SDK

Platform Configuration

Before you can start sending messages in iOS, you will have to issue an APNS certificate. This is done via Apple's Developer Portal. Keep reading this document to learn how to create an APNS certificate.

Creating an App ID

In this document we will assume you did not create an App ID yet and we will guide through this process.

Start by signing in Apple's Developer Portal. Once you've sign in, you should click in the Certificates, IDs & Profiles menu item:

developer portal menu

This will take you to a new page where you should locate the Identifiers menu item:

developer portal identifiers

In this new page, click in the plus icon:

developer portal create app id

In this page, select the App IDs option:

developer portal app ids

Then go ahead and click in Continue:

developer portal continue button

You are now about to register a new app, start by providing a name for your app and the identifier for your app, this should take the form of a reverse DNS name (eg.: com.mydomain.myapp):

developer portal app id settings

Finally you should select which capabilities your app will use. Obviously you should check all the services you want to use:

developer portal capabilities

Once you are done selecting your app's capabilities, click in Continue:

developer portal continue button

You will then see the confirmation screen with all the services you've selected, if everything is OK go ahead and finish creating your App ID by clicking in Register:

developer portal app id confirm

After that, your app will be in the list of App IDs as shown below:

developer portal app id

Generate an APNS SSL Certificate

Once you've created an App ID or at least have one, you are now ready to create an APNS certificate. This certificate will allow your app to send messages to APNS.

In Apple's Developer Portal, locate the Certificates, IDs & Profiles menu item:

developer portal menu

In this new page, click in the Certificates menu item:

developer portal create certificate

Then go ahead and click in the plus icon:

developer portal create certificate icon

In this page, locate the select the following option:

developer portal ssl certificate select

For the sake of simplicity, let's create an Apple Push Notification Service certificate that works for both Sandbox and Production. You can then use the same certificate for both environments in Notificare.

Go ahead and click in Continue:

developer portal continue button

In this new page, locate and select the App ID you want to use:

developer portal select app id for apns

To proceed, click in Continue:

developer portal continue button

In this new tab, you will need to provide an existing Certificate Signing Request:

developer portal certificate signing request

We will explain how to generate one but if you already have one previously created, just go ahead and select one and click in Continue:

developer portal continue button

If you do not have one, you will have to generate it. For that you will need to open the Keychain Access app from your applications, in your MacOS powered computer and request a signing certificate from an certificate authority by selecting the following:

developer portal keychain access request

You will be prompt with the following window:

developer portal create signing certificate

Simply provide an email and check the Saved to Disk option and then click in Continue, it will prompt you to save a file in your computer:

developer portal save signing certificate

You have now generated a CSR file and you we are ready to resume our the APNS certificate creation in Apple's Developer Portal. In the screen you left off:

developer portal certificate signing request selected

Click in the Continue button:

developer portal continue button

We've now generated an APNS certificate, hit the Download button to download the file to your computer:

developer portal certificate download

Double-click in that file to install it in your Keychain Access app. Then locate it in the Keychain Access app:

developer portal keychain access entry

Then we will need to export this file in a .p12 format. To do that, right-click the file and select the Export option:

developer portal export certificate keychain

This will allow you to name your export file and select the location in your computer where you going to export it. Then click in Save:

developer portal export p12 save

Because these files are extremely important and will give any push provider access to send notifications to your app, you will want to protect it with a password. Once you've provided a password twice, click in the OK button. This will save the file in your computer.

developer portal export p12 password

You now have to upload the resulting .p12 file to Notificare. This will allow us to send notifications to your application. This step is covered in the guides located here.

Generate an APNS Auth Key

Apple introduced this new authentication mechanism with the new APNS service launched in 2016. With these auth keys, you are able to generate one single key for all the apps in your Apple's Developer account. These keys also never expire which makes it easier to manage although if you revoke and generate a new key used by multiple apps, you will need to upload it to all the providers where the revoked key is used.

In Apple's Developer Portal, locate the Certificates, IDs & Profiles menu item:

developer portal menu

In this new page, click in the Keys menu item:

developer portal keys

Then go ahead and click in the plus icon:

developer portal keys icon

In this new page, name the key you are about to register and select the services you want to use (in this case you should select Apple Push Notification service):

developer portal register key

Click in the Continue button:

developer portal continue button

In the next page, confirm the data and click in the Register button:

developer portal key register confirm

Once you've registered the new key you can either download it or postpone that download for a later time. Please note that once you've downloaded it, you cannot do it again:

developer portal key download

If you chose to download it, you will have now a .p8 file ready to be uploaded in Notificare. This will allow us to send notifications to your application. This step is covered in the guides located here.

Once you have uploaded the certificate you are ready to proceed to implement our library. Keep reading our Implementation guides located here.