How to Enable Unified Push Notifications in Native and HTML5 Hybrid Mobile Apps

© 2011 Worklight, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein is the proprietary and confidential information of Worklight.

How to Enable Unified Push Notifications in Native and HTML5 Hybrid Mobile Apps

Amit Ben-Sheffer, Director of Product Management

Yonni Harif, Head of Marketing

Agenda

Worklight Introduction

Business case for Push Notifications

Push Notifications Services

Cross-platform Challenges

Worklight Unified Push Notifications Framework

Q & A

2

Worklight Introduction

3

Worklight is an open and advanced mobile app platform for developing, running and managing HTML5, hybrid and native applications for smartphones and tablets.

Worklight Vision

Open platform, built around HTML5 & supporting hybrid apps

Focus on new devices and OS’s and their unique capabilities

Cater to high-end enterprise needs regarding app capabilities, delivery, integration, security, scale and management

Handle the entire lifecycle of mobile apps

4

Provide the best platform in the market for enterprises to develop, run and manage smartphone and tablet apps

Push Notifications Defined

“Notifications are "pushed" by the event producer component (the event "source"), they are not "pulled" by the event consumer component. The producer decides when to send the notification, because it knows about the event before the consumer does.”

(Gartner: Hype Cycle for Application Architecture, 2011)

5

Key Elements of Push Notifications

Trigger • Behavior-based

• Pre-defined

• Rule-driven

6



• Pre-defined

• Rule-driven

Content type • Universal versus Personalized

• Open versus Protected

• Lean versus Detailed

• Time-sensitive versus Any-time

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• Pre-defined

• Rule-driven

Content type • Universal versus Personalized

• Open versus Protected

• Lean versus Detailed

• Time-sensitive versus Any-time

User behavior • Read only

• Read/Write

• Act-Outside-the-App

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Trigger • Behavior-based • Pre-defined • Rule-driven

Content type • Universal versus Personalized • Open versus Protected • Lean versus Detailed • Time-sensitive versus Any-time

User behavior • Read only • Read/Write • Act-Outside-the-App

Nice to have • Analytics, feedback, etc

9

Business Case for Push Notifications

User engagement is critical to business success and mobile plays a big role in this process

Push notifications are an expression of app-based user engagement

Push notifications have a measurable impact on mobile app success and user behavior

Inherent IT challenges in enabling mobile Push across operating systems and devices can and should be overcome

10

Use Cases for Push Notifications

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Business-to-Consumer Business-to-Business Business-to-Employee

Engagement Content, social, product

fulfillment Content, social, product

fulfillment Content, social

Self-service / Productivity

Financial, scheduling, customer service

Delivery, billing CRM, ERP, BPM

Revenue Product price / availability

alerts, special offers Special offers, inventory

alerts

Cost savings Delivery, billing ERP, BPM

Many examples across all verticals – financial services, insurance, healthcare, retail, travel, manufacturing, Pharma, technology, government, and more.

Availability of Mobile Push Notifications Services

Apple iOS 3

Google Android 2.2

RIM BlackBerry 5

Microsoft Windows Phone 7

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Subscribing to Notifications

13

User Experience – iOS

14

Receiving a Notification on iOS

15

Device is locked or on home screen

Another app is in the foreground

User clicks View in the notification dialog box

User clicks item in the Notification Center Notification

arrives to device

Dialog, sound, badge, notification

center (user configuration)

iOS invokes app's callback

Dialog, sound, badge, notification

center (user configuration)

Destination app is in the foreground

User Experience – Android

16

Receiving a Notification on Android

17

User clicks item in Notification Center Notification

arrives to device

Android updates notification

center

Android invokes app's callback

Otherwise

Destination app is in the foreground

Benefits of Push Notifications

• Users need to subscribe to receive notifications User Control

• Users receive notifications also when app is not active Ease of Use

• No need to issue constant queries from app

• Reduces development overhead

• Saves battery usage and communication fees Efficiency

18

Notification Payload and Options

Purpose: Signal to user or app that something new happened

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Basic scenario User to take an action App to take an action

Payload size 256 bytes 1024 bytes

Payload structure Custom key-value pairs Custom key-value pairs

Badge Appears on app icon Appears on notification icon

Sound Settable by Server Not by default (Programmable by app)

Dialog box Settable by Server Not by default (Programmable by app or by third-party apps)

Delivery of Notifications

Only unicast; No batch delivery, multicast or broadcast

Quality of Service • Queue size: One message waiting per app per device

• No guarantied delivery

• No delivery notification

• Delivery expiry: only for iOS

Quota • iOS: Unspecified

• Android: 200K (can ask for more)

20

Communication Protocol

Connection Streaming TCP/IP socket HTTP POST

Security SSL SSL

Content Binary JSON

Trust Certificate provisioned by Apple

Gmail account required per server

Connectivity problems - Server must implement exponential back off upon receiving HTTP 503

"Device not found" errors Server must query asynchronous feedback service and remove obsolete device tokens

Response to POST request contains indicates whether device is obsolete or not

21

Limitations and How to Overcome Them

Limitations • Short message size

• No guarantee that delivery chain is secure

• Delivery

• Generally not guaranteed

• Users can always sign out inadvertently

• Users can disable push to save battery

Overcoming Limitations • Notify that something changed, have app securely pull information

• Alternatives: SMS + e-mail, phone call

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23

Worklight Architecture

Back-end System Back-end System

Unified Push Notifications Framework by Worklight


Polling Adapters

Message-based

Adapters

Unified Push API

Notification State

Database

User-Device

Database

iOS Dispatcher

Android Dispatcher

BlackBerry Dispatcher

Windows Phone

Dispatcher

SMS Dispatcher

Apple Push Servers (APN)

Google Push

Servers (C2DM)

RIM Push Servers

Microsoft Push

Servers

SMS/MMS Brokers Administrative Console

Worklight Client-side

Push Services


Push Services


Push Services


Push Services

iOS Push API

Android Push API

BlackBerry Push API

Windows Push API

Broker API

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Polling Adapters

Message-based

Adapters

Unified Push API

Notification State

Database

User-Device

Database

iOS Dispatcher

Android Dispatcher


Windows Phone

Dispatcher

SMS Dispatcher


Google Push

Servers (C2DM)

RIM Push Servers

Microsoft Push

Servers



Push Services


Push Services


Push Services


Push Services

iOS Push API

Android Push API

BlackBerry Push API

Windows Push API

Broker API

25




Polling Adapters

Message-based

Adapters

Unified Push API

Notification State

Database

User-Device

Database

iOS Dispatcher

Android Dispatcher


Windows Phone

Dispatcher

SMS Dispatcher


Google Push

Servers (C2DM)

RIM Push Servers

Microsoft Push

Servers



Push Services


Push Services


Push Services


Push Services

iOS Push API

Android Push API

BlackBerry Push API

Windows Push API

Broker API

26




Polling Adapters

Message-based

Adapters

Unified Push API

Notification State

Database

User-Device

Database

iOS Dispatcher

Android Dispatcher


Windows Phone

Dispatcher

SMS Dispatcher


Google Push

Servers (C2DM)

RIM Push Servers

Microsoft Push

Servers



Push Services


Push Services


Push Services


Push Services

iOS Push API

Android Push API

BlackBerry Push API

Windows Push API

Broker API

27

Push Notifications Demo

Source code and running instructions available on http://worklight.com/download/get-started/4.2/

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http://worklight.com/download/get-started/4.2/







Demo Scenario

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login

subscribe

Send notification Receive notification C2DM

A

B

C D

Demo: (A) Login

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Demo: (B) Subscribe

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Demo: (C) Send

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Demo: (D) Receive

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Subscribing to Notifications

5. Handle Subscription Changes at

Server

4. Manage Subscriptions

3. Per Event Source:

2. Get Subscription

Details

1. Connect to Worklight

Server

Login Is ready to subscribe

Already subscribed?

Register callback for notifications

Allow unsubscribing

Custom subscription removal logic

Not yet subscribed?

Allow subscribing

Custom subscription

logic

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Custom implementation

Invocation of Worklight API

Pushing Notifications

Get message from data

source

Format notification; set badge, sound, and dialog box

Identify the destination

user

Get user's subscriptions

(one per device) for

the data source

Send notification

per subscribed

device

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• Actively poll back-end or wait for back-end events

• Use any adapter: REST, SOAP, JDBC, JMS

• Single messages or batch

Custom implementation

Invocation of Worklight API

Flexible Push Notification Framework

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Multiple users logging into the same app

Multiple event sources from same back-end

Many-to-many relationship between event sources and apps

One application multiple devices Custom subscription management

Scalable Push Framework

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Event Source

APNS

C2DM

…

• All or some Worklight nodes can process data from the same event source

• Integration available for any back-end communication protocol

• Nodes communicate with APNS and C2DM using same credentials for each service

Network zone open only for outgoing requests

Network zone open only for incoming requests

Segregation of Subscription and Push

38

Event Source

APNS

C2DM

Subscription database

For More Information

39

Resource Location

30-day Software Trial www.worklight.com/download

Online Training www.worklight.com/download/get-started

Documentation www.worklight.com/download/documentation

Whitepapers www.worklight.com/resources/product-resources

Webinars www.worklight.com/resources/webinars-and-tools

Additional Info [email protected]

http://www.worklight.com/download

http://www.worklight.com/download/get-started



http://www.worklight.com/download/documentation

http://www.worklight.com/resources/product-resources



http://www.worklight.com/resources/webinars-and-tools





Technology

How to Enable Unified Push Notifications in Native and HTML5 Hybrid Mobile Apps