@alqatech/node-apn-http2

A Node.js module for interfacing with the Apple Push Notification service using NATIVE node.js http2 API (requires node v10+)

This package is supposed to be drop-in compatible with node-apn, however, only token based credentials are supported (p8).

Installation

yarn is the preferred installation method:

$ yarn add @alqatech/node-apn-http2

Load in the module

var apn = require('@alqatech/node-apn-http2');

var options = {
  token: {
    key: "path/to/APNsAuthKey_XXXXXXXXXX.p8",
    keyId: "key-id",
    teamId: "developer-team-id"
  },
  production: false,
  pingInterval: 500000, // Change Ping time according to your environment 
                        // Apple may stop responding if Ping interval is too high 
  hideExperimentalHttp2Warning: true // the http2 module in node is experimental and will log 
                                     // ExperimentalWarning: The http2 module is an experimental API. 
                                     // to the console unless this is set to true
};

var apnProvider = new apn.Provider(options);

By default, the provider will connect to the sandbox unless the environment variable NODE_ENV=production is set.

Sending a notification

To send a notification you will first need a device token from your app as a string

let deviceToken = "a9d0ed10e9cfd022a61cb08753f49c5a0b0dfb383697bf9f9d750a1003da19c7"

var note = new apn.Notification();

note.expiry = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 3600; // Expires 1 hour from now.
note.badge = 3;
note.sound = "ping.aiff";
note.alert = "\uD83D\uDCE7 \u2709 You have a new message";
note.payload = {'messageFrom': 'John Appleseed'};
note.topic = "<your-app-bundle-id>";

Send the notification to the API with send, which returns a promise.

apnProvider.send(note, deviceToken).then( (result) => {
  // see documentation for an explanation of result
});

This will result in the the following notification payload being sent to the device

{"messageFrom":"John Appleseed","aps":{"badge":3,"sound":"ping.aiff","alert":"\uD83D\uDCE7 \u2709 You have a new message"}}

You should only create one Provider per-process for each certificate/key pair you have. You do not need to create a new Provider for each notification. If you are only sending notifications to one app then there is no need for more than one Provider.

If you are constantly creating Provider instances in your app, make sure to call Provider.shutdown() when you are done with each provider to release its resources and memory.

Troubleshooting

You are encouraged to read the extremely informative Troubleshooting Push Notifications Tech Note in the first instance, in case your query is answered there.

History

v1.2.3

Ping Interval time is now configurable to avoid connection lost

v1.2.2

Updated dependencies jsonwebtoken to version 8.5.1 and typescript to version 4.2.4

v1.2.1

Peter Verhage's enhancements:

Sends an HTTP/2 ping to the APN gateway every 10 minutes to ensure the active session is still open. If not, it will attempt to reconnect.
Ensures that we are connected before creating requests. This avoids creating excessive listeners.

Vlad Lasky's enhancements:

Added support for the apns-push-type attribute, now required for iOS 13.
The apns-priority attribute value is now correctly set.

v1.2.0

return potential error response body as object instead of string (fixes #4)

v1.1.0

add option to hide "ExperimentalWarning: The http2 module is an experimental API." message

v1.0.1

fix base64 encoded p8 token string not being correctly identified as a string

v1.0.0

returned promise from .send() is now compatible with the one that node-apn normally returned