∞ Publishing to multiple devices

If you want to send push notifications to multiple devices, Device Interests are the way to go. This guide will demonstrate how to publish to multiple devices with Beams, using Device Interests.

This guide uses Device Interests to send public broadcasts to subscribed users. For increased security you can use Authenticated Users instead.

∞ Add a Device Interest

In your chosen client SDK, you can call the addDeviceInterest method, passing in the Interest name.

For example, here we subscribe to the Interest “hello”.

try? self.beamsClient.addDeviceInterest(interest: "hello")
PushNotifications.addDeviceInterest("hello");
const beamsClient = new PusherPushNotifications.Client({
  instanceId: "YOUR_INSTANCE_ID",
});

beamsClient.start().then(() => beamsClient.addDeviceInterest("hello"));

This device has now subscribed to the Interest “hello” and will receive any push notifications published to “hello”.

Device Interest names are limited to 164 characters and can only contain ASCII upper/lower-case letters, numbers or one of _-=@,.;

∞ Publish to the Device Interest

Now to publish to all devices that are subscribed to hello, call the publishToInterests method, passing an array containing hello.

beamsClient
  .publishToInterests(["hello"], {
    apns: {
      aps: {
        alert: {
          title: "Hello",
          body: "Hello, world!",
        },
      },
    },
    fcm: {
      notification: {
        title: "Hello",
        body: "Hello, world!",
      },
    },
    web: {
      notification: {
        title: "Hello",
        body: "Hello, world!",
      },
    },
  })
  .then((publishResponse) => {
    console.log("Just published:", publishResponse.publishId);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error("Error:", error);
  });
<?php
include 'src/PushNotifications.php';
$publishResponse = $beamsClient->publishToInterests(
  array("hello", "donuts"),
  array(
    "fcm" => array(
      "notification" => array(
        "title" => "Hi!",
        "body" => "This is my first Push Notification!"
      )
    ),
    "apns" => array("aps" => array(
      "alert" => array(
        "title" => "Hi!",
        "body" => "This is my first Push Notification!"
      )
    )),
    "web" => array(
      "notification" => array(
        "title" => "Hi!",
        "body" => "This is my first Push Notification!"
      )
    )
));
publishRequest := map[string]interface{}{
  "apns": map[string]interface{}{
    "aps": map[string]interface{}{
      "alert": map[string]interface{}{
        "title": "Hello",
        "body":  "Hello, world",
      },
    },
  },
  "fcm": map[string]interface{}{
    "notification": map[string]interface{}{
      "title": "Hello",
      "body":  "Hello, world",
    },
  },
  "web": map[string]interface{}{
    "notification": map[string]interface{}{
      "title": "Hello",
      "body":  "Hello, world",
    },
  },
}

pubId, err := beamsClient.PublishToInterests([]string{"hello"}, publishRequest)
if err != nil {
  fmt.Println(err)
} else {
  fmt.Println("Publish Id:", pubId)
}
response = beams_client.publish_to_interests(
  interests=['hello'],
  publish_body={
    'apns': {
      'aps': {
        'alert': {
          'title': 'Hello',
          'body': 'Hello, world!',
        },
      },
    },
    'fcm': {
      'notification': {
        'title': 'Hello',
        'body': 'Hello, world!',
      },
    },
    'web': {
      'notification': {
        'title': 'Hello',
        'body': 'Hello, world!',
      },
    },
  },
)

print(response['publishId'])
List<String> interests = Arrays.asList("donuts", "pizza");

Map<String, Map> publishRequest = new HashMap();

Map<String, String> apsAlert = new Hashmap();
apsAlert.put("title", "hello");
apsAlert.put("body", "Hello world");
Map<String, Map> alert = new HashMap();
alert.put("alert", apsAlert);
Map<String, Map> aps = new HashMap();
aps.put("aps", alert);
publishRequest.put("apns", aps);

Map<String, String> fcmNotification = new HashMap();
fcmNotification.put("title", "hello");
fcmNotification.put("body", "Hello world");
Map<String, Map> fcm = new HashMap();
fcm.put("notification", fcmNotification);
publishRequest.put("fcm", fcm);

Map<String, String> webNotification = new HashMap();
webNotification.put("title", "hello");
webNotification.put("body", "Hello world");
Map<String, Map> web = new HashMap();
web.put("notification", webNotification);
publishRequest.put("web", web);

beamsClient.publishToInterests(interests, publishRequest);
val interests = listOf("donuts", "pizza")
val publishRequest = hashMapOf(
  "apns" to hashMapOf("aps" to hashMapOf("alert" to hashMapOf("title" to "hello", "body" to "Hello world"))),
  "fcm" to hashMapOf("notification" to hashMapOf("title" to "hello", "body" to "Hello world")),
  "web" to hashMapOf("notification" to hashMapOf("title" to "hello", "body" to "Hello world"))
)

beamsClient.publishToInterests(interests, publishRequest)
data = {
  apns: {
    aps: {
      alert: {
        title: 'Hello',
        body: 'Hello, world!'
      }
    }
  },
  fcm: {
    notification: {
      title: 'Hello',
      body: 'Hello, world!'
    }
  },
  web: {
    notification: {
      title: 'Hello',
      body: 'Hello, world!'
    }
  }
}

Pusher::PushNotifications.publish_to_interests(interests: ['hello'], payload: data)
POST https://:instance-id.publish.pushnotifications.pusher.com/publish_api/v1/instances/:instance_id/publishes/interests HTTP/1.1
Host: instance-id.publish.pushnotifications.pusher.com
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "interests": ["hello", "donuts"],
  "fcm": {
    "notification": {
      "title": "Hi!",
      "body": "This is my first Push Notification!"
    }
  },
  "apns": {
    "aps": {
      "alert": {
        "title": "Hi!",
        "body": "This is my first Push Notification!"
      }
    }
  },
  "web": {
    "notification": {
      "title": "Hi!",
      "body": "This is my first Push Notification!"
    }
  }
}

Each publish requires at least one interest, up to a maximum of 100.

∞ Differences between platforms

A publish request must target at least one our supported platforms:

  • APNs (for iOS devices)
  • FCM (for Android devices)
  • Web (for web browsers)

The structure of the publish request is slightly different for each. Follow the links below for the full set of options.

{
  "apns": {
    "aps": {
      "alert": "Hello!"
    }
  }
}

…whereas a publish request to all supported platforms would have this structure:

{
  "apns": {
    "aps": {
      "alert": "Hello!"
    }
  },
  "fcm": {
    "notification": {
      "title": "Hello",
      "body": "Hello, world!"
    }
  },
  "web": {
    "notification": {
      "title": "Hello",
      "body": "Hello, world!"
    }
  }
}

∞ Adding metadata to a notification

If you want to add metadata to your request, add a data property to the payload for each desired platform, like so:

{
  "apns": {
    "aps": {
      "alert": "Hello!"
    },
    "data": {
      "some": "metadata",
      "of": "your",
      "choosing": "can",
      "go": "here 😏"
    }
  },
  "fcm": {
    "notification": {
      "title": "Hello",
      "body": "Hello, world!"
    },
    "data": {
      "put": "whatever",
      "you": "need",
      "here": "✨"
    }
  },
  "web": {
    "notification": {
      "title": "Hello",
      "body": "Hello, world!"
    },
    "data": {
      "et": "cetera"
    }
  }
}

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