Push to ALL the iPhones with AzureChris RisnerSenior Technical Evangelist@chrisrisner Microsoft Azure

2

About me

Technical Evangelist @chrisrisner

Chrisrisner.com Live in Washington

Grew up in MichiganMobile dev for 5+

years

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Agenda

Push Notifications Microsoft Azure

Azure Notification Hubs

Tags

Templates Questions

Push Notifications are BIG

Provide updates to

users

Alert users when app isn’t

running

Trigger background

sync

Pull users back into your apps!

•Emails•Game updates•Flight reminder•Rental car reminder•Appointments•Video chat requests•Data usage alerts•Bills due

Push Notifications I Receive

Challenges of push notifications

Platform dependency• Different communication protocols to PNS’ (e.g. HTTP vs TCP, xml payload vs json payload)• Different presentation formats and capabilities (tiles vs toasts vs badges)

Routing• PNS’ provide a way to send a message to a device/channel• Usually notifications are targeted at users or interest groups (e.g. employees assigned to a

customer account)• App back-end has to maintain a registry associating device handles to interest groups/users

Scale• App back-end has to store current handles for each device high storage and VM costs• Broadcast to millions of devices with low latency requires parallelization (DB ad VM)

Push Notification Lifecycle1. App registers with provider2. App gets token3. App sends token to backend4. Push requested5. Backend delivers push to provider6. Provider pushes to device

7

PlatformNotification

Service

App back-end

Microsoft Azure

Backend-as-a-Service

~consume

BaaSPlatform-as-a-Service

build

PaaSInfrastructure-as-a-

Service

host

IaaSSoftware-as-a-Service

consume

SaaS

Notification Hubs• Cross-platform Push Notifications• Highly scalable• Managed

•Client SDKs for• Android – GCM and ADM• iOS – APNS• Windows Phone – MPNS• Windows Store – WNS

•Capable of pushing to specific platform or to all at once•Server SDKs for

• REST API• .NET• Node.JS• Java

Cross-Platform Push

•Part of Azure Service Bus•Three levels of scale• Free (1 million)• Basic• Standard

•Millions of push notifications in minutes

Highly Scalable

•Notification Hubs deals with• Storing device registration information• Signing push requests and sending to PNS• Dealing with invalid push ID registrations• Handling templates and tags

• You just need to• Configure your hub and app• Register with the PNS• Pass along the push ID

Managed

1. App registers with provider2. App gets token3. App sends token to Hub4. Push requested5. Hub delivers push to provider6. Provider pushes to device• Hub handles expired tokens

Using Notification Hubs

APNsWNS

Notification Hub

App back-end

iOS app Windows app

MPNS

GCM

ADM

Demo: HubsCreating a HubConfiguring a HubRegister and Push

Tags

•Clients register with set of tags•Tags are strings tied to the Push ID•Requests to push to a Tag will push to connected Push IDs•“Interest based push”

Tags

Tags: Example

Notification Hub

App back-end

Tag:”Tablet”Tag:”Phone”

Tag:”Tablet”

•Conference name•Username•Zip code•Sports team•Band name•Stock ticker

Other Tag Usages

Demo: TagsRegistering with TagsPushing with Tags

• Logic based tag pushed• Social: “All of this group but me”• Group:id && !user:id

•Version and platform• Version:1.0 && platform:iOS

• Events: “Anyone interested in the game”• FollowTeam:SeaHawks || FollowTeam:Broncos || EventInterest:SuperBowl

Tag Expressions

Geo Push

1. Client requests location2. Client uses reverse geocoding service to get zip

(etc)3. Client registers with Hubs using zip as a tag4. Server pushes to zip code5. All clients in that zip code receive notification

Making GeoPush Work

Demo: Geo Push

Templates

•Clients can specify templates when registering•Templates specify format of payload when specific push is sent• If “Message” push is sent, send it in this format { alert : “$info” }

•Enables app backend to send platform independent messages• i.e. push to all the devices with this tag

•Multiple templates per device•Different tags per template

Templates

Demo: TemplatesRegistering with TemplatesPush to all the devices!

Client vs Server Registration

•Client app talks directly with Notification Hub•Sends over the wire• Push ID (Channel URI, Registration ID, Token)• Tags• Templates•Notification Hub Listen Connection String

•Not completely secure

Registering from the Client

•Authenticate the request before registering• Is the user who they say they are?

•Can still specify tags and templates•Great for setting up registrations from a web app•Good for when an app update requires a user’s registrations being updated• i.e. manager adding an employee to a group

Registering from the Server

Registering from the Server

Notification HubApp back-

end

{id}

upsert({id}, channel, tags)

createId()

Demo: Server Registration

Push-to-Sync

•Different support on different platforms•Windows / Windows Phone – Only Lock Screen Apps• iOS – only iOS 7 and up• Android / Kindle

•Useful in scenarios where push isn’t satisfactory• Too much data to fit in payload•Don’t want to send secure information through PNS

Push-to-Sync

Notification Hubs• Cross-platform Push Notifications• Highly scalable• Managed

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Resources• Get a FREE Microsoft Azure Trial Account:

• http://azure.microsoft.com

• Check out Notification Hubs• http://aka.ms/NH

• SDK Source Code on GitHub• https://github.com/Azure/azure-notificationhubs

• Contact Details• http://chrisrisner.com• http://aka.ms/CommonWams• @chrisrisner• chrisner@microsoft.com

Microsoft Azure

Thanks!Questions?

© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

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