Apple Developer Generate Push Notification Key

An iOS Push Certificate is required for all iOS apps.

I only see a option Apple Push Notification service SSL (Sandbox & Production) which provides me a.p12 file (not.p8) and I don't even see keyId as the tutorial that I am referring does. Apple Push Notification service (APNs) must know the address of a user's device before it can send notifications to that device. This address takes the form of a device token unique to both the device and your app. At launch time, your app communicates with APNs and receives its device token, which you then forward to your provider server. I've been given a task to (re?)enable push notification for the company iOS app and don't know where to begin. I learned that provisioning profile contains information on which app services are enabled, so I logged into the apple developer center and got to the Certificates,Identifiers & Profiles page, but saw that Development iOS Provisioning Profile was already enabled with Push Notification.

What are iOS Push Certificates?

The Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) is a service created by Apple Inc. in 2009 to securely send push notifications from third party apps to their users' Apple devices.

Your backend sends notifications through Apple's servers to your application. To ensure that unwanted parties are not sending notifications to your application, Apple needs to know that only your servers can connect with theirs. Apple therefore requires you to create an SSL certificate to be able to send push notifications.

The goal of this section is to provision your app with Apple, and grant OneSignal access to manage your notifications.

Requirements:

  • An iOS mobile app. This is not for websites.
  • A Paid Apple Developer Account with Admin Role.
  • A OneSignal Account, if you do not already have one.
  • A Mac computer with Xcode 11+

Step 1: Provisioning

Method 1: Use OneSignal's Automatic Provisioning Tool

Previous Certificate Revokation

Previous p12 Push Certificates for this bundle id will be revoked and cannot be used once you generate a new certificate with this method.

Admin account required: Before you use the Automatic Provisioning tool, log into your Apple Developer account, go to the Membership section, and make sure your role for the team is Admin. If your role is not Admin, you will not be able to use this tool.

To use the Provisioning Tool, simply follow the directions on OneSignal's Provisionator Tool, then continue to Step 4.

Method 2: Create A Certificate Request Manually

Open the Keychain Access app on your Mac OS X system. It may be located in Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access.

Select Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Request a Certificate From a Certificate Authority..

Next, select the Save to disk option and enter your information in the required fields. This creates a certification request file that will be used later.

Step 2: Add OneSignal Identifier

Select your Identifier in your Apple Developer Account under Certificates, IDs & Profiles > Identifiers

Scroll down to the bottom and enable Push Notifications, but do not click Edit.

Next, go to Certificates and create a new certificate by clicking the blue + (plus) button.

Under Services, select Apple Push Notification service SSL (Sandbox & Production) and click Continue.

The certificate will be applicable to both Sandbox and Production environments, so you do not need a separate key for each one.

Choose an App ID from the App ID pop-up menu, and click Continue.

Click Choose File., select the CertSigningRequest file you saved in the first step, click Open, and then click Continue.

Click Download to save the certificate to your computer.

Step 3: Creating a Private Key

Open the .cer file you downloaded in the last step by double-clicking on it in Finder.

After a few seconds, the Keychain Access program should open. Select Login > My Certificates, then right-click on your key in the list and select Export.

Give the file a unique name using the .p12 extension, and click Save. You will have an option to protect the file with a password. If you add a password, you need to enter this same password on OneSignal.

Step 4: Upload Your Push Certificate to OneSignal

In the OneSignal dashboard, select your app from the All Apps page, then go to Settings. Under Native App Platforms, click Apple iOS.

Select the .p12 file you exported (along with a password, if you added one) and click Save.

Note: If you used the OneSignal Provisionator tool to create a .p12 file, a password was generated for you, and is located next to the Download button.

Step 5: Provisioning Profiles

Required for Cordova/PhoneGap, GoNative and Xcode 8-10

5.1 In your Apple Developer Account, on the left to go to Profiles.

5.2 Next find any that are for your app and remove them if they do not have App Groups and Push Notifications in Enabled Capabilities:

5.3 Recreate the ones you need by pressing the '+' button

5.4 When recreating new ones make sure to enter a unique name in the 'Profile Name:' field.

Apple Developer Generate Push Notification Key 2017

Example, if creating an Ad-Hoc Provisioning Profile to test push notifications with a Production Push Certificate .p12 file. Use the format AppName_AdHoc so you know the app and type it is.

5.5 Re-sync your Developer Account in Xcode by going to Xcode > Preferences.. then click on the 'View Details..' button. Lastly, click the refresh button on the bottom left of the popup. See Apple's documentation for more detailed instructions.

5.6 Make sure you pick your new provisioning profile from Build Settings>Code Signing>Provisioning Profile in Xcode.

Done!

You now have a certificate to send push notifications from your iOS app. 🥳

What's Next

Next, install the OneSignal SDK in your app. If you need help, we have a few SDK-specific guides:

iOS SDK Setup
Unity SDK Setup
React Native SDK Setup
Cordova SDK Setup
Ionic SDK Setup
Flutter SDK Setup
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In this tutorial, you use Azure Notification Hubs to send push notifications to an iOS application. You create a blank iOS app that receives push notifications by using the Apple Push Notification service (APNs).

In this tutorial, you take the following steps:

  • Generate the certificate signing request file
  • Request your app for push notifications
  • Create a provisioning profile for the app
  • Configure your notification hub for iOS push notifications
  • Connect your iOS app to notification hubs
  • Send test push notifications
  • Verify that your app receives notifications

The complete code for this tutorial can be found on GitHub.

Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial, you need the following prerequisites:

  • An active Azure account. If you don't have an account, you can create a free Azure account.

  • Latest version of Xcode

  • An iOS version 10 (or later)-capable device

  • Apple Developer Program membership.

    Note

    Because of configuration requirements for push notifications, you must deploy and test push notifications on a physical iOS device (iPhone or iPad) instead of the iOS Simulator.

Completing this tutorial is a prerequisite for all other Notification Hubs tutorials for iOS apps.

Generate the certificate-signing request file

The Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) uses certificates to authenticate your push notifications. Follow these instructions to create the necessary push certificate to send and receive notifications. For more information on these concepts, see the official Apple Push Notification Service documentation.

Generate the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) file, which Apple uses to generate a signed push certificate.

  1. On your Mac, run the Keychain Access tool. It can be opened from the Utilities folder or the Other folder on the Launchpad.

  2. Select Keychain Access, expand Certificate Assistant, and then select Request a Certificate from a Certificate Authority.

    Note

    By default, Keychain Access selects the first item in the list. This can be a problem if you're in the Certificates category and Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority is not the first item in the list. Make sure you have a non-key item, or the Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority key is selected, before generating the CSR (Certificate Signing Request).

  3. Select your User Email Address, enter your Common Name value, make sure that you specify Saved to disk, and then select Continue. Leave CA Email Address blank as it isn't required.

  4. Enter a name for the CSR file in Save As, select the location in Where, and then select Save.

    This action saves the CSR file in the selected location. The default location is Desktop. Remember the location chosen for the file.

Next, register your app with Apple, enable push notifications, and upload the exported CSR to create a push certificate.

Register your app for push notifications

To send push notifications to an iOS app, register your application with Apple, and also register for push notifications.

  1. If you haven't already registered your app, browse to the iOS Provisioning Portal at the Apple Developer Center. Sign in to the portal with your Apple ID, and select Identifiers. Then select + to register a new app.

  2. On the Register a New Identifier screen, select the App IDs radio button. Then select Continue.

  3. Update the following three values for your new app, and then select Continue:

    • Description: Type a descriptive name for your app.

    • Bundle ID: Enter a Bundle ID of the form Organization Identifier.Product Name as mentioned in the App Distribution Guide. The Organization Identifier and Product Name values must match the organization identifier and product name you use when you create your Xcode project. In the following screenshot, the NotificationHubs value is used as an organization identifier and the GetStarted value is used as the product name. Make sure the Bundle Identifier value matches the value in your Xcode project, so that Xcode uses the correct publishing profile.

    • Push Notifications: Check the Push Notifications option in the Capabilities section.

      This action generates your App ID and requests that you confirm the information. Select Continue, then select Register to confirm the new App ID.

      After you select Register, you see the new App ID as a line item in the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles page.

  4. In the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles page, under Identifiers, locate the App ID line item that you just created, and select its row to display the Edit your App ID Configuration screen.

Creating a Certificate for Notification Hubs

A certificate is required to enable the notification hub to work with APNS. This can be done in one of two ways:

  1. Create a .p12 that can be uploaded directly to Notification Hub.
  2. Create a .p8 that can be used for token-based authentication (the newer approach).

The newer approach has a number of benefits (compared to using certificates) as documented in Token-based (HTTP/2) authentication for APNS. However, steps have been provided for both approaches. /american-truck-simulator-key-generator-free.html.

OPTION 1: Creating a .p12 push certificate that can be uploaded directly to Notification Hub

  1. Scroll down to the checked Push Notifications option, and then select Configure to create the certificate.

  2. The Apple Push Notification service SSL Certificates window appears. Select the Create Certificate button under the Development SSL Certificate section.

    The Create a new Certificate screen is displayed.

    Note

    This tutorial uses a development certificate. The same process is used when registering a production certificate. Just make sure that you use the same certificate type when sending notifications.

  3. Select Choose File, browse to the location where you saved the CSR file from the first task, and then double-click the certificate name to load it. Then select Continue.

  4. After the portal creates the certificate, select the Download button. Save the certificate, and remember the location to which it's saved.

    The certificate is downloaded and saved to your computer in your Downloads folder.

    Note

    By default, the downloaded development certificate is named aps_development.cer.

  5. Double-click the downloaded push certificate aps_development.cer. This action installs the new certificate in the Keychain, as shown in the following image:

    Note

    Although the name in your certificate might be different, the name will be prefixed with Apple Development iOS Push Services.

  6. In Keychain Access, right-click the new push certificate that you created in the Certificates category. Select Export, name the file, select the .p12 format, and then select Save.

    You can choose to protect the certificate with a password, but this is optional. Click OK if you want to bypass password creation. Make a note of the file name and location of the exported .p12 certificate. They are used to enable authentication with APNs.

    Note

    Your .p12 file name and location might be different than what is pictured in this tutorial.

OPTION 2: Creating a .p8 certificate that can be used for token-based authentication

  1. Make note of the following details:

    • App ID Prefix (this is a Team ID)
    • Bundle ID

  2. Back in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, click Keys.

    Note

    If you already have a key configured for APNS, you can re-use the .p8 certificate that you downloaded right after it was created. If so, you can ignore steps 3 through 5.

  3. Click the + button (or the Create a key button) to create a new key.

  4. Provide a suitable Key Name value, then check the Apple Push Notifications service (APNs) option, and then click Continue, followed by Register on the next screen.

  5. Click Download and then move the .p8 file (prefixed with AuthKey_) to a secure local directory, then click Done.

    Note

    Be sure to keep your .p8 file in a secure place (and save a backup). After downloading your key, it cannot be re-downloaded as the server copy is removed.

  6. On Keys, click on the key that you just created (or an existing key if you have chosen to use that instead).

  7. Make note of the Key ID value.

  8. Open your .p8 certificate in a suitable application of your choice such as Visual Studio Code then make note of the key value. This is the value between -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY----- and -----END PRIVATE KEY----- .

    Note

    This is the token value that will be used later to configure Notification Hub.

At the end of these steps you should have the following information for use later in Configure your notification hub with APNs information:

  • Team ID (see step 1)
  • Bundle ID (see step 1)
  • Key ID (see step 7)
  • Token value i.e. the .p8 key value (see step 8)

Create a provisioning profile for the app

  1. Return to the iOS Provisioning Portal, select Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, select Profiles from the left menu, and then select + to create a new profile. The Register a New Provisioning Profile screen appears.

  2. Select iOS App Development under Development as the provisioning profile type, and then select Continue.

  3. Next, select the app ID you created from the App ID drop-down list, and select Continue.

  4. In the Select certificates window, select the development certificate that you use for code signing, and select Continue. This certificate isn't the push certificate you created. If one does not exist, you must create it. If a certificate does exist, skip to the next step. To create a development certificate if one does not exist:

    1. If you see No Certificates are available, select Create Certificate.
    2. In the Software section, select Apple Development. Then select Continue.
    3. In the Create a New Certificate screen, select Choose File.
    4. Browse to the Certificate Signing Request certificate you created earlier, select it, and then select Open.
    5. Select Continue.
    6. Download the development certificate, and remember the location to which it's saved.

  5. Return to the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles page, select Profiles from the left menu, and then select + to create a new profile. The Register a New Provisioning Profile screen appears.

  6. In the Select certificates window, select the development certificate that you just created. Then select Continue.

  7. Next, select the devices to use for testing, and select Continue.

  8. Finally, choose a name for the profile in Provisioning Profile Name, and select Generate.

  9. When the new provisioning profile is created, select Download. Remember the location to which it's saved.

  10. Browse to the location of the provisioning profile, and then double-click it to install it on your Xcode development machine.

Create a notification hub

In this section, you create a notification hub and configure authentication with APNs by using either the .p12 push certificate or token-based authentication. If you want to use a notification hub that you've already created, you can skip to step 5.

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

  2. Select All services on the left menu, and then select Notification Hubs in the Mobile section. Select the star icon next to the service name to add the service to the FAVORITES section on the left menu. After you add Notification Hubs to FAVORITES, select it on the left menu.

  3. On the Notification Hubs page, select Add on the toolbar.

  4. On the Notification Hub page, do the following steps:

    1. Enter a name in Notification Hub.

    2. Enter a name in Create a new namespace. A namespace contains one or more hubs.

    3. Select a value from the Location drop-down list box. This value specifies the location in which you want to create the hub.

    4. Select an existing resource group in Resource Group, or create a name for a new resource group.

    5. Select Create.

  5. Select Notifications (the bell icon), and then select Go to resource. You can also refresh the list on the Notification Hubs page and select your hub.

  6. Select Access Policies from the list. Note that the two connection strings are available to you. You'll need them later to handle push notifications.

    Important

    Do not use the DefaultFullSharedAccessSignature policy in your application. This is meant to be used in your back end only.

Configure your notification hub with APNs information

Under Notification Services, select Apple (APNS) then follow the appropriate steps based on the approach you chose previously in the Creating a Certificate for Notification Hubs section.

Note

Use the Production for Application Mode only if you want to send push notifications to users who purchased your app from the store.

OPTION 1: Using a .p12 push certificate

  1. Select Certificate.

  2. Select the file icon.

  3. Select the .p12 file that you exported earlier, and then select Open.

  4. If required, specify the correct password.

  5. Select Sandbox mode.

  6. Select Save.

OPTION 2: Using token-based authentication

  1. Select Token.

  2. Enter the following values that you acquired earlier:

    • Key ID
    • Bundle ID
    • Team ID
    • Token

  3. Choose Sandbox

  4. Select Save.

You've now configured your notification hub with APNs. You also have the connection strings to register your app and send push notifications.

Connect your iOS app to Notification Hubs

  1. In Xcode, create a new iOS project and select the Single View Application template.

  2. When setting the options for your new project, make sure to use the same Product Name and Organization Identifier that you used when you set the bundle identifier in the Apple Developer portal.

  3. Under Project Navigator, select your project name under Targets, then select the Signing & Capabilities tab. Make sure you select the appropriate Team for your Apple Developer account. XCode should automatically pull down the Provisioning Profile you created previously based on your bundle identifier.

    If you don't see the new provisioning profile that you created in Xcode, try refreshing the profiles for your signing identity. Click Xcode on the menu bar, click Preferences, click the Account tab, click the View Details button, click your signing identity, and then click the refresh button in the bottom-right corner.

  4. In the Signing & Capabilities tab, select + Capability. Double-click Push Notifications to enable it.

  5. Add the Azure Notification Hubs SDK modules.

    You can integrate the Azure Notification Hubs SDK in your app by using Cocoapods or by manually adding the binaries to your project.

    • Integration via Cocoapods

      Add the following dependencies to your podfile to include Azure Notification Hubs SDK into your app.

      Run pod install to install your newly defined pod and open your .xcworkspace.

      Note

      If you see an error such as [!] Unable to find a specification for AzureNotificationHubs-iOSwhile running pod install, please run pod repo update to get the latest pods from the Cocoapods repository, and then run pod install.

    • Integration via Carthage

      Add the following dependencies to your Cartfile to include Azure Notification Hubs SDK into your app.

      Next, update, and build dependencies:

      For more information about using Carthage, see the Carthage GitHub repository.

    • Integration by copying the binaries into your project

      1. Download the Azure Notification Hubs SDK framework provided as a zip file and unzip it.

      2. In Xcode, right-click your project and click the Add Files to option to add the WindowsAzureMessaging.framework folder to your Xcode project. Select Options and make sure Copy items if needed is selected, and then click Add.

  6. Add a new header file to your project named Constants.h. To do so, right-click the project name and select New File... Then select Header File. This file holds the constants for your notification hub. Then select Next. Name the file Constants.h.

  7. Add the following code to the Constants.h file:

  8. Add the implementation file for Constants.h. To do so, right-click the project name and select New File... Select Objective-C File, and then select Next. Name the file Constants.m.

  9. Open the Constants.m file and replace its contents with the following code. Replace the string literal placeholders NotificationHubConnectionString and NotificationHubConnectionString with the hub name and the DefaultListenSharedAccessSignature, respectively, as you previously obtained from the portal:

  10. Open your project's AppDelegate.h file and replace its contents with the following code:

  11. In the project's AppDelegate.m file, add the following import statements:

  12. Also in your AppDelegate.m file, add the following line of code in the didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method based on your version of iOS. This code registers your device handle with APNs:

  13. In the same AppDelegate.m file, replace all the code after didFinishLaunchingWithOptions with the following code:

    This code connects to the notification hub using the connection information you specified in Constants.h. It then gives the device token to the notification hub so that the notification hub can send notifications.

NotificationDetailViewController

  1. Dvdfab 9 registration key generator. Similar the previous instructions, add another header file named NotificationDetailViewController.h. Replace the contents of the new header file with the following code:

  2. Add the implementation file NotificationDetailViewController.m. Replace the contents of the file with the following code, which implements the UIViewController methods:

Push Notification Meaning

ViewController

  1. In the project's ViewController.h file, add the following import statements:

  2. Also in ViewController.h, add the following property declarations after the @interface declaration:

  3. In the project's ViewController.m implementation file, replace the contents of the file with the following code:

  4. To verify there are no failures, build and run the app on your device.

Apple Developer Generate Push Notification Key 2017

Send test push notifications

You can test receiving notifications in your app with the Test Send option in the Azure portal. It sends a test push notification to your device.

Push notifications are normally sent in a back-end service like Mobile Apps or ASP.NET using a compatible library. If a library isn't available for your back end, you can also use the REST API directly to send notification messages.

Here is a list of some other tutorials you might want to review for sending notifications:

  • Azure Mobile Apps: For an example of how to send notifications from a Mobile Apps back end integrated with Notification Hubs, see Add Push Notifications to your iOS App.
  • ASP.NET: Use Notification Hubs to push notifications to users.
  • Azure Notification Hub Java SDK: See How to use Notification Hubs from Java for sending notifications from Java. This has been tested in Eclipse for Android Development.
  • PHP: How to use Notification Hubs from PHP.

Verify that your app receives push notifications

To test push notifications on iOS, you must deploy the app to a physical iOS device. You cannot send Apple push notifications by using the iOS Simulator.

  1. Run the app and verify that registration succeeds, and then press OK.

  2. Next you send a test push notification from the Azure portal, as described in the previous section.

  3. The push notification is sent to all devices that are registered to receive the notifications from the particular Notification Hub.

Apple Push Notification Certificate Settings

Next steps

Apple Push Notification Service Iphone

In this simple example, you broadcasted push notifications to all your registered iOS devices. To learn how to push notifications to specific iOS devices, advance to the following tutorial: