How to transition from an APNS development to production provider? - ios

Question

The API is written in NodeJS
Currently,
The app is capable of send a push notification in Apple's development environment using the code below.
Getting a BadDeviceToken 400 Error
Also, note development notifications were working (SO will not format my code below):
module.exports.sendNotification = (deviceToken, msg, payload) => {
const jwt = require("jsonwebtoken");
const http2 = require("http2");
const fs = require("fs");
const key = fs.readFileSync(process.env.APNS_KEY, "utf8");
// "iat" should not be older than 1 hr from current time or will get rejected
const token = jwt.sign(
{
iss: process.env.APNS_TEAM_ID, // "team ID" of your developer account
iat: Date.now() / 1000 // Replace with current unix epoch time
},
key,
{
header: {
alg: "ES256",
kid: process.env.APNS_KEY_ID // issuer key which is "key ID" of your p8 file
}
}
);
/*
Use 'https://api.production.push.apple.com' for production build
*/
const host = process.env.APNS_HOST;
const path = `/3/device/${deviceToken}`;
const client = http2.connect(host);
client.on("error", (err) => console.error(err));
const body = {
aps: {
alert: msg,
"content-available": 1,
payload
}
};
const headers = {
":method": "POST",
"apns-topic": process.env.APNS_TOPIC, // your application bundle ID
":scheme": "https",
":path": path,
authorization: `bearer ${token}`
};
const request = client.request(headers);
request.on("response", (headers, flags) => {
for (const name in headers) {
console.log(`${name}: ${headers[name]}`);
}
return {
headers
}
});
request.setEncoding("utf8");
let data = "";
request.on("data", (chunk) => { data += chunk; });
request.write(JSON.stringify(body));
request.on("end", () => {
console.log(`\n${data}`);
client.close();
});
request.end();
};
The desired outcome is to send a push notification using Apple's production APNS environment. My best try at solving this has been swapping the development url for the production, that returns a, "{"reason":"BadDeviceToken"} :status: 400 apns-id: "
Tries so far...
Here are the hosts I'm using:
Production = "https://api.push.apple.com" also tried "https://api.push.apple.com:443"
Development = "https://api.sandbox.push.apple.com"
Other things I've tried:
Certificates instead of tokens; not sure if I'm doing it right. So if you know, please drop the code it.
ChatGPT's sol'n:
const apn = require('apn');
// Path to the certificate file and passphrase (if any) const cert = '/path/to/cert.pem'; const key = '/path/to/key.pem'; const passphrase = 'your_certificate_passphrase';
// Create the APN provider with the certificate and key const provider = new apn.Provider({ cert: cert, key: key, passphrase: passphrase, production: true // set to false for development environment });
// Create the notification payload const payload = new apn.Payload({ alert: 'Hello World!', sound: 'default', badge: 1 });
// Send the notification to a device token const deviceToken = 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'; const note = new apn.Notification(); note.expiry = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 3600; note.payload = payload; note.topic = 'com.example.myapp'; provider.send(note, deviceToken).then(result => { console.log(result); });
I'm not sure where to find the passphrase for above, so I just removed it. The key, I found in the .pem file and just cut and pasted it out of that from the key beginning and end and replaced the old .p8 file text with it.
Also tried, SO answers: How do I switch the certificate from development to production?
Also tried, SO answers: iOS push notification device token for development and production
Also tried, iOS APNS Development [sandbox] vs Production
Also tried, changing the environment under the 'APS Environment' key in the Entitlements File from 'development' to 'production' and then generated a new device token.

Answer 1

When transitioning your APNS API/Backend Side Provider you need to construct the Provider like so...
const fs = require("fs");
const apn = require('apn');
// Create the APN provider with the certificate and key
const key = fs.readFileSync(process.env.APNS_KEY, "utf8");
const cert = fs.readFileSync(process.env.APNS_CERT, "utf8");
const provider = new apn.Provider({
token: {
cert: cert,
key: key,
teamId: process.env.APNS_TEAM_ID,
keyId: process.env.APNS_KEY_ID
},
production: true // set to false for development environment
});
Building the Provider, Cert and Key Look
Note that I'm using the cert from Developer portal AND the key to sign it. This is in the same section of the Apple Developer portal as the Development token (eg the .p8 file). These files (.pem and .p8) begin and end with, "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
", "-----END CERTIFICATE-----", "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
", "-----END PRIVATE KEY-----". You will often see "token" in the instructions online, that is the object you pass into the Provider constructor as an arg. The token includes the cert and key, along with the other fields you see in the code.
NEXT, this took days for me to figure out. You cannot force the Simulator or side loading to create a production Device Token by changing the Entitlements File in XCode to, 'production' instead of 'development'. You MUST (as in there were no Push Notifications making it to my side loaded app through my API to APNS to my device, and I was getting "BadDeviceToken" instead) at least install the TestFlight version of your app in order to get a production Device Token. Once you have that you may pass it to your API, then use it send APNs to device(s).
Init Provider Options
You may also init your Provider like above instead of the "jwt" method. I've tried both and the above way seems the easiest and cleanest (less code).
WATCH OUT for tutorials that claim there is a way to determine between these two tokens, with "
const firstByte = parseInt(deviceToken.substr(0, 2), 16);
// Successfully determines the aps environment
const apsEnvironment = (firstByte & 0x80) ? 'production' : 'development';
"
Notification Content and Delivery
The following goes below the code snippet above...
const notification = new apn.Notification();
notification.alert = {
title: 'Hello World',
body: 'This is a test notification'
};
notification.topic = process.env.APNS_TOPIC;
console.log(`notification ${JSON.stringify(notification)}`)
provider.send(notification, deviceToken).then((result) => {
console.log(JSON.stringify(result));
});
This seems self exclamatory and did not hold me up. Also, there if you go to the definition of Notification, there is a payload attribute which you may define as other tutorials mentions.
Cheers! Happy Hacking!