1. intro to notifications in iOS 10
Paola Mata
iOS Developer at BuzzFeed
Co-founder, NYC Tech Latinas

2. overview

3. user notifications
visual alerts - banner, lock screen, notification center
sounds/vibration
app icon badges
By user notification, I am also referring to the sounds and badges as well.

4. types of notifications
local - sent by apps on device
remote - push
server-side application component
Apple Developer membership
For remote - server side application component (I used firebase)
Apple membership required to support

5. why user notifications?
increase user engagement
perform activities in the background (silent)
more powerful than ever!
To get your users attention when they’re not using your app and redirect them to your app
Background tasks provide a better user experience
BuzzFeed News example: new alerts and background tasks, downloading cache html for offline use.

6. notifications setup
So now, we’re psyched about notifications, right? How do we get them into our applications.

7. steps registration create content triggers schedule
Ranging in order of complexity
Content for remote notifications is provided as JSON dictionary

8. registration obtain user authorization for both local & remote
specify authorization options (alert, badge, sound)
configurable in settings
remote notifications also require token registration*
*Will explain in more detail in a bit

9. request authorization
Completion handler if user accepted, register for remote

10. remote notification registration
certificate signing request
development
APNs
create App ID (explicit)
configure App ID for push notifications
register device(s)
create provisioning profile
configure project (Xcode)
register for push notifications
Steps happen in your apple developer account
Xcode 8 can generate provisioning profiles for you, but don’t rely on Xcode too heavily.

11. token registration obtained from APNS UIApplication registration
sent to your server-side application
included with notification payload
Earlier mentioned token registration required for remote notifications
Much of this is handled by the app delegate, which conforms to UIApplicaionDelegate

12. content
title
subtitle
body
optional media attachments

13. create content

14. triggers time interval calendar location push (remote)
Strong Lifts - timer after each set, notifications every 90, 3 or 5 mins
Headspace - daily calendar reminders to meditate
Home Depot in-store notifications
BuzzFeed News! - push news alerts

15. create a trigger Other trigger classes with respective initializers:
UNLocationNotificationTrigger
UNCalendarNotificationTrigger

16. schedule local notifications
create request with identifier, content, and trigger
add request on UNUserNotificationCenter

17. create and add request
request Identifier will be important later, when we go into updating/replacing notifications.

18. scheduling remote notifications
server side application sends notification payload to APNs
notification payload forwarded to device

19. push notification payload
JSON dictionary
Other APNS include: content-available and category (custom actions)

20. what’s new in iOS 10?

21. rich notifications
Local image add the image as an attachment by providing identifier and url for image
We can also add gifs and video

22. 3D touch custom actions Added at time of registration:
custom - response handed by delegate method
dismiss - requires opt-in via category options*
Default notification action opens up the app
Custom actions available since iOS 8
Use 3D Touch in iOS 10

23. adding custom actions UNNotitification actions require identifier
Dismiss action need to be added via category options

24. supporting custom actions
For remote, the identifier would be sent with the notification payload

25. handling custom actions

26. notification management
remove delivered notifications and/or pending notification requests
handle updates to existing and pending notifications
create a new notification
add request using request identifier of notification to update

27. service extension
Service Extensions are a non-User Interface extension (available in iOS 10) that run in the background with the main purpose of augmenting or replacing the visible content of a remote notification before it is presented to the user.

28. service extension, cont’d
potential uses - end to end encryption, add media attachments
short execution time -> fallback method -> shows original notification
to launch extension, notification payload should include “mutable-content” key
Service Extensions are meant to run quickly and are only given a short amount of time to execute by the system. In the event that the Service Extension fails to complete its task in the allotted amount of time, a fallback method will be called. If the fallback fails, the original Notification Content will be displayed to the user.

29. notification content extension
The Notification Content Extension allows the developer to add their own views to the Notification UI and draw out any content they want.
It can also handle custom actions.

30. notification content extension, cont’d
multiple content extensions can be used
includes: view controller, storyboard, Info.plist
creating custom UI
default notification content can be hidden
interactive UI elements not supported
can update UI on custom action
can access built-in text input action
Info.plist - extension configuration
button/text fields not supported
Try notifications for messages and calendar notifications for examples
Multiple extensions - respond to category identifier

31. resources Apple Documentation on Notifications
WWDC 2016 Sessions 707 & 708 on User Notifications
try! Swift NYC talk by Ellen Shapiro (great sample code)

32. Thank you!

33. www.paolamata.com www.madebylatinas.com Twitter: @PaolaNotPaolo