For up-to-date product documentation, see the IBM MobileFirst Foundation Developer Center.
Push notifications of application updates
We can configure the Application Center client so that push notifications are sent to users when an update is available for an application in the store.
The Application Center administrator uses push notifications to send notification automatically, to any iOS or Android device. Notifications are sent for updates to favorite applications and of new applications that are deployed on the Application Center server and that are marked as recommended.
Push notification process
Push notifications are sent to a device if the following conditions are met:
- The device has Application Center installed and started it at least one time.
- The user has not disabled push notification for this device for the Application Center in the Settings > Notifications interface.
- The user is allowed to install the application. Such permissions are controlled through the Application Center access rights.
- The application is marked as recommended, or is marked as preferred for the user who is using Application Center on this device. Those flags are set automatically when the user installs an application through Application Center. We can see which applications are marked as preferred by looking at the Application Center Favorites tab on the device.
- The application is not installed on the device or a more recent version is available than the version that is installed on the device.
The first time that the Application Center client starts on a device, the user might be asked whether to accept incoming push notifications. This is the case for iOS mobile devices. The push notification feature does not work when the service is disabled on the mobile device.
iOS and modern Android operating system versions offer a way to switch this service on or off on a per application basis.
Refer to our device vendor to learn how to configure your mobile device for push notifications.
- Configure push notifications for application updates
Configure the Application Center services to communicate with Google or Apple push notification servers.- Configure the Application Center server for connection to Google Cloud Messaging
Enable Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) for our application.- Configure the Application Center server for connection to Apple Push Notification Services
Configure your iOS project for Apple Push Notification Services (APNs).- Build a version of the mobile client that does not depend on the GCM API
We can remove the dependency on Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) API from the Android version of the client to comply with constraints in some territories. Push notifications do not work on this version of the client.
Parent topic: Application Center
Related concepts:
Marking or unmarking a favorite app
Related reference: