How can I send a Push Notification through Parse.Com using Delphi? - delphi

Question

I need to send a Push notification out through Parse.com's API using Delphi.
I see there is a TParseApi but the documentation is, as usual, rather sparse on the subject.
How can I do this?

Answer 1

Drop a TParseProvider and a TBackendPush component onto a form or datamodule. Connect them and enter your credentials in the appropriate properties of the provider. Set the backend Message property to the message to send and call Push.

Answer 2

There are at least three ways of doing this:
1) A direct method would be to create your own HTTP request with custom headers and JSON
Procedure TForm1.ParseDotComPushNotification(pushMessage: string);
var
parseDotComUrl: string;
JSON: TStringStream;
webRequest: TIDHttp;
response: string;
whereJson: TJSONObject;
alertJson: TJSONObject;
mainJsonObject: TJSONObject;
begin
parseDotComUrl := 'https://api.parse.com/1/push';
// Modify the JSON as required to push to whomever you want to.
// This one is set up to push to EVERYONE.
// JSON := TStringStream.Create('{ "where": {}, ' + '"data" : {"alert":"'
// + pushMessage + '"}' + '}', TEncoding.UTF8);
mainJsonObject := TJSONObject.Create;
whereJson := TJSONObject.Create;
mainJsonObject.AddPair(TJSONPair.Create('where', whereJson));
alertJson := TJSONObject.Create;
alertJson.AddPair(TJSONPair.Create('alert', pushMessage));
mainJsonObject.AddPair(TJSONPair.Create('data', alertJson));
JSON := TStringStream.Create(mainJsonObject.ToJSON);
mainJsonObject.Free; // free all the child objects.
webRequest := TIDHttp.Create(nil);
webRequest.Request.Connection := 'Keep-Alive';
webRequest.Request.CustomHeaders.Clear;
webRequest.Request.CustomHeaders.AddValue('X-Parse-Application-Id',
'YourApplicationID');
webRequest.Request.CustomHeaders.AddValue('X-Parse-REST-API-KEY',
'YourRestApiKey');
webRequest.Request.ContentType := 'application/json';
webRequest.Request.CharSet := 'utf-8';
webRequest.Request.ContentLength := JSON.Size;
try
try
response := webRequest.Post(parseDotComUrl, JSON);
except
on E: Exception do
begin
showmessage(response);
end;
end;
finally
webRequest.Free;
JSON.Free;
end;
end;
Thus bypassing the need for TParseApi
2) Based on UweRabbe's answer, you can also do it like this in code:
procedure TForm1.parseProviderCodeButtonClick(Sender: TObject);
var
myParseProvider: TParseProvider;
myBackendPush: TBackendPush;
myStrings: Tstrings;
whereJson: TJSONObject;
alertJson: TJSONObject;
mainJsonObject: TJSONObject;
begin
mainJsonObject := TJSONObject.Create;
whereJson := TJSONObject.Create;
mainJsonObject.AddPair(TJSONPair.Create('where', whereJson));
alertJson := TJSONObject.Create;
alertJson.AddPair(TJSONPair.Create('alert', pushMessage));
mainJsonObject.AddPair(TJSONPair.Create('data', alertJson));
myParseProvider := TParseProvider.Create(nil);
myParseProvider.ApiVersion := '1';
myParseProvider.ApplicationID := 'YourApplicationID';
myParseProvider.MasterKey := 'YourMasterKey';
myParseProvider.RestApiKey := 'YourRestApiKey';
myBackendPush := TBackendPush.Create(nil);
myBackendPush.Provider := myParseProvider;
// myBackendPush.Message := 'Hello world';
myStrings := TStringList.Create;
myStrings.Clear;
// I like putting the message in when I generate the JSON for the Target
// (since it seems I have to do it anyways, my not do it all in one place).
// You could however us TBackendPush.Message as I've commented out above.
// myStrings.Add('{ "where": { }, "data" : {"alert":"goodbye world"}}');
myStrings.Add(mainJsonObject.ToJSON);
myBackendPush.Target := myStrings;
myStrings.Free;
mainJsonObject.Free; // free all the child objects.
myBackendPush.Push;
myBackendPush.Free;
myParseProvider.Free;
end;
3) And to round this out into one complete answer (again based on UweRabbe's answer)
On your form/datamodule:
Place a TParseProvider
Place a TBackendPush - this should automatically set its Provider filed to the name of the TParseProvider you created in the previous step.
Set the TBackendPush's ApplicationID, MasterKey, RestApiKey, and Message properties
Set the TBackendPush's Push method from code.
e.g.,
procedure TForm1.Button1(Sender: TObject);
begin
BackendPush1.Push;
end;