via Dashboard (Swift)

send ios push notifications from your parse server swift introduction this section explains how you can send push notifications using parse dashboard through back4app this is how it will look like at any time, you can access the complete project built with this tutorial at our github repository to complete this quickstart, you need xcode an app created at back4app follow the new parse app tutorial to learn how to create a parse app at back4app an ios app connected to back4app note follow the install parse sdk (swift) tutorial to create an xcode project connected to back4app a paid apple developer account 1 create your push certificates in the apple developer center pay attention to the steps below because you need to get them right in the exact order if pushes are not being received there isn’t much we can do to debug besides going over the steps again go to the target and go to capabilities click on push notifications then turn push notifications on this creates your app id and sets your entitlements 2\ go to the apple developer center https //developer apple com/ and login to your account 3\ click on certificates, identifiers & profiles 4\ in the certificates section hit the plus sign choose to create a apple push notification certificate for sandboxes 5\ pick your app id that matches the app id used in your current xcode project 6\ now you will be asked for a certificate signing request or csr you will generate your csr from your mac computer 7\ on your mac computer open your keychain access 8\ next, request a certificate from a certificate authority 9\ pick your user email, then make sure you save your certificate to disk save it on a folder on your desktop called pushcerts 10\ go back to the apple developer center upload your csr and hit continue 11\ download your development apn certificate into the same folder called pushcerts call it apn dev 12\ let’s start the process over this time we will create production push certificates you need both for testing and release select apple push notification service ssl (sanbox & production) 13\ upload your csr your previously created and hit continue 14\ download your production apn certificate into the same folder called pushcerts call it apn prod 15\ at this point you should have 3 files in your pushcerts folder double click on your apn prod and your apn dev files to add them to your keychain 16\ open the keychain and find the files in the keychain click on each on and hit export you will want to export them as a p12 file into your pushcerts folder name the development one cert dev pushcertificates p12 and name the production cert as prod pushcertificate p12 17\ it will ask you add a password to your exported file just leave it blank you will have to enter your master key to sign the certificate though, and thats fine 18\ now that you have added your p12 files your folder should look like this if you have all these files in your folder you can go on to step 2 if you don’t have any of these files go back to the beginning and figure out where you missed a step 2 adding your p12 certificates to back4app you’re almost done aren’t you excited? go to back4app website , log in, find your app and click on ios push notification ios push notification 2\ upload the dev cert and the prod cert and hit send for each 3\ after you’ve uploaded both certificates your screen should look like this 3 setting up your xcode project to receive push notifications open your project’s appdelegate swift file to create a push installation object add the usernotifications framework at the top of the file appdelegate swift 2\ add the code below inside of the didfinishlaunchingwithoptions function, and make sure it is before ‘return true’ statement appdelegate swift 3\ add the following code snippets to your appdelegate swift file below the didfinishlaunchingwithoptions function this code will issue a request for push notifications permissions when the app first launches make sure to say yes to this request or your app will not be able to receive pushes it will also handle the resulting token when the request is approved and save it as an installation object on back4app appdelegate swift 1 func getnotificationsettings() { 2 unusernotificationcenter current() getnotificationsettings { (settings) in 3 print("notification settings \\(settings)") 4 guard settings authorizationstatus == authorized else { return } 5 uiapplication shared registerforremotenotifications() 6 } 7 } 8 9 func application( application uiapplication, 10 didregisterforremotenotificationswithdevicetoken devicetoken data) { 11 createinstallationonparse(devicetokendata devicetoken) 12 } 13 14 func application( application uiapplication, 15 didfailtoregisterforremotenotificationswitherror error error) { 16 print("failed to register \\(error)") 17 } 18 19 func createinstallationonparse(devicetokendata\ data){ 20 if let installation = pfinstallation current(){ 21 installation setdevicetokenfrom(devicetokendata) 22 installation saveinbackground { 23 (success bool, error error?) in 24 if (success) { 25 print("you have successfully saved your push installation to back4app!") 26 } else { 27 if let myerror = error{ 28 print("error saving parse installation \\(myerror localizeddescription)") 29 }else{ 30 print("uknown error") 31 } 32 } 33 } 34 } 35 } 4\ test it by running your app you should see this in your simulator 5\ from here on out you must use a physical device, an iphone or ipad push notifications do not work with the xcode simulator if you do not have a physical device you cannot go any further in the tutorial once you have your physical device attached to your mac computer and xcode, try running the app on your device through xcode when you see the push permissions request hit approve 4 test your app go to back4app website log in, find your app and click on dashboard dashboard first check that your device’s installation record is visible in installation table 3\ then click on push push > send new push send new push and create an audience for your push notification 4\ write your message and look at the preview by clicking at ios ios option 5\ if you have already reviewed the push notification and you want to send, click on send push send push you may explore the other options for push notification at parse dashboard parse dashboard there, it’s also possible to look at past pushes past pushes you sent and the audiences audiences you created for them it’s done! at this stage, you can send push notifications using parse dashboard parse dashboard through back4app!