Push notifications are great. It is one of the most effective ways to increase user engagement and retention. They keep users engaged with your app. They provide real-time interaction. They enable cool social features like chat.
Parse Server, the open source Parse backend supports sending iOS and Android push notifications. The Parse Server also has a PushAdaptor which lets Parse Server send push notifications using any push provider you want.
One way to send Push Notifications is to use cloud code functions that validate the user and the data to be pushed before sending them. This is the recommended way to send Pushes. You must configure your clients to receive push using this guide.
Another way to send push notifications to particular users from within an app is to send the pushes directly from the client code but this exposes a security risk as clients may not be trusted to send push notifications directly. For example, a hacker could steal your app’s keys and send pushes himself without even using the app.
Client Push is disabled by default on NodeChef, but this feature can still be useful for initial prototyping if you want to hook up push notifications without diving into Cloud Code as you iterate. But as you scale to a production app, you really should not have Client Push enabled. NodeChef will support Client Push Notifications from Parse Server version 2.2.19 or higher. To upgrade your Parse Server to 2.2.19, simply log into your account. Click Task Manager → Actions. Click on App Actions for the drop down menu. Then click on Parse Server Settings. Select the required version and then click Update.
Once you have updated your Parse Server version to 2.2.19 or higher, you can then enable Client Push by clicking Push under App Actions.
We hope you will be careful in enabling Client Push for your app. As always, feel free to ask questions or let us know what you think.