web-push-api-example

How to run the project locally

• Open a new terminal session.
• CD to the root folder of the project and run yarn to install all Node packages.
• Then run yarn start to start the project and automatically launch a browser.
• Click Subscribe Web Push and copy a subscription JSON object in a text box.
• Use subscription object on a server side to send push notification.
• This project requires Node.js version >= 14.

Send push notification from a server

• Set a push subscription object that we get after a user's subscribed web push in PushMessageFromServer.js
• Then execute the following command:

  $ node PushMessageFromServer.js

Trouble shooting

Notification does not always show as banner on Windows.

• Try to turn off focus assist.

No push notification message at all

• You may need to manually update service worker. Open Chrome developer tool with ctrl+shift+i keys and then go to application tab. Then click Service Workers node > Skip waiting service worker.

Key concept

• Generate publish and private key public and private keys with the following code

  const vapIdKeys = webPush.generateVAPIDKeys();
  const vapidKeys = webPush.generateVAPIDKeys();
  console.log(vapidKeys);

• Use a public key in subscription script (App.tsx)
• User subscribes web push with subscription script.
• Use both public, private keys and subscription object on server script (PushMessageFromServer.js) to send push to a user.
• Subscription object is what we store in a database. It is an identity of a subscribed user.
• Use service worker script (service-worker.js) to handle push notification and customize how to show it to a user
• You can test push with a localhost and do need to deploy to public URL

Get subscription object on a published website

• For the main project in .NET Thailand repository, it can be accessed as http://www.dotnetthailand.com/web-push-api-example/.

Useful articles for .NET Web Push

• https://www.pluralsight.com/guides/html5-desktop-notifications-with-react
• https://blog.elmah.io/how-to-send-push-notifications-to-a-browser-in-asp-net-core/
• https://www.bartvanuden.com/2018/01/23/push-notifications-to-your-pwa-with-asp-net-core-2-0-and-aurelia/
• https://www.tpeczek.com/2017/12/push-notifications-and-aspnet-core-part.html
• https://stackoverflow.com/a/47617427/1872200

Upgrade React to major release version

yarn upgrade react --latest
yarn upgrade react-dom --latest
yarn upgrade react-dom --latest
yarn upgrade @types/react --latest
yarn upgrade @types/react-dom --latest