Push Notifications with NodeJS backend - ios

Question

I currently am looking to do push notifications for an iOS app. I use PostgresSQL and NodeJS for the backend and as I look online, there doesnt seem to be a direct way to implement PEER TO PEER push notifications, between two devices. Any help from people with experience would be very helpful.

Answer 1

You can segment users you wish to send individual messages to using the Parse SDK. Their service is retiring in January, but you can still host your own MongoDB instance and retain the full functionality of their platform.
Register your logged in user to receive push notifications:
UIUserNotificationSettings *settings = [UIUserNotificationSettings settingsForTypes:types categories:nil];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] registerUserNotificationSettings:settings];
Implement the didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken method in your AppDelegate
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:(NSData *)newDeviceToken {
NSLog(#"didRegisterForRemoteNotifications");
// Store the deviceToken in the current installation and save it to Parse.
PFInstallation *currentInstallation = [PFInstallation currentInstallation];
[currentInstallation setDeviceTokenFromData:newDeviceToken];
if ([PFUser currentUser]) {
[currentInstallation setObject:[PFUser currentUser] forKey:#"user"];
}
[currentInstallation saveInBackground];
}
This creates a pointer to the User's account which we'll use to segment the user with this:
NSString *toUserObjectId = someUser.objectId; //someUser is a 'PFUser' object
// segment the user
PFQuery *innerQuery = [PFUser query];
[innerQuery whereKey:#"objectId" equalTo:toUserObjectId];
PFQuery *query = [PFInstallation query];
[query whereKey:#"user" matchesQuery:innerQuery];
NSDictionary *pushData = #{
#"alert": #"some message",
// #"p": someStringPayload,
#"badge": #"Increment",
#"sound": #"cheering.caf",
};
PFPush *push = [[PFPush alloc] init];
[push setData:pushData];
//[push expireAfterTimeInterval:interval];
[push setQuery:query];
[push sendPushInBackground];
If you're going this route, I'd start a new app on their existing service, then migrate somewhere else. Hope this helps.