Phonegap Parse.com Plugin

Phonegap 3.x plugin for Parse.com push service.

Parse.com's Javascript API has no mechanism to register a device for or receive push notifications, which makes it fairly useless for PN in Phonegap/Cordova. This plugin bridges the gap by leveraging native Parse.com SDKs to register/receive PNs and allow a few essential methods to be accessible from Javascript.

How Is This Fork Different?

API

This plugin exposes the following native Android API push services to JS:

• register( options, successCB, errorCB ) -- register the device to receive PN
• getInstallationId( successCB, errorCB )
• getSubscriptions( successCB, errorCB )
• subscribe( channel, successCB, errorCB )
• unsubscribe( channel, successCB, errorCB )

Made ParsePushPlugin inherit from Parse.Events, thus making this possible in JS.

ParsePushPlugin.on('receivePN', function(pn){
  console.log('yo i got this push notification:' + JSON.stringify(pn));
});

ParsePushPlugin.on('receivePN:chat', function(pn){
  console.log('yo i can also use custom event to keep things like chat modularized');
});

ParsePushPlugin.on('openPN', function(pn){
  //you can do things like navigating to a different view here
  console.log('Yo, I get this when the user clicks open a notification from the tray');
});

Multiple notifications

Prevent flooding the notification tray by retaining only the last PN with the same title field. For messages without the title field, the application name is used. A count of unopened PNs is also shown.

Foreground vs. Background

Only add an entry to the notification tray if the application is not running in foreground. The actual PN payload is always forwarded to your javascript when it is received.

Navigate to a specific view when user opens a notification

Simply add a urlHash field in your PN payload that contains either a url hash, i.e. #myhash, or a url parameter string, i.e. ?param1=a&param2=b. If urlHash starts with "#" or "?", this plugin will pass it along as an extra in the android intent to launch your MainActivity.

For the cold start case, simply do this in your MainActivity.onCreate():

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
    //
    // your code...
    //

    String urlHash = intent.hasExtra("urlHash") ? intent.getStringExtra("urlHash") : "";
    loadUrl(launchUrl + urlHash);
}

If your app is already running (in the background, for example), and you want the PN open action to trigger navigation to a different page/view within your app, just set a handler for the openPN event, like so:

ParsePushPlugin.on('openPN', function(pn){
  if(pn.urlHash){
    window.location.hash = hash;
  }
});

Platforms

For Android, Parse SDK v1.8.1 is used. This means GCM support. No more background process PushService tapping device battery to duplicate what GCM already provides.

I've only worked on the Android support for this fork. The iOS side is not yet up to date.

Installation

cordova plugin add https://github.com/EastCoastProduct/parse-push-plugin

####Android Setup: Phonegap/Cordova doesn't define a custom android.app.Application, it only defines an android Activity. With an Activity alone, we should be able to receive PNs just fine while our app is running. However, if a PN arrives when the app is not running, the app will be automatically invoked, and this plugin's ParsePushPluginReceiver runs before the Activity class or any javascript code gets a chance to call Parse.initialize(). The result is a crash dialog. To fix this, do the following:

1. Define a custom Application class that calls Parse.initialize() in its onCreate method. This way, the Parse subsystem gets initialized before the PN-handling code runs. Crash avoided. In your application's Java source path, e.g., platforms/android/src/com/example/app, create a file named MainApplication.java and define it this way

   package com.example.app;  //REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR package name
   
   import android.app.Application;
   import com.parse.Parse;
   import com.parse.ParseInstallation;
   
   public class MainApplication extends Application {
       @Override
       public void onCreate() {
           super.onCreate();
           Parse.initialize(this, "YOUR_PARSE_APPID", "YOUR_PARSE_CLIENT_KEY");
           ParseInstallation.getCurrentInstallation().saveInBackground();
       }
   }

2. Now register MainApplication in AndroidManifest.xml so it's used instead of the default. In the <application> tag, add the attribute android:name="MainApplication". Obviously, you don't have to name your application class this way, but you have to use the same name in 1 and 2.

####Android Without GCM support: If you only care about GCM devices, you're good to go. Move on to the Usage section.

The setup above is not enough for non-GCM devices. To support them, ParseBroadcastReceiver must be setup to work properly. This receiver takes care of establishing a persistent connection that will handle PNs without GCM. Follow these steps for ParseBroadcastReceiver setup:

1. Add the following to your AndroidManifest.xml, inside the <application> tag

   <receiver android:name="com.parse.ParseBroadcastReceiver">
      <intent-filter>
         <action android:name="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />
         <action android:name="android.intent.action.USER_PRESENT" />
      </intent-filter>
   </receiver>

2. Add the following permission to AndroidManifest.xml, as a sibling of the <application> tag

   <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED" />

Usage

Registering device

Once the device is ready, call ParsePushPlugin.register(). This will register the device with Parse, you should see this reflected in your Parse control panel. Once registered, the ParsePushPlugin object will trigger the receivePN event and optionally the receivePN:customEvt event. customEvt is the string value of a special key in your push notification. You can set that key in register() with the option eventKey.

ParsePushPlugin.register({eventKey:"myEventKey"}, //will trigger receivePN[pnObj.myEventKey]
function() {
  alert('successfully registered device!');
}, function(e) {
  alert('error registering device: ' + e);
});

During initial setup, it may be useful to confirm that your push notification is hooked up properly for your app before having to tinker with the Android setup steps involving MainApplication.java. You can do so by adding the keys appId:"PARSE_APPID", clientKey:"PARSE_CLIENT_KEY" to the first parameter of register()

Registering device

After the registration is completed successfully (it's successCB has been called), you can do any of the following

ParsePushPlugin.getInstallationId(function(id) {
  alert(id);
}, function(e) {
  alert('error');
});

ParsePushPlugin.getSubscriptions(function(subscriptions) {
  alert(subscriptions);
}, function(e) {
  alert('error');
});

ParsePushPlugin.subscribe('SampleChannel', function(msg) {
  alert('OK');
}, function(e) {
  alert('error');
});

ParsePushPlugin.unsubscribe('SampleChannel', function(msg) {
  alert('OK');
}, function(e) {
  alert('error');
});

Receiving push notifications

Anywhere in your code, you can set a listener for notification events using the ParsePushPlugin object (it extends Parse.Events).

if(window.ParsePushPlugin){
  ParsePushPlugin.on('receivePN', function(pn){
    alert('yo i got this push notification:' + JSON.stringify(pn));
  });

  //
  //you can also listen to your own custom subevents if you registered eventKey
  //
  ParsePushPlugin.on('receivePN:chat', chatEventHandler);
  ParsePushPlugin.on('receivePN:serverMaintenance', serverMaintenanceHandler);
}

Silent Notifications

For Android, a silent notification can be sent by omitting the title and alert fields in the JSON payload. This means the push notification will not be shown in the system tray, but its JSON payload will still be delivered to your receivePN and receivePN:customEvt handlers.

Compatibility

Phonegap/Cordova > 3.0.0