to Implement
• You need to register with BlackBerry and have all of the
application details ready to go:
 https://www.blackberry.com/profile/?eventId=8121
• Download the PHP library:
 NOTE: I am not certain if any of these actually work…
 Updated to be OO; non-tested and a bit sloppy:
https://github.com/mwillbanks/BlackBerryPush
 Original source: http://bit.ly/nfbHXp
55

56. Implementing BB Push w/ PHP
• Again, never tested nor do I know if it works.
• If you do use BlackBerry push messages; please connect
with me
 I would like to allow us to get these into the component.
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57. Moving on…
The future, resources and the end!

58. Next steps
• ZF 2
 A new version will eventually come that is more inline with where
Zend Framework 2 is going. However, there are bigger fish to fry
at this point.
• BlackBerry
 There is a need for a quality implementation in PHP but RIM’s
documentation and how they work with developers makes this
increasingly difficult.
• Register, Forums and bad documentation… all for?
58

59. Resources
• Main Sites
 Apple Push Notifications:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/NetworkingInternet/Con
ceptual/RemoteNotificationsPG/Introduction/Introduction.html
 Google C2DM (Android): http://code.google.com/android/c2dm/
 Microsoft Push Notifications: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ff402558(v=vs.92).aspx
 BlackBerry Push Notifications:
http://us.blackberry.com/developers/platform/pushapi.jsp
• Push Clients:
 Zend_Mobile:
• https://github.com/mwillbanks/Zend_Mobile
• http://framework.zend.com/svn/framework/standard/trunk/library/Zend/Mobile/
 BlackBerry: https://github.com/mwillbanks/BlackBerryPush
• Might be broken but at least better than what I found anywhere else 
59

60. Questions?
These slides will be posted to SlideShare & SpeakerDeck.
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mwillbanks
SpeakerDeck: http://speakerdeck.com/u/mwillbanks
Twitter: mwillbanks
G+: Mike Willbanks
IRC (freenode): mwillbanks
Blog: http://blog.digitalstruct.com
GitHub: https://github.com/mwillbanks