Implemented PUSH notifications for XenForo

Alpha1

Well-known member
The responsive design already makes XenForo great on mobile devices. We almost do not need an app. But one thing is missing: Instant PUSH notifications.

If XenForo would have PUSH notifications then users could be notified of new alerts , events on their mobile device, in their browser, etc. This keeps users up to date and pulls off site users back onto the website.

Possibly with the addition of mini-apps.
 
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Well..... this certainly saves me from making a similar thread.

As I imagined it earlier today..... I figure we need a real basic app for android, iOS, blackberry and windows phone users.
The app would basically just accept (and store) login data from the user and thats essentially all it would need.
Each app is just a client that will receive push notifications. User preferences as to what notifications they want to receive on mobile devices can be built into xenForo user preferences.

I admit, I dont know anything about PUSH notifications or what it would take to set all this up but what I do know is, the apps themselves would be unparalleled in their simplicity meaning precious little to maintain and upgrade (dont think it would ever need a single update).

PUSH is the way forward.... but I'd still be happy with a really basic PULL app that queries xF at intervals for updates.
@Mike it would be amazing to have your feedback here since a 'mobile app' is discussed frequently - can you unveil any thoughts here?
 
The app would basically just accept (and store) login data from the user and thats essentially all it would need.
Each app is just a client that will receive push notifications.
Apple appstore denies any apps that only behave in this fashion, and I believe Android appstore is recently doing the same.
 
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/bd-pushover-integration.3047/

Pushover I think is way to expensive, 5$/user + only 7000 free messages. After which 10000 messages will cost 50$! That is way more expensive than most bulk email providers.
There's also this add-on for Pushover http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xen-pushover.3039/. Note the price differences are to do with the payment model (one is subscription based and the other includes all future updates and support).

The $5 cost per user is for them buying the app. That's only a little more expensive than Tapatalk Pro and users have had no problems buying that app for forums that support Tapatalk. As for the 7000 free messages, that is per month. You could use this service for say, premium members on the site, so limiting the amount of messages per month and if premium membership is chargeable then some money could go towards additional messages if required.
 
There's also this add-on for Pushover http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xen-pushover.3039/. Note the price differences are to do with the payment model (one is subscription based and the other includes all future updates and support).

The $5 cost per user is for them buying the app. That's only a little more expensive than Tapatalk Pro and users have had no problems buying that app for forums that support Tapatalk. As for the 7000 free messages, that is per month. You could use this service for say, premium members on the site, so limiting the amount of messages per month and if premium membership is chargeable then some money could go towards additional messages if required.

Agree with you on all points. I am not to concerned about the cost of the XF addons. Both devs have excellent plugins.

Currently I am working on migrating a VB forum to XF with WP front end. Many of our users use TapaTalk/Forum Runner only for push notification. (Also mobile theme is VB 4 doesn't help)

However with the excellent response design on XF and WP I would like people to use the mobile HTML more than using TapaTalk/Forum Runner apps. Many of the features won't be available through the apps :(

So push notifications is essential and this does solve my problem but isn't really affordable (Pushover). Time to developer our own apps? maybe..
 
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True.... what a PITA. It would be nice if browsers starting bundling PUSH support natively without the need for user intervention
 
The only one if those items that doesn't require some sort of software to be installed on the computer is the Safari one. Everything else is push notifications for some sort of installed application/browser extension.
Interesting. A few days ago I accessed a website and got a browser notice asking if I agreed to the website sending notifications to my browser. I am using firefox 28 without any related addons, so I assume that this is something new.
 
I've been looking into the same, bd-Pushover seems like the only available option but I don't want to spend money right now.

My objective is to let Xenforo push in alerts & stats as a site admin. Currently I'm trying to get it to push Daily Stats like number of new posts, threads, users joined to my Pushover client on Android. I'll be working on to build a simple addon meant for site admins.

Possible notifications.

- Daily Report of Forums stats.
- Post is reported.
- New user posts for the first time. (so that I can welcome them)
- Server (VPS) stats (this will require a shell script)


7500 messages which is the monthly quota of Pushover should be sufficient in this case.
 
I guess it will be a year or two before we can get push notifications that members won't have to buy, that isn't tapatalk.
 
I guess it will be a year or two before we can get push notifications that members won't have to buy, that isn't tapatalk.
Yep... personally, I'm just crossing my fingers that iOS8 will add Safari push notifications like the OS X version of Safari does.

Seeing fairly consistent growth on users using the Safari push notifications for OS X, but whenever it's enabled for iOS, I suspect that growth will go up by 10x at least.

upload_2014-4-24_10-44-16.webp
 
Interesting. A few days ago I accessed a website and got a browser notice asking if I agreed to the website sending notifications to my browser. I am using firefox 28 without any related addons, so I assume that this is something new.

Hmm... Do you happen to recall the website?

Unfortunately I do not. Hopefully I will run into the link again, as I can not find it.

Here is an example:

push.webp

Firefox 28 without add-ons - Windows 7
Source: https://community.nodebb.org/

@digitalpoint please check that functionality and let us know if this is good news! :D
 
Unless I'm missing something, the webpage has to be open in your browser for those notifications to work and it's done via JavaScript... it doesn't send stuff to any sort of push server that notifies the computer or even Firefox if it's not on the page you want to get a notice about.
 
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