Firebase messaging sendToDevice() new API? - node.js

The "old / version 8" JavaScript API for Firebase messaging had a function for sending a notification to the mobile device:
admin.messaging().sendToDevice(...)
The "new / modular / version 9" JavaScript API fetches the messaging object with getMessaging(app), but this object does not seem to have any function, either actual or documented, to do the equivalent. I cannot find a similar function anywhere in the new API--not even in "messaging-compat", which is supposed to simulate the old API in the new one. Is it just not there? Will I have to forgo the new API entirely just to get this one function? Or perhaps is this functionality moved to some other API?
I'm trying to do this from within a Firebase Cloud Function, if that matters.

As far as I can see, you can just pass the token in the to property of the JSON object you pass to send like shown in this code from the documentation on sending messages to specific devices:
// This registration token comes from the client FCM SDKs.
const registrationToken = 'YOUR_REGISTRATION_TOKEN';
const message = {
data: {
score: '850',
time: '2:45'
},
token: registrationToken
};
// Send a message to the device corresponding to the provided
// registration token.
getMessaging().send(message)

Related

how does users.watch (in gmail google api) listen for notifications?

I am confused as to how should the watch feature in the gmail API be implemented to recieve the push notificatons inside a node.js script. Should I call the method inside an infinite loop or something so that it doesn't stop listening for notifications for email once after the call is made?
Here's the sample code that I've written in node.js:
const getEmailNotification = () => {
return new Promise(async (resolve, reject) => {
try{
let auth = await authenticate();
const gmail = google.gmail({version: 'v1', auth});
await gmail.users.stop({
userId: '<email id>'
});
let watchResponse = await gmail.users.watch({
userId: '<email id>',
labelIds: ['INBOX'],
topicName: 'projects/<projectName>/topics/<topicName>'
})
return resolve(watchResponse);
} catch(err){
return reject(`Some error occurred`);
}
})
Thank you!
Summary
To receive push notifications through PUB/SUB you need to create a web-hook to receive them. What does this mean? You need a WEB application or any kind of service that exposes a URL where notifications can be received.
As stated in the Push subscription documentation:
The Pub/Sub server sends each message as an HTTPS request to the subscriber application at a pre-configured endpoint.
The endpoint acknowledges the message by returning an HTTP success status code. A non-success response indicates that the message should be resent.
Setup a channel for watch the notifications could be summarized in the following steps (the documentation you refer to indicates them):
Select/Create a project within the Google Cloud Console.
Create a new PUB/SUB topic
Create a subscription (PUSH) for that topic.
Add the necessary permissions, in this case add gmail-api-push#system.gserviceaccount.com as Pub/Sub Publisher.
Indicate what types of mail you want it to listen for via Users.watch() method (which is what you are doing in your script).
Example
I give you an example using Apps Script (it is an easy way to visualize it, but this could be achieved from any kind of WEB application, as you are using Node.js I suppose that you are familiarized with Express.js or related frameworks).
First I created a new Google Apps Script project, this will be my web-hook. Basically I want it to make a log of all HTTP/POST requests inside a Google Doc that I have previously created. For it I use the doPost() equal to app.post() in Express. If you want to know more about how Apps Script works, you can visit this link), but this is not the main topic.
Code.gs
const doPost = (e) => {
const doc = DocumentApp.openById(<DOC_ID>)
doc.getBody().appendParagraph(JSON.stringify(e, null, 2))
}
Later I made a new implementation as a Web App where I say that it is accessible by anyone, I write down the URL for later. This will be similar to deploying your Node.js application to the internet.
I select a project in the Cloud Console, as indicated in the Prerequisites of Cloud Pub/Sub.
Inside this project, I create a new topic that I call GmailAPIPush. After, click in Add Main (in the right bar of the Topics section ) and add gmail-api-push#system.gserviceaccount.com with the Pub/Sub Publisher role. This is a requirement that grants Gmail privileges to publish notification.
In the same project, I create a Subscription. I tell it to be of the Push type and add the URL of the Web App that I have previously created.
This is the most critical part and makes the difference of how you want your application to work. If you want to know which type of subscription best suits your needs (PUSH or PULL), you have a detailed documentation that will help you choose between these two types.
Finally we are left with the simplest part, configuring the Gmail account to send updates on the mailbox. I am going to do this from Apps Script, but it is exactly the same as with Node.
const watchUserGmail = () => {
const request = {
'labelIds': ['INBOX'],
'topicName': 'projects/my_project_name/topics/GmailAPIPush'
}
Gmail.Users.watch(request, 'me')
}
Once the function is executed, I send a test message, and voila, the notification appears in my document.
Returning to the case that you expose, I am going to try to explain it with a metaphor. Imagine you have a mailbox, and you are waiting for a very important letter. As you are nervous, you go every 5 minutes to check if the letter has arrived (similar to what you propose with setInterval), that makes that most of the times that you go to check your mailbox, there is nothing new. However, you train your dog to bark (push notification) every time the mailman comes, so you only go to check your mailbox when you know you have new letters.

How to catch Facebook messaging_optins with Azure Bot Channels Registration + Botbuilder SDK?

I've got a chatbot up and running, built using Node.JS Microsoft Bot Framework, and deployed to an Azure server as a Web App, with a Bot Channels Registration resource as the frontend endpoint.
This Bot Channels Registration is connected to Facebook Messenger (via a FB App) - meaning, the webhook for the Facebook App points to https://facebook.botframework.com/api/v1/bots/<BOT_CHANNELS_REGISTRATION_RESOURCE_NAME>.
This all works well for normal chat functionality.
However, I'd now like to add an opt-in checkbox to a separate web page I have. This checkbox works by pinging FB, which then sends a very specific payload to the already configured bot webhook.
{
"recipient":{
"id":"<PAGE_ID>"
},
"timestamp":<UNIX_TIMESTAMP>,
"optin":{
"ref":"<PASS_THROUGH_PARAM>",
"user_ref":"<UNIQUE_REF_PARAM>"
}
}
My question is this:
How does the Bot Channels Registration receive and handle the above payload? Will it just automatically forward it to the Messaging Endpoint I have configured in the Bot Channels Registration settings? Or will it get stuck, and never reach my actual bot Web App?
Finally, if it does reach my normal messages endpoint, how can I handle the specific payload with my botbuilder.ChatConnector() listener? Given that my web app code looks like (in essence)
var restify = require('restify');
var builder = require('botbuilder');
var dialogues = require('./dialogues');
var chatbot = function (config) {
var bot = {};
chatbot.listen = function () {
var stateStorage = new builder.MemoryBotStorage();
var connector = new builder.ChatConnector({
appId: process.env.APP_ID,
appPassword: process.env.APP_PASSWORD
});
bot = new builder.UniversalBot(connector, function (session) {
session.beginDialog(dialogues.base(bot).name);
}).set('storage', stateStorage);
return connector.listen();
};
return chatbot;
}
var server = restify.createServer();
// Listen for messages from users
server.post('/api/messages', chatbot.listen());
server.listen(process.env.port, function () {
console.log('%s listening to %s', server.name, server.url);
});
Thanks!
EDIT: I've figured out how to handle the above payload within my messaging endpoint - by adding a server.pre() handler to my server, e.g.
server.pre(function (req, res, next) {
if (req.body && req.body.optin_payload_specific_field){
// handle opt-in payload
} else {
return next();
}
});
However, via extra logging lines, it seems the opt-in payload isn't even making it to this endpoint. It seems to be stopped within the Bot Channels Registration. Currently looking for a way to resolve that major roadblock.
So, per #JJ_Wailes investigation, it seems like this is not a supported feature (in fact, it's a current feature request). See his comments on the original post for more details.
However, I did find a half-workaround to capture the user_ref identifier generated by the checkbox_plugin, for those interested:
1) From your external site, follow the steps from the documentation here for sending the initial user_ref to FB. FB will then make a callout to your bot, but per the above, that gets blocked by the Bot Channels Registration piece, so it's ignored.
2) From that same external site, use the user_ref to send a message to the user (just using the normal requests library). A successful send means that the user_ref was properly registered in FB by that step #1 call - a failure means you'll need to repeat step #1 (or use some other error handling flow).
3) After that, the next time the user responds to your bot in FB (as long as you don't send any other messages to them), the message your bot will receive will contain this as part of the payload:
{ ...
channelData:
{ ...
prior_message:
{ source: 'checkbox_plugin',
identifier: <user_ref> }
}
}
So I've currently added a check within my bot.use(), where if that section is present in the incoming message payload (session.message.sourceEvent.prior_message) and the source is "checkbox_plugin", I store the corresponding user_ref in the session.userData, and can work from there.
I would love to see this feature added into the supported Azure bot stack, but in the meantime hopefully this helps anyone else encountering this (admittedly niche) hurdle.

Using an Azure Web Function to receive a Twilio SMS Message

I'm trying to get an Azure Web Function to receive a Twilio SMS message - and failing!
I've created a Web Function to successfully send SMS messages - now I want to listen and react to responses.
I've set up a web function as per the below. Its pretty simple at the moment, and is supposed to parrot back the original message:
public static async Task<HttpResponseMessage> Run(HttpRequestMessage req, TraceWriter log)
{
log.Info("C# HTTP trigger function processed a request.");
var data = await req.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
var formValues = data.Split('&')
.Select(value => value.Split('='))
.ToDictionary(pair => Uri.UnescapeDataString(pair[0]).Replace("+", " "),
pair => Uri.UnescapeDataString(pair[1]).Replace("+", " "));
// Perform calculations, API lookups, etc. here
var response = new MessagingResponse()
.Message($"You said: {formValues["Body"]}");
var twiml = response.ToString();
twiml = twiml.Replace("utf-16", "utf-8");
return new HttpResponseMessage
{
Content = new StringContent(twiml, Encoding.UTF8, "application/xml")
};
}
In Twilio, I've configured the phone to use web hooks:
I've deployed the Web Function, however when I try testing by sending a message, I get the following error in the Twilio logs:
11200 There was a failure attempting to retrieve the contents of this URL
Msg Unsupported Media Type
Message: The WebHook request must contain an entity body formatted as JSON.
Does anyone have any experience in how to fix this error?
I just got this working with Twilio's SMS services. In the Azure Portal, if you go to the function, then go to Integrate, change the mode to Standard. This forces the Azure function to return a normal HTTP response and you can control the content type. If you use application/xml it will work fine.
Okay, the current solution to this is .... it can't be done in Azure Web Functions. An Azure Web Function expects a JSON payload. Twilio Webhooks are an XML value/pair. So, the web function will reject the webhook call.
The best/easiest approach is to use a WebAPI or MVC Controller as per the Twilio example. I tried a sample version and had my Twilio Webhooks working to reply to an SMS in about 15 minutes from start to finish.
To debug, I'd use a tool such as Postman or Fiddler to manually replay (or create from scratch) an identical request to what you're expecting from Twilio. You can then see what kind of response you get and not have to solely rely on Twilio's error message.
From the error code, I'd imagine that the problem is either:
Your URL set up in the Twilio number configuration isn't actually reaching your function.
Your function is taking too long to respond. Twilio will throw 11200 if it doesn't get a response in a certain time.
Your response is formatted incorrectly. This is where the aforementioned strategy can help you diagnose the issue.

Respond with a rich message as a Slack bot

I'm working on a Node.js slack app containing a bot user. But I don't know how to respond to a user with a rich message as a bot.
Example:
I can respond with simple messages without problems using this code:
import * as SlackClient from '#slack/client';
slackBot = new SlackClient.RtmClient(bot_access_token)
slackBot.on(SlackClient.RTM_EVENTS.MESSAGE, message => {
slackBot.sendMessage('Hello', message.channel);
});
slackBot.start();
But RTM API doesn't support rich messages:
The RTM API only supports posting simple messages formatted using our default message formatting mode. It does not support attachments or other message formatting modes. To post a more complex message as a user clients can call the chat.postMessage Web API method with as_user set to true.
so I tried to use the web client to respond with rich messages and moved to this code:
import * as SlackClient from '#slack/client';
slackWebClient = new SlackClient.WebClient(access_token);
slackBot = new SlackClient.RtmClient(bot_access_token)
slackBot.on(SlackClient.RTM_EVENTS.MESSAGE, message => {
slackWebClient.chat.postMessage(message.channel, 'Hello', { attachments: myAttachments });
});
slackBot.start();
this approach is working when I testing the bot with my account. But if an other team user writes a DM to the bot, slackWebClient.chat.postMessage fails with the error error: channel_not_found. (I also tried to add a parameter as_user: true - but behaviour is the same, except that messages are signed with my name instead of bot name).
Solved: I created a SlackClient.WebClient instance with the Bot User OAuth Access Token instead of the OAuth Access Token (also with as_user set to true) and now it works as intended. I didn't know that the Bot User OAuth Access Token can be also used as a token for the Web API client.
Working code:
import * as SlackClient from '#slack/client';
slackWebClient = new SlackClient.WebClient(bot_access_token);
slackBot = new SlackClient.RtmClient(bot_access_token)
slackBot.on(SlackClient.RTM_EVENTS.MESSAGE, message => {
slackWebClient.chat.postMessage(message.channel, 'Hello', { attachments: myAttachments, as_user: true });
});
slackBot.start();

Receive GCM push notification in node.js app

I'm building a command-line application in node.js and would like to receive GCM push notifications (the command-line app will be interacting with the same set of services that iOS/Android apps use, hence wanted to use the same notification service).
Given that GCM can be used on iOS (and thus is not Android-specific) I am hoping it can be used from node.js as well.
I've seen many articles about sending push notifications from node.js, but haven't been able to find anything about using node.js on the receiving end.
i think if you have to send push notification ,to ios and andriod then fcm is better then gcm use this
router.post('/pushmessage', function (req, res) {
var serverKey = '';//put server key here
var fcm = new FCM(serverKey);
var token = "";// put token here which user you have to send push notification
var message = {
to: token,
collapse_key: 'your_collapse_key',
notification: {title: 'hello', body: 'test'},
data: {my_key: 'my value', contents: "abcv/"}
};
fcm.send(message, function (err, response) {
if (err) {
res.json({status: 0, message: err});
} else {
res.json({status: 1, message: response});
}
});
});
I believe you can using service workers.
Push is based on service workers because service workers operate in the background. This means the only time code is run for a push notification (in other words, the only time the battery is used) is when the user interacts with a notification by clicking it or closing it. If you're not familiar with them, check out the service worker introduction. We will use service worker code in later sections when we show you how to implement pushes and notifications.
So basically there is a background service that waits for push and thats what you are going to build.
Two technologies
Push and notification use different, but complementary, APIs: push is invoked when a server supplies information to a service worker; a notification is the action of a service worker or web page script showing information to a user.
self.addEventListener('push', function(event) {
const promiseChain = getData(event.data)
.then(data => {
return self.registration.getNotifications({tag: data.tag});
})
.then(notifications => {
//Do something with the notifications.
});
event.waitUntil(promiseChain);
});
https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/engage-and-retain/push-notifications/handling-messages
I don't think it possible (in a simple way)...
Android/iOS has an OS behind with a service that communicates with GCM...
If you are trying to run a CLI tool, you'll need to implement a service on top of the OS (Linux, Windows Mac) so it can receive notifications.
GCM sends the notifications against the device tokens which are generated from iOS/Android devices when they are registered with push notification servers. If you are thinking of receiving the notifications without devices tokens it is fundamentally incorrect.
It's not mandatory to depend only on GCM, today there are many packages are available for sending pushNotification.
Two node packages are listed below.
fcm-call - you can find documentation from https://www.npmjs.com/package/fcm-call
fcm-node
fcm-call is used - you can find documentation from https://www.npmjs.com/package/fcm-node/
let FCM = require('fcm-call');
const serverKey = '<Your Server Key>';
const referenceKey = '<Your reference key>'; //Device Key
let title = '<Your notification title here.>';
let message = '<Your message here>';
FCM.FCM(serverKey, referenceKey, title, message);
And Your notification will be sent within 2-3 seconds.
Happy Notification.

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