#mpns

Send toast and live tile updates to Windows Phones through the Microsoft Push Notification Service (MPNS). Intended for the cloud and Node.js.

Installation

Via npm:

$ npm install mpns

As a submodule of your Git project

$ git submodule add http://github.com/jeffwilcox/mpns.git mpns
$ git submodule update --init

Usage

Load in the module

var mpns = require('mpns');

Sending a toast

To send a toast, simply call the sendToast method on mpns.

var mpns = require('mpns');
mpns.sendToast(pushUri, 'Bold Text', 'This is normal text');

// Optional callback
mpns.sendToast(pushUri, text1, text2, callback);

Each of the methods that send tile and toast notifications have two alternative parameter signatures:

send*(pushUri, [options], [callback]) 
send*(pushUri, string1, string2, ..., [callback])

The ordering of the parameters in the non-object calling method assumes ordering as documented in the toast or tile-specific sections below.

For toasts, the properties and ordering for them:

• text1 the text of the toast, this first text will appear bold on the phone
• text2 additional toast text, will appear in the normal font. It does not wrap.
• param optional URI parameter within your application specifying the XAML page to open within the app, along with any query string parameters for the page's context

Sending a live tile update

To send a tile update, call the sendTile method on mpns.

It is recommended that you use the options syntax for this call as it is possible for the live tile update to include just one component in the update, say the tile count, and not update other properties. To clear the value of a property, simply pass null as the value.

The option names or ordering for parameters is:

• backgroundImage URI to the background image for the tile. Beware that the URI may be restricted to the whitelisted domain names that you provided in your application.
• count the number to appear in the tile
• title the title of the tile
• backBackgroundImage URI to the image to be on the flip side of the tile
• backTitle optional title for the back tile
• backContent optional content for the back tile (appears in a larger font size)
• id optional ID for a secodary tile

Some devices support an enhanced tile format called a "flip tile", which supports some additional parameters. This kind of tile can be sent using the sendFlipTile method, which supports all of the above parameters as well as:

• smallBackgroundImage URI to the background image for the tile when it is shrunk to small size
• wideBackgroundImage URI to the background image for the tile when it is expanded to wide size
• wideBackContent content for the back tile (appears in a larger font size) when the tile is expanded to wide size
• wideBackBackgroundImage URI to the image to be on the flip side of the tile when the tile is expanded to wide size

Create a new notification object

You can create a new notification object (either of type live tile or toast). This is the original style for this module but it is now recommended that you use the shorter send* syntax on the mpns object itself. This aligns with the WNS module for Windows in its simplicity.

Property names for the notification object directly correlate to the names used in the MPNS XML payload as documented on MSDN. Properties can either be set directly on the object (such as toast.text1) or by passing the values in as options to the constructor.

options = { text1: 'Hello!', text2: 'Great to see you today.' };
var toast = new mpns.toast(options);

Sending a raw notification

When creating the notification object, either provide the raw payload first, or as the options.payload property.

var raw = new mpns.rawNotification('My Raw Payload', options);

Today the type on the request is set to UTF8 explicitly.

Using authenticated channels (MTLS)

You may use authenticated channels for the push notifications. Further information can be found here:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/ff941099(v=vs.105).aspx

Authenticated channels require a TLS client certificate for client authentication against the MPNS server. The TLS certificate is registered in your Microsoft Phone Development Dashboard. The CN of the certificate is used in the APP as Service Name in the HttpNotificationChannel constructor.

To use authentication you must provide the client certificate (including the private key) to the options of the send* functions. The client certificate is used when the pushURI is a https URI.

The following options from tls.connect() can be specified:

• pfx Certificate, Private key and CA certificates to use for SSL. Default null.
• key Private key to use for SSL. Default null.
• passphrase A string of passphrase for the private key or pfx. Default null.
• cert Public x509 certificate to use. Default null.
• ca An authority certificate or array of authority certificates to check the remote host against.
• ciphers A string describing the ciphers to use or exclude.
• rejectUnauthorized If true, the server certificate is verified against the list of supplied CAs. An 'error' event is emitted if verification fails. Verification happens at the connection level, before the HTTP request is sent. Default true.

var options = { 
	text1: 'Hello!',
	text2: 'Great to see you today.'
	cert: fs.readFileSync('mycert.pem'),
	key: fs.readFileSync('mycertkey.pem')
	};

mpns.sendToast(httpspushUri, options, callback);

Results object information

A results object is passed back through the callback and has important information from MPNS.

• deviceConnectionStatus: The device status as reported by the service.
• notificationStatus: The status of your provided notification.
• subscriptionStatus: The status of the subscription URI.

The object will also contain all the key fields for your toast or live tile update, plus the pushType. This makes it easy to store this information in a history log somewhere in the ether.

Handling Errors

It is very important as a consumer that you store appropriate actionable data about failed push notification attempts. As a result, the callback's first parameter (err) is set to the standard results object as well as a few additional fields depending on the returned status code from the server.

Remember to take action on that information in order to be a good MPNS citizen. These values may be set in the error object and of interest to you:

• minutesToDelay: If this is present, it is the suggested minimum amount of time that you should wait until making another request to the same subscription URI. For HTTP 412s, for example, the minimum time is one hour and so the returned value defaults to 61.
• shouldDeleteChannel: If this is set to true, the channel is gone according to MPNS. Delete it from your channel/subscription database and never look back.
• innerError: If an error is captured while trying to make the HTTP request, this will be set to that error callback instance.

A note about different Windows Phone versions

This module permits sending toasts and tiles supported only on specific versions of Windows Phone. If you use those features on a version where they are unsupported, unfortunately notifications may not be received, or will error out the subscription.

Take care when registering your subscription channels with your cloud service to include the application platform version of the app (7.1 for Mango apps). To rock, maybe also grab the OS version and deployed app version. That information can be helpful when supporting customers.

Here is a list of features that are only supported in given versions of Windows Phone:

• For Windows Phone 7.0
  • Do not use the param or other fields as indicated below and it should work OK.
• Only supported in Windows Phone 7.5+ (Mango/WP 7.1 OS)
  • Including the param field when sending a push
  • Including the id parameter when sending a tile
• Only supported in Windows Phone 7.8+ (including Windows Phone 8)
  • Sending "flip" tiles

Credits

NPM module written and maintained by Jeff Wilcox with contributions from:

• Jeff Wilcox : https://github.com/jeffwilcox
• Shawn Burke : https://github.com/shawnburke
• Jeremie Pelletier : https://github.com/ddude
• Yavor Georgiev: https://github.com/yavorg

License

Copyright Jeff Wilcox

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Changelog

1.2.5:

• Adds support for TLS/HTTPS authenticated push channels

1.2.4:

• Fixes a small typo in smallBackgroundImage (thanks @rs)
• Adds error handling when URLs cannot be resolved

1.2.3:

• Uses url.parse to support hostnames with ports

1.2.2:

• Allows clearing a property value for tiles

1.2.1:

• Renames sendRawNotification to sendRaw
• Renames error parameter to innerError
• Fixes issue #8 that sendRaw wasn't working

1.2.0:

• Adds support for sendFlipTile method to support the new kinds of tiles added in 7.8+ devices
• Adds support for secondary tiles via the id parameter

1.1.1:

• Adds parameter validation that will throw, for robustness.

1.1.0:

• Adds sendText and sendTile methods more consistent with the WNS module, removing the need to create a new object, only to then call send on it with a push URI.

1.0.4:

• Adds support for Node.js through 0.9.0

1.0.3:

• Addresses issues when using numbers to set the tile data
• Cleans up string encoding functions.

1.0.2:

• Fixes some small formatting issues.

1.0.1:

• Adds raw notification type support.

1.0.0:

• Initial implementation offering basic live tile and toast (no raw) support.