Node APN

---

A Node.js module for interfacing with the Apple Push Notification service.

---

• Features
• Installation
• Quick Start
  • Load in the module
  • Connecting
    • Connecting through an HTTP proxy
    • Using a pool of http/2 connections
  • Sending a notification
  • Managing channels
  • Sending a broadcast notification

Features

• Based on HTTP/2 based provider API
• Maintains a connection to the server to maximize notification batching and throughput.
• Automatically re-sends unsent notifications if an error occurs

Installation

$ npm install @parse/node-apn --save

Quick Start

This readme is a brief introduction; please refer to the full documentation in doc/ for more details.

If you have previously used v1.x and wish to learn more about what's changed in v2.0, please see What's New

Load in the module

var apn = require('@parse/node-apn');

Connecting

Create a new connection to the Apple Push Notification provider API, passing a dictionary of options to the constructor. You must supply your token credentials in the options.

var options = {
  token: {
    key: "path/to/APNsAuthKey_XXXXXXXXXX.p8",
    keyId: "key-id",
    teamId: "developer-team-id"
  },
  production: false
};

const apnProvider = new apn.Provider(options);

By default, the provider will connect to the sandbox unless the environment variable NODE_ENV=production is set.

For more information about configuration options, consult the provider documentation.

Help with preparing the key and certificate files for connection can be found in the [wiki][certificateWiki]

Warning

You should only create one Provider per-process for each certificate/key pair you have. You do not need to create a new Provider for each notification. If you are only sending notifications to one app, there is no need for more than one Provider.

If you are constantly creating Provider instances in your app, make sure to call Provider.shutdown() when you are done with each provider to release its resources and memory.

Connecting through an HTTP proxy

If you need to connect through an HTTP proxy, you simply need to provide the proxy: {host, port} option when creating the provider. For example:

var options = {
  token: {
    key: "path/to/APNsAuthKey_XXXXXXXXXX.p8",
    keyId: "key-id",
    teamId: "developer-team-id"
  },
  proxy: {
    host: "192.168.10.92",
    port: 8080
  }
  production: false
};

const apnProvider = new apn.Provider(options);

The provider will first send an HTTP CONNECT request to the specified proxy in order to establish an HTTP tunnel. Once established, it will create a new secure connection to the Apple Push Notification provider API through the tunnel.

Using a pool of http/2 connections

Because http/2 already uses multiplexing, you probably don't need to use more than one client unless you are hitting http/2 concurrent request limits.

var options = {
  // Round robin pool with 2 clients. More can be used if needed.
  clientCount: 2,
  token: {
    key: "path/to/APNsAuthKey_XXXXXXXXXX.p8",
    keyId: "key-id",
    teamId: "developer-team-id"
  },
  proxy: {
    host: "192.168.10.92",
    port: 8080
  },
  production: false
};

const apnProvider = new apn.MultiProvider(options);

Sending a notification

To send a notification, you will first need a device token from your app as a string.

let deviceToken = "a9d0ed10e9cfd022a61cb08753f49c5a0b0dfb383697bf9f9d750a1003da19c7"

Create a notification object, configuring it with the relevant parameters (See the notification documentation for more details.)

let note = new apn.Notification();

note.expiry = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 3600; // Expires 1 hour from now.
note.badge = 3;
note.sound = "ping.aiff";
note.alert = "\uD83D\uDCE7 \u2709 You have a new message";
note.payload = {'messageFrom': 'John Appleseed'};
note.topic = "<your-app-bundle-id>";

Send the notification to the API with send, which returns a promise.

try {
  const result = apnProvider.send(note, deviceToken);
  // see documentation for an explanation of result
} catch(error) {
  // Handle error...
}

This will result in the following notification payload being sent to the device.

{"messageFrom":"John Appelseed","aps":{"badge":3,"sound":"ping.aiff","alert":"\uD83D\uDCE7 \u2709 You have a new message"}}

Create a Live Activity notification object and configure it with the relevant parameters (See the notification documentation for more details.)

let note = new apn.Notification();

note.topic = "<your-app-bundle-id>.push-type.liveactivity";
note.expiry = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 3600; // Expires 1 hour from now.
note.pushType = "liveactivity",
note.badge = 3;
note.sound = "ping.aiff";
note.alert = "\uD83D\uDCE7 \u2709 You have a new message";
note.payload = {'messageFrom': 'John Appleseed'};
note.relevanceScore = 75,
note.timestamp = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000); // Current time
note.staleDate = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + (8 * 3600); // Expires 8 hour from now.
note.event = "update"
note.contentState = {}

Send the notification to the API with send, which returns a promise.

try {
  const result = await apnProvider.send(note, deviceToken);
  // see the documentation for an explanation of the result
} catch (error) {
  // Handle error...
}

This will result in the following notification payload being sent to the device.

{"messageFrom":"John Appleseed","aps":{"badge":3,"sound":"ping.aiff","alert":"\uD83D\uDCE7 \u2709 You have a new message", "relevance-score":75,"timestamp":1683129662,"stale-date":1683216062,"event":"update","content-state":{}}}

Manage Channels

Starting in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 Live Activities can be used to broadcast push notifications over channels. To do so, you will need your apps' bundleId.

let bundleId = "com.node.apn";

Create a notification object, configuring it with the relevant parameters (See the notification documentation for more details.)

let note = new apn.Notification();

note.requestId = "0309F412-AA57-46A8-9AC6-B5AECA8C4594"; // Optional
note.payload = {'message-storage-policy': '1', 'push-type': 'liveactivity'}; // Required

Create a channel with manageChannels and the create action, which returns a promise.

try {
  const result = await apnProvider.manageChannels(note, bundleId, 'create');
  // see the documentation for an explanation of the result
} catch (error) {
  // Handle error...
}

If the channel is created successfully, the result will look like the following:

{ 
  apns-request-id: '0309F412-AA57-46A8-9AC6-B5AECA8C4594', 
  apns-channel-id: 'dHN0LXNyY2gtY2hubA==' // The new channel
}

Similarly, manageChannels has additional actions that allow you to read, readAll, and delete channels. The read and delete actions require similar information to the create example above, with the exception that they require note.channelId to be populated. To request all active channel id's, you can use the readAll action:

try {
  const result = await apnProvider.manageChannels(note, bundleId, 'readAll');
  // see the documentation for an explanation of the result
} catch (error) {
  // Handle error...
}

After the promise is fulfilled, result will look like the following:

{ 
  apns-request-id: 'some id value', 
  channels: ['dHN0LXNyY2gtY2hubA==', 'eCN0LXNyY2gtY2hubA==' ...] // A list of active channels
}

Further information about managing channels can be found in Apple's documentation.

Sending A Broadcast Notification

Starting in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, after a channel is created using manageChannels, broadcast push notifications can be sent to any device subscribed to the respective channelId created for a bundleId. A broadcast notification looks similar to a standard Live Activity notification mentioned above but requires note.channelId to be populated. An example is below:

let note = new apn.Notification();

note.channelId = "dHN0LXNyY2gtY2hubA=="; // Required
note.expiry = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 3600; // Expires 1 hour from now.
note.pushType = "liveactivity",
note.badge = 3;
note.sound = "ping.aiff";
note.alert = "\uD83D\uDCE7 \u2709 You have a new message";
note.payload = {'messageFrom': 'John Appleseed'};
note.relevanceScore = 75,
note.timestamp = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000); // Current time
note.staleDate = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + (8 * 3600); // Expires 8 hour from now.
note.event = "update"
note.contentState = {}

Send the broadcast notification to the API with broadcast, which returns a promise.

try {
  const result = await apnProvider.broadcast(note, bundleId);
  // see documentation for an explanation of result
} catch (error) {
  // Handle error...
}

Further information about broadcast notifications can be found in Apple's documentation.