The ability to send push notifications has been a key Backendless feature for quite a while, but until now, it only had a basic set of actions such as sending to all devices in a specific channel and/or to a specific device type (Android/iOS). With the last changes it has grown into a powerful tool with a bunch of very flexible and convenient functionality. Now you can:
- send push notifications for a precisely defined group of recipients using not only filters by channel/device, but also BackendlessDataQuery, which allows you to select target devices using a query to the Users table;
- personalize your messages with smart-text – auto substitutions with the personal information from the Users table or any other related tables;
- construct and customize the styling of your messages in a new graphical interface;
- and construct interactive messages with actions mapped to Buttons / Inline reply / Tap.
In this article, we’re going to review the first two points and in the next article the last two.
This week, Backendless Spotlight enters the gaming arena with Game With Me, a social app designed to help gamers connect with other gamers to play games together. Game With Me uses search filters, instant messaging, push notifications and many more Backendless features to create a platform that makes finding new gaming friends easy. Game With Me is available on iOS and Android.
Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know have an app using Backendless for its backend and would like to be considered for a future Backendless Spotlight, we want to hear from you! Send us an email with a link to the app or website and a description of how Backendless has helped them be successful.
React Native helps you build a real native mobile application using JavaScript (for more information about React Native, you can check out the documentation on Github here). The Backendless JavaScript SDK (JS-SDK) already has full compatibility with React Native – just install it from NPM, require in your code, and go. But since the release of Backendless 5.2.x, having only the JS-SDK is not enough to access all the Backendless features; in some cases, we need to have access to native modules for working with certain features such as Push Notifications. We’ve therefore decided to create another module on JS for using exactly in a React Native environment. It’s a patch of sorts for JS-SDK.
In this article series, I’m going to show you how to use this additional JS module. There are will be a total of 3 articles:
- How to enable Push Notifications using Backendless in a React Native App (Android)
- How to enable Push Notifications using Backendless in a React Native App (iOS) (coming soon)
- How to customize Push Notifications using Backendless (coming soon)
Today, we get started with creating a simple Android application on React Native for receiving Push Notifications. Alright, let’s do it.
Dropsource is an online platform for developing Android and iOS applications without coding. The platform also lets you download the source code for your app so you can make any changes to it and subsequently publish into the app store (note: downloading the source code is a paid option). If you’re looking to add support for push notifications to your Dropsource apps, Backendless fits right in with a relatively simple integration. When you add Backendless Push Notifications, you can instantly benefit from the following features:
- Personalized push notification content – each recipient of your push notifications can see customized content.
- Programmable action buttons with support for inline replies.
- Customizable images and icons in the payload and rendering of push notifications.
- Automatic push notification cancellation – self-destructed notifications.
- Dynamic audience targeting – the audience of the published notifications can be customized with a query.
The video below includes a demonstration of an Android Dropsource app integrated with Backendless Push Notifications followed by a detailed overview of the actual integration process. The integration instructions are outlined in detail in this post following the video.
We are happy to announce the new release of Backendless, version 5.2.0. The new release delivers completely redesigned support for push notifications. With the new release you can create highly visual, dynamic and interactive push notifications for Android and iOS devices. The content in the notifications can be personalized for each individual user, you can greet the users of your apps by name, provide content and information in the context of user’s location or any other related user properties. You can configure your push notifications to include sounds, images, configurable buttons (with inline reply) and custom vibration patterns. You can easily schedule push notifications to be delivered automatically, alternatively you can send them out with Backendless console or using the API. The video below provides an overview and a demo of the new functionality:
Backendless Push Notifications are getting a much-needed facelift. Today, with the release of version 4.3.0 you will start noticing some improvements. Specifically, you will see the DeviceRegistration data table:
The recording of the “Push Notifications” webinar which we conducted earlier this month is now available in our YouTube channel. You watch the webinar below or on the Webinars page on our website. In the webinar we reviewed the process of setting up an Android and an iOS apps as well as the backend to be able to register device and receive push notifications.
