How to Enable Rich Push Notifications for Store Versions on iOS (Notification Service/ Notification Content Extension)

Purpose 

This manual will show you step by step how to setup the options:

i- To send push notifications to Store/Live versions on iOS (once an app is already in the store)

ii- To receive push notifications with additional Rich Media (i.e. video, GIF, etc...).

iii- To send pushes that appear with a Custom UI 

SUPPORT:

Please note, in order to do the following steps you will need to have access to the Apple Developer Program for the account connected to the app. 

*Note: Should you wish to enable and send rich push Notifications for Debug Enterprise versions on iOS, please click HERE.

Notification Service Extension -

• Adding a Notification Service Extension to your app, allows you to send Rich pushes that contain images, animated gifs, and video
  • For example:

Notification Content Extension -

* NOTE: Currently Infrastructure preparation only!

 We currently Support the Infrastructure for Notification Content Extensions, but it is Not Yet part of the implementation in the Urban Airship or Google Firebase plugins, and thus cannot be used de-facto.

• Adding the Notification Content Extension to your app, allows you to Customise the UI appearance of your iOS app’s notification alerts, to have a different interface than the default UI.
  
  • For example:

Step by Step Instructions

• Apple Developer Program: Create the app ID and provisioning profile for the store and debug app. 

1. Login to the Apple Developer Program  

2. Click on "Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles" 

3. In the left panel, under "Identifiers" click on "App IDs" 

4. If this is a brand new app you will need to create 2 app IDs - one for the app itself and a second for the notification service extension (Store version) - if this is an existing app you will only need to create one for the notification service extension 

5. Create a new ID by clicking on the plus sign in the top right corner 

6. Fill in the following fields accordingly:

   a) For the "App ID Description" write -

   <MyApp> NotificationServiceExtension /OR/ <MyApp> NotificationContentExtension
   
   b) For the "Bundle ID" write -"<main app bundle>.NotificationServiceExtension" /OR/ "<main app bundle>.NotificationContentExtension"

* If you get an error, try to manually type in the bundle ID rather than copying and paste it


7. In Application Services enable "App Groups" and "Push Notifications" and then click Continue 

8. If you are editing an existing app ID for the main app The following message may appear, click “OK” (if the message does not appear disregard this step) 

9. Confirm all the services are enabled ("In-App Purchases" and "Game Center" are enabled by default) Register the ID and then click  "Done" 

a) In the left panel, under "Identifiers" click on "App Groups" 

b) Create a new App Group by clicking on the plus sign in the top right corner 

c) Fill in the following fields accordingly: 

   i- For the "App Group Description" write - "Myapp Group"

 ii-  For the "Identifier" write - "group.<main app bundle>", click Continue, then click Register and then click "Done"

10. Return back to the "App IDs" section.

For both the store app App ID and the Notification Service Extension app App ID / Notification Content App ID, do the following steps: 

11. Click on the app and select "Edit" 

12. Next to the "App Groups" field select "Edit" 

13. Mark the group you just created in steps 7 - 11

14) Click continue --> assign --> done

15) In the left panel, under "Provisioning Profiles" click on "Distribution"  

*Note:  If you already have a Provisioning Profile created for the store app search for it. The certificate will be invalid.  Click on and certificate and select "Edit" -->> Generate -->> Done

16) You now need to create a new Provisioning Profile for the Notification Service Extension App by clicking on the plus sign in the top right corner

17) Under "Distribution" select "App Store" and continue

18) In the drop down menu search for the "My App Notification Service Extension" /OR/ "My App Notification Content Extension" App ID and continue.

19) Select the same distribution certificate you used for the main app's provisioning profile and continue 

20) If the "Entitlements" screen appears, keep entitlements as "default" and continue (if the screen does not appear disregard this step) 

a) Name the certificate "My App Notification Service Extension" /OR/  "My App Notification Content Extension"and continue 

b) Select "Download" and done. (Save the downloaded provisioning profile in a safe place that you can access later on) 

Airship: Create an Airship project for the main Store App

If your app does not already have an Airship Account please contact support to create a live account on Airship.

See this doc for additional instructions.  

Zapp: Update the Airship plugin parameters 

1. Login to Zapp

2. On the relevant version go the plugin configurations and add the "Urban Airship Plugin" to your version if its not already there. 

3. SUPPORT - Confirm the iOS and Plugin versions are at least:

   • iOS SDK 10.2.0, Plugin version 6.1.1 (for Notification Service Extensions)
   • iOS SDK 14.1.9, Plugin version 11.0.1 (for Notification Content Extensions)
     

4. Insert the store_app_key and store_app_secret, from the Airship dashboard. This is used for sending pushes to the Main Store App.

5. Upload the “Notification Service Extension Provisioning profile” that you created above in the “notification_extension_provisioning_profile” field.

6. Click save and run a new build.

   1. Make sure to insert the "normal" Release P12, Certificate and Provision profile for the creation of the Release build in Zapp (and not the Enterprise ones):

      

To learn how to enable Rich Push Notifications for Debug Enterprise versions on iOS, please click HERE.