Push notification configuration - iOS | brainCloud Help Center

This article will walk you through the steps of setting up push notifications (iOS) with brainCloud.

Note: There are two ways to configure Apple push notifications with brainCloud: the certificate-based (.p12) approach covered in this article, or the newer token-based (.p8) approach, which doesn't expire and can be reused across every app under your Apple Developer team -- see Apple Token Based (.p8) Push Notifications for those steps.

Prerequisites

You have an Apple developer account
You have a physical iOS 10 and above testing device

Step 1: Create an application on Unity editor

Open Unity hub and create a new project.
Download and import the latest brainCloud client Unity package to this project. Once imported the plugin correctly, you will find the brainCloud tab appears on the editor menu.

Download and import the latest Mobile Notifications package from package manager to your project.

Set up mobile notifications for iOS from edit->project settings

Open brainCloud setting from the tab, select or create a brainCloud back-end app linked to your project.

Create some basic functional UI elements in your project and link the code behind them as the following image.

Functions and its code that linked behind the button [Register device token] are similar to below. Once authenticate end-user with their brainCloud account, from the Authorization request, retrieve the device token and pass it to brainCloud device token register method -- RegisterPushNotificationDeviceToken()

    IEnumerator RequestAuthorization()
    {
        var authorizationOption = AuthorizationOption.Alert | AuthorizationOption.Badge;
        using (var req = new AuthorizationRequest(authorizationOption, true))
        {
            while (!req.IsFinished)
            {
                yield return null;
            };
            string res = "\n RequestAuthorization:";
            res += "\n finished: " + req.IsFinished;
            res += "\n granted:  " + req.Granted;
            res += "\n error:  " + req.Error;
            res += "\n deviceToken:  " + req.DeviceToken;
            Debug.Log("debug inside ienumerator the res: "+ res);
            _bc.PushNotificationService.RegisterPushNotificationDeviceToken(req.DeviceToken, authSuccess_BCcall, authError_BCcall);
        }
    }

    //click register token button
    public void RegisterDeviceToken()
    {
        StartCoroutine(RequestAuthorization());
    }

Finish the rest methods and callbacks code in your script.
Click Build Settings from Unity File tab, switch platform to iOS.

Set up project Bundle Identifier and target SDK via Player Settings .

Click Build and Run, then create a folder to save this Xcode project on your local storage.

Step 2: Setup project on Xcode editor

Once Xcode is opened from the above step, open Signing & Capabilities from your target device in the project panel.

Click Automatically manage signing checkbox and enable it.

Then, login into your team and provisioning profile.

Step 3: Create and download notification p12 file from your apple account

You should find your project identifier is created from the above step on the list of Identifiers under the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles section of your apple developer account.

Click it and scroll down to Pushnotification row, then click configure.

Click create certificate under an environment type ( you will use the same environment type when configuring push notification settings on brainCloud), then click continue to create a CSR file.

You will be asked to upload a certificate then.

Open Keychain from your Mac, click the Certificate Assistant menu and select Request a Certificate From a Certificate Authority under the Keychain Access tab.

Fill out the fields and select Saved to disk, then click Continue.

Choose a folder to save this cert.

This cert file will be saved to your local folder.

Go back to your apple account page, upload this signing request file there, and hit Continue.

Click download to save this certificate.

Go back to your Keychain app again, drag this certificate file from the above step to the certificates section of the login keychains

You will find the push services certificate is added to the certificates list.

Right-click the push services certificate and export it to local storage.

Enter your login password and click continue

Click Save.

Leave a password for this file, you will need this password later when configuring push notification on your brainCloud portal.

Step 4: Upload p12 certificate file to your app on brainCloud portal

Go to the App > Design > Notifications > Settings page, click edit settings under the Actions column of Apple, upload the p12 certificate you get from the previous steps.

Enter the p12 file protect-password and select the certificate environment accordingly. It should match the type when you created this certificate from your apple account.

Set an expiration day.

Alternative: Token-based (.p8) configuration

Steps 3 and 4 above set up a certificate-based (.p12) configuration. As an alternative, brainCloud also supports Apple's token-based (.p8) signing keys, which don't expire and can be reused across every app under your Apple Developer team. See Apple Token Based (.p8) Push Notifications for the setup steps.

Step 5: Run app via Xcode

Go back to Xcode editor

Connect your test device to Xcode and run this project.

Click Allow when asking for notification authorization.

Authenticate an end-user and register device token with brainCloud.

Check the sent notification.

Check the registered device token of the end-user from brainCloud portal.

Test to send notifications from brainCloud portal to your device.