push-notifications

This app demonstrates the web-push-libs/web-push NodeJS library which facilitates sending web push notifications with encrypted payloads via a custom backend.

Demo

Demo the live application here

Getting started

Client

The client-side app is a simple static site rooted at docs/. The reason the site lives in the docs/ folder is because GitHub pages only allows you to serve static pages from the root or docs/ folder — custom folders like frontend/ or client/ are not supported.

Server

git clone git@github.com:domfarolino/push-notifications.git
cp .env.example .env # Copy environment variable structure
npm install
npm start # Run the server

To run the server locally you must export the necessary environment variables. Environment variables should appear in the .env file, and below is an explanation of what each variables is used for:

• PORT: Defines the port on which the server will run.
• VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY: Defines the public key generated via node web-push generate-vapid-keys
• VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY: Defines the private key generated via node web-push generate-vapid-keys
• MONGO_URL: Push notification credentials generated by the client are persisted in MongoDB. Use your mongo URL to save client-generated credentials.
• API_KEY: Used to secure some routes local to this application, such as /credentials.

When running the server locally, be sure to update this.backendURL in docs/js/main.js to point to your local server.

Push Notification Screenshots

Chrome

Firefox