Professional iOS Network Programming: Connecting the Enterprise to the iPhone and iPad

Chapter 10

Using Push Notifications

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Interacting with local notifications
• Providing an excellent user experience with remote notifications
• Applying notification best practices to your application

WROX.COM DOWNLOADS FOR THIS CHAPTER

You can find the wrox.com code downloads for this chapter at www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/Professional-iOS-Network-Programming-Connecting-the-Enterprise-to-the-iPhone-and-iPad.productCd-1118362403.html on the Download Code tab. The code is in the Chapter 10 download and is divided into the following major examples:

• An Xcode project that includes code for local and remote notifications
• SQL script to build the database used for remote notifications
• Server-side scripts, written in PHP, to manage remote notifications

One key metric used to determine the success of an application is repeat usage. User acquisition costs can be high, and after you attract users, you must provide a predictable, nonintrusive method to inform them when you have something that requires their attention.

Push notifications are a mechanism that allows you to inform users that the application has new information for them. Notifications can take many forms: An enterprise app might inform users of a purchase order pending approval, or a game may alert users that it is their turn to play. When done properly, push notifications are a great tool to drive efficiency gains in the enterprise and engagement in commercial iOS applications.

Apple provides two notification ...