How to send APNS push notification (iOS) from C # without queue

Question

Everyone seems to be using PushSharp to send push notifications to C # iOS devices. But this library has a queue that it uses, instead of sending a notification directly, which means that you need a Windows service or something to properly place it (according to your own documentation), which is too much for me. I have an incoming web request to my ASP.NET web service and, as part of handling this, I want to send a push notification immediately. Just like that.

Can someone tell me how to use PushSharp to send immediately (bypassing its queue mechanism) or how to send push notification correctly? I already have code that generates a JSON message, but I don’t know how to apply the .p12 file to the request. I can not find the Apple documentation on how to do this.

Answer 1

I spent many hours trying to find a way to push notifications, then I found a piece of code that did this for me.

First of all, make sure that you have installed the certificates correctly, here is a link that will help you. https://arashnorouzi.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/sending-apple-push-notifications-in-asp-net-%E2%80%93-part-3-apns-certificates-registration-on-windows /

Here is the code I used for push notifications:

public static bool ConnectToAPNS(string deviceId, string message) { X509Certificate2Collection certs = new X509Certificate2Collection(); // Add the Apple cert to our collection certs.Add(getServerCert()); // Apple development server address string apsHost; /* if (getServerCert().ToString().Contains("Production")) apsHost = "gateway.push.apple.com"; else*/ apsHost = "gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com"; // Create a TCP socket connection to the Apple server on port 2195 TcpClient tcpClient = new TcpClient(apsHost, 2195); // Create a new SSL stream over the connection SslStream sslStream1 = new SslStream(tcpClient.GetStream()); // Authenticate using the Apple cert sslStream1.AuthenticateAsClient(apsHost, certs, SslProtocols.Default, false); PushMessage(deviceId, message, sslStream1); return true; } private static X509Certificate getServerCert() { X509Certificate test = new X509Certificate(); //Open the cert store on local machine X509Store store = new X509Store(StoreLocation.CurrentUser); if (store != null) { // store exists, so open it and search through the certs for the Apple Cert store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly); X509Certificate2Collection certs = store.Certificates; if (certs.Count > 0) { int i; for (i = 0; i < certs.Count; i++) { X509Certificate2 cert = certs[i]; if (cert.FriendlyName.Contains("Apple Development IOS Push Services")) { //Cert found, so return it. Console.WriteLine("Found It!"); return certs[i]; } } } return test; } return test; } private static byte[] HexToData(string hexString) { if (hexString == null) return null; if (hexString.Length % 2 == 1) hexString = '0' + hexString; // Up to you whether to pad the first or last byte byte[] data = new byte[hexString.Length / 2]; for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i++) data[i] = Convert.ToByte(hexString.Substring(i * 2, 2), 16); return data; } 

Please note that this code is for Apple Development IOS Push Services development certificates.

Answer 2

This is an old question, but the answer is not complete.

Here is my code:

 // private fields private static readonly string _apnsHostName = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["APNS:HostName"]; private static readonly int _apnsPort = int.Parse(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["APNS:Port"]); private static readonly string _apnsCertPassword = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["APNS:CertPassword"]; private static readonly string _apnsCertSubject = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["APNS:CertSubject"]; private static readonly string _apnsCertPath = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["APNS:CertPath"]; private readonly ILogger _log; private X509Certificate2Collection _certificatesCollection; ctor <TAB key>(ILogger log) { _log = log ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(log)); // load .p12 certificate in the collection var cert = new X509Certificate2(_apnsCertPath, _apnsCertPassword); _certificatesCollection = new X509Certificate2Collection(cert); } public async Task SendAppleNativeNotificationAsync(string payload, Registration registration) { try { // handle is the iOS device Token var handle = registration.Handle; // instantiate new TcpClient with ApnsHostName and Port var client = new TcpClient(_apnsHostName, _apnsPort); // add fake validation var sslStream = new SslStream(client.GetStream(), false, new RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(ValidateServerCertificate), null); try { // authenticate ssl stream on ApnsHostName with your .p12 certificate sslStream.AuthenticateAsClient(_apnsHostName, _certificatesCollection, SslProtocols.Tls, false); var memoryStream = new MemoryStream(); var writer = new BinaryWriter(memoryStream); // command writer.Write((byte)0); // first byte of the deviceId length (big-endian first byte) writer.Write((byte)0); // deviceId length (big-endian second byte) writer.Write((byte)32); // deviceId data (byte[]) writer.Write(HexStringToByteArray(handle.ToUpper())); // first byte of payload length; (big-endian first byte) writer.Write((byte)0); // payload length (big-endian second byte) writer.Write((byte)Encoding.UTF8.GetByteCount(payload)); byte[] b1 = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(payload); // payload data (byte[]) writer.Write(b1); writer.Flush(); byte[] array = memoryStream.ToArray(); await sslStream.WriteAsync(array, 0, array.Length); // TIP: do not wait a response from APNS because APNS return a response only when an error occurs; // so if you wait the response your code will remain stuck here. // await ReadTcpResponse(); sslStream.Flush(); // close client client.Close(); } catch (AuthenticationException ex) { _log.Error($"Error sending APNS notification. Exception: {ex}"); client.Close(); } catch (Exception ex) { _log.Error($"Error sending APNS notification. Exception: {ex}"); client.Close(); } } catch (Exception ex) { _log.Error($"Error sending APNS notification. Exception: {ex}"); } } private static byte[] HexStringToByteArray(string hex) { if (hex == null) { return null; } // added for newest devices (>= iPhone 8) if (hex.Length % 2 == 1) { hex = '0' + hex; } return Enumerable.Range(0, hex.Length) .Where(x => x % 2 == 0) .Select(x => Convert.ToByte(hex.Substring(x, 2), 16)) .ToArray(); } private static bool ValidateServerCertificate(object sender, X509Certificate certificate, X509Chain chain, SslPolicyErrors sslPolicyErrors) { return true; //if (sslPolicyErrors == SslPolicyErrors.None) // return true; //// do not allow this client to communicate with unauthenticated servers. //return false; } private async Task<byte[]> ReadTcpResponse(SslStream sslStream) { MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(); byte[] buffer = new byte[2048]; int bytes = -1; do { bytes = await sslStream.ReadAsync(buffer, 0, buffer.Length); await ms.WriteAsync(buffer, 0, bytes); } while (bytes != 0); return ms.ToArray(); } 

TIP: with iOS13, the device token is received differently.

 > iOS 12 (deviceToken as NSData).description -> "< your_token_here >" > iOS 13 (deviceToken as NSData).description -> "{ length = 32, bytes = 0x321e1ba1c1ba...token_in_bytes }" 

In iOS13, you must convert the token to a string or skip the 'HexStringToByteArray' method since you already have a byte [].

If you have a question, I am happy to answer.