Tag notifications are notification messages that are targeted to all the devices that are subscribed to a particular tag.
Tags represent topics of interest to the user and provide the ability to receive notifications according to the chosen interest.
Broadcast notifications are a form of tag push notifications that are targeted to all subscribed devices. Broadcast notifications are enabled by default for any push-enabled MobileFirst application by a subscription to a reserved Push.all tag (auto-created for every device). Broadcast notifications can be disabled by by unsubscribing from the reserved Push.all tag.
Tags are defined in the application-descriptor.xml file:
<nativeAndroidAppxmlns="http://www.worklight.com/native-android-descriptor"id="NativeAndroidTagNotifications"platformVersion="7.1.0.00.20150312-0731"version="1.0"><pushSenderkey="API_KEY"senderId="PROJECT_NUMBER"/>
...
...
...
<tags>>
<tag><name>my tag 1</name><description>About my tag 1</description></tag><tag><name>my tag 2</name><description>About my tag 2</description></tag></tags>
Notifications API
API methods for tag notifications
Client-side API
WLPush.subscribeTag(tagName,options) - Subscribes the device to the specified tag name
WLPush.unsubscribeTag(tagName,options) - Unsubscribes the device from the specified tag name
WLPush.isTagSubscribed(tagName) - Returns whether the device is subscribed to a specified tag name
Common API methods for tag and broadcast notifications
Client-side API
WLNotificationListener
Defines the callback method to be notified when the notification arrives.
client.getPush().setWLNotificationListener(listener)
This method sets the implementation class of the WLNotificationListener interface.
client.getPush().setOnReadyToSubscribeListener(listener)
This method registers a listener to be used for push notifications. This listener should implement the onReadyToSubscribe() method.
The onMessage(props,payload) method of WLNotificationListener is called when a push notification is received by the device.
props - A JSON block that contains the notifications properties of the platform.
payload - A JSON block that contains other data that is sent from MobileFirst Server. The JSON block also contains the tag name for tag-based or broadcast notification. The tag name appears in the "tag" element. For broadcast notification, the default tag name is Push.ALL.
Server-side API
WL.Server.sendMessage(applicationId,notificationOptions)
This method submits a notification that is based on the specified target parameters.
applicationId - (mandatory) The name of the MobileFirst application
notificationOptions - (mandatory) A JSON block containing message properties
For a full list of message properties, refer to the WL.Server.sendMessage API in the API reference of user documentation
The TagNotifications project contains a MobileFirst native API that you can deploy to your MobileFirst Server instance.
The TagNotificationsAndroid project contains a native android application that uses a MobileFirst native API library to subscribe to push notifications and receive notifications from GCM.
Make sure to update the wlclient.properties file in the native project with the relevant server settings.
Sending a notification
To test the application is able to receive a push notification you can perform one of the following:
From MobileFirst Studio, right-click the adapter folder, select Call MobileFirst Adapter and:
If selecting the "sendBroadcastNotification" procedure, provide the application ID and notification text in quotation marks.
If selecting the "sendTagNotification" procedure, provide the application ID, notification text and tag name in quotation marks.
The application ID can be determined from the id attribute in application-descriptor.xml:
$ mfp adapter call
[?] Which endpoint do you want to use? PushAdapter/sendBroadcastNotification
[?] Enter the comma-separated parameters: "NativeAndroidTagNotifications","hello"[?] How should the procedure be called? GET
Or:
$ mfp adapter call
[?] Which endpoint do you want to use? PushAdapter/sendTagNotification<
[?] Enter the comma-separated parameters: "NativeAndroidTagNotifications","hello","sample-tag1, sample-tag2"<
[?] How should the procedure be called? GET
Inclusive terminology note: The Mobile First Platform team is making changes to support
the IBM® initiative to replace racially biased and other discriminatory language in our code and content
with more inclusive language. While IBM values the use of inclusive language, terms that are outside of
IBM's direct influence are sometimes required for the sake of maintaining user understanding. As other
industry leaders join IBM in embracing the use of inclusive language, IBM will continue to update the
documentation to reflect those changes.