Andy Wigley | Microsoft Technical Evangelist

Rob Tiffany | Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Strategist

M8: Push Notifications

Target Agenda | Day 1

Module and Topic | 10-minute breaks after each session / 60-minute “meal break” Planned

Duration

1a - Introducing Windows Phone 8 Application Development | Part 1 50:00

1b - Introducing Windows Phone 8 Application Development | Part 2 50:00

2 - Designing Windows Phone Apps 50:00

3 - Building Windows Phone Apps 50:00

4 - Files and Storage on Windows Phone 8 50:00

Meal Break | 60-minutes 60:00

5 - Windows Phone 8 Application Lifecycle 50:00

6 - Background Agents 25:00

7 - Tiles and Lock Screen Notifications 25:00

8 - Push Notifications 30:00

9 - Using Phone Resources on Windows Phone 8 50:00

Target Agenda | Day 2

Module and Topic | 10-minute breaks after each session / 60-minute “meal break” Planned

Duration

10 - App to App Communication 35:00

11 - Network Communication on Windows Phone 8 50:00

12 - Proximity Sensors and Bluetooth 35:00

13 - Speech Input on Windows Phone 8 35:00

14 - Maps and Location on Windows Phone 8 35:00

15 - Wallet Support 25:00

16 - In App Purchasing 25:00

Meal Break | 60-minutes 60:00

17 - The Windows Phone Store 50:00

18 - Enterprise Applications in Windows Phone 8: Architecture and Publishing 50:00

19 - Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 Cross Platform Development 50:00

20 – Mobile Web 50:00

• Push Notifications

• Server-initiated Communication

• Push Notifications Infrastructure

• Three Kinds of Notifications : Raw, Toast and Tile

• Push Response Headers

Module Agenda

4

Push

Notifications

12/4/2012

Push Notifications and Live Tiles

• Push Notifications offer developers a way to send timely

information relating to their applications even when they

are not running

+

• Windows phone has the unique ability to provide the end

user glanceable access to the information they care most

about, via Live Tiles

Push Notifications

Server-initiated communication

Enable key background scenarios

Preserve battery life and user experience

Prevent polling for updates

Three Kinds of Notifications

• Raw

• Notification message content is application-specific

• Delivered directly to app only if it is running

• Toast

• Specific XML schema

• Content delivered to app if it is running

• If app is not running, system displays Toast popup using notification message content

• Tile

• Specific XML schema

• Never delivered to app

• If the Tile is currently pinned to the Start screen, system updates it using notification message

content

8

Push Notification Data Flow

URI to the service:

"http://notify.live.com/throttledthirdparty/01.00/AAFRQHgiiMWNTYrRD

XAHQtz-AgrNpzcDAwAAAAQOMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDA" Push enabled applications

Notifications service

HTTP POST the message

Push endpoint is established. URI is created for the endpoint.

1

2

3

Third-party service

MPNS: Microsoft

hosted server

Send PN Message

4

Push Notification Features

• Tile updates can update any display element of each of the Tile templates

• Be careful to downgrade updates sent to 7.1 clients

• 30 subscription endpoints allowed per phone

• Maximum size of a notification is 1KB for the header and 3KB for the payload.

• Unauthenticated Web Service limited to 500 push notifications per subscription per day

• Authenticated Web Services are recommended

• Communication uses HTTPS channel

• No limit

• Able to register a callback request

Toast Message Content

• Used by system to display Toast message if app not running

• Navigates to page specified in <Param> (if supplied)

• If app is already running

• ShellToastNotificationReceived event fires

• <Text1> and <Text2> values in event args as

Dictionary<string, string>

Toast Message Content

• Use the following HTTP headers:

• Where <batching interval> is 3 – Immediate delivery, 13 – delivered within 450 seconds, 23 –

delivered within 900 seconds

string toastMessage = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" + "<wp:Notification xmlns:wp=\"WPNotification\">" + "<wp:Toast>" + "<wp:Text1>WEATHER ALERT</wp:Text1>" + "<wp:Text2>Stormy</wp:Text2>" + "<wp:Param>/page1.xaml?value1=1234<wp:Param>" + "</wp:Toast>" + "</wp:Notification>";

sendNotificationRequest.ContentType = "text/xml"; sendNotificationRequest.Headers.Add("X-WindowsPhone-Target", "toast"); sendNotificationRequest.Headers.Add("X-NotificationClass", "<batching interval>");

sendNotificationRequest.ContentType = "text/xml"; sendNotificationRequest.Headers.Add("X-WindowsPhone-Target", “token"); sendNotificationRequest.Headers.Add("X-NotificationClass", "<batching interval>");

Tile Message Content

• Tile messages are never delivered to the app

• There are specific schemas for the a Tile update message for each of the three Tile Templates: Flip,

Cycle and Iconic

• Only Tiles using Flip and Iconic templates can be updated with images at remote URLs

• Remote Images limited to 80KB and must download in 30 seconds or less

• V7.x clients cannot consume these new templates. Recommend you:

• In your app, capture the device unique ID, the push URI, the OS version and the app

version. Send this data to your Web service registration method

• Make sure you only send the new templates to compatible new OS versions/app versions!

• Use the following HTTP headers:

FlipTile Template Tile Message Schema

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<wp:Notification xmlns:wp="WPNotification" Version="2.0">

<wp:Tile Id="[TileId]" Template="FlipTile">

<wp:SmallBackgroundImage Action="Clear">[sm tile img URI]</wp:SmallBackgroundImage>

<wp:WideBackgroundImage Action="Clear">[front of wd tile img URI]</wp:WideBackgroundImage>

<wp:WideBackBackgroundImage Action="Clear">[back of wd tile img URI]</wp:WideBackBackgroundImage>

<wp:WideBackContent Action="Clear">[back of wd tile content text]</wp:WideBackContent>

<wp:BackgroundImage Action="Clear">[front of med tile img URI]</wp:BackgroundImage>

<wp:Count Action="Clear">[count]</wp:Count>

<wp:Title Action="Clear">[title text]</wp:Title>

<wp:BackBackgroundImage Action="Clear">[back of med tile img URI]</wp:BackBackgroundImage>

<wp:BackTitle Action="Clear">[back of tile title text]</wp:BackTitle>

<wp:BackContent Action="Clear">[back of med tile content text]</wp:BackContent>

</wp:Tile>

</wp:Notification>

CycleTile Template Tile Message Schema

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<wp:Notification xmlns:wp="WPNotification" Version="2.0">

<wp:Tile Id="[TileId]" Template="CycleTile">

<wp:SmallBackgroundImage Action="Clear">[sm tile img URI]</wp:SmallBackgroundImage>

<wp:CycleImage1 Action="Clear">[photo 1 img URI]</wp:CycleImage1>

<wp:CycleImage2 Action="Clear">[photo 2 img URI]</wp:CycleImage2>

<wp:CycleImage3 Action="Clear">[photo 3 img URI]</wp:CycleImage3>

<wp:CycleImage4 Action="Clear">[photo 4 img URI]</wp:CycleImage4>

<wp:CycleImage5 Action="Clear">[photo 5 img URI]</wp:CycleImage5>

<wp:CycleImage6 Action="Clear">[photo 6 img URI]</wp:CycleImage6>

<wp:CycleImage7 Action="Clear">[photo 7 img URI]</wp:CycleImage7>

<wp:CycleImage8 Action="Clear">[photo 8 img URI]</wp:CycleImage8>

<wp:CycleImage9 Action="Clear">[photo 9 img URI]</wp:CycleImage9>

<wp:Count Action="Clear">[count]</wp:Count>

<wp:Title Action="Clear">[title text]</wp:Title>

</wp:Tile>

</wp:Notification>

IconicTile Template Tile Message Schema

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<wp:Notification xmlns:wp="WPNotification" Version="2.0">

<wp:Tile Id="[TileId]" Template="IconicTile">

<wp:SmallIconImage Action="Clear">[sm icon img URI]</wp:SmallIconImage>

<wp:IconImage Action="Clear">[med/wd icon img URI]</wp:IconImage>

<wp:WideContent1 Action="Clear">[wd tile content line 1]</wp:WideContent1>

<wp:WideContent2 Action="Clear">[wd tile content line 2]</wp:WideContent2>

<wp:WideContent3 Action="Clear">[wd tile content line 3]</wp:WideContent3>

<wp:Count Action="Clear">[count]</wp:Count>

<wp:Title Action="Clear">[title text]</wp:Title>

<wp:BackgroundColor Action="Clear">[hex ARGB background color of tile]</wp:BackgroundColor>

</wp:Tile>

</wp:Notification>

Raw Message Content

• Use the following HTTP headers:

• Where <batching interval> is 3 – Immediate delivery, 13 – delivered within 450 seconds, 23 –

delivered within 900 seconds

• Message Content is application-specific – only gets delivered to running app

• For example use XML to format data

string tileMessage = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" + "<root>" + "<Value1>SomeUserValue<Value1>" + "<Value2>SomeOtherUserValue<Value2>" + "</root>";

sendNotificationRequest.ContentType = "text/xml"; sendNotificationRequest.Headers.Add("X-NotificationClass", "<batching interval>");

Demo:

Push Notifications

Response Custom Headers

• Response Code: HTTP status code (200 OK)

• Notification Status

• Notification received by the Push Notification Service

• For example: “X-NotificationStatus:Received”

• DeviceConnectionStatus

• The connection status of the device

• //For example: X-DeviceConnectionStatus:Connected

• SubscriptionStatus

• The subscription status

• //For example: X-SubscriptionStatus:Active

• More information

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402545(v=VS.92).aspx

Review

• Push Notifications are an efficient and battery-friendly way of sending notifications

from a server to an app on a phone

• Raw notifications go only to a running app

• Toast notifications go to the app if it is running, otherwise display as a popup on

the phone

• Tile notifications are used only to update tiles on the Start Screen

The information herein is for informational

purposes only an represents the current view of

Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this

presentation. Because Microsoft must respond

to changing market conditions, it should not be

interpreted to be a commitment on the part of

Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the

accuracy of any information provided after the

date of this presentation.

© 2012 Microsoft Corporation.

All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.

MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION

IN THIS PRESENTATION.