Set Up iOS for Mobile App Messages

Goal

Set up an iOS app so that you can send push notifications and your mobile users can receive them in their app.

The owner of an iOS app must enable notification feature in the Apple Developer Member Center. Mobile app messages must be configured and enabled for each app separately.

During the certificate creation process, the provisioning profile might become invalid. During that time, push notifications are not be sent. While enablement of the provisioning profile can be done with a click of a button, there may still be some “down time involved”. As such please agree with the marketer on a timeframe to create the new certificate.

Procedure

1.

Log in to your account in the Apple Developer Member Center.
Apple Developer Member Center: Login page.

2.

Locate your explicit App ID (also known as a Bundle Identifier).
iOS documentation, About Bundle IDs.
If you have not yet registered an explicit App ID, register it now.
iOS documentation, Registering App IDs.

⇒

An explicit App ID is available for your app. Make sure that you select the Explicit App ID. The explicit ID uniquely identifies the application. The Bundle ID that you define must match the Bundle Identifier for your app in Xcode. In the App Services section, make sure to Push Notifications is enabled (option is ticked).

3.

Enable push notifications for your app.
iOS documentation, Enabling Push Notifications .

⇒	Mobile app messaging is enabled for your app (but not implemented in your app code).

4.

Create an Apple Push Notification service SSL Certificate.
Create a Universal Push Notification Client SSL Certificate

In order to create SSL certificate you will need a Certificate Signing Request (CSR).To produce CSR please follow the steps below:

Open Keychain Access on your Mac (located in Applications/Utilities).
Open Preferences and click Certificates.
Choose Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Request a Certificate From a Certificate Authority.
Enter your user email address and common name. Use the same address and name as you used to register in the iOS Developer Program. No CA Email Address is required.
Select the options “Saved to disk” (do NOT choose Let me specify key per information) click Continue.
Specify a filename and click Save.
You have now created the certificate request(CSR).

Keep the CSR and use it during the creation of SSL certificate process

5.

Export a p12 certificate.

Export the p12 certificate and make sure you assign a password to it

6.

Upload the certificate to App Settings

Follow the below steps to upload the new certificate to Appoxee:

In the Appoxee website, go to the Apps tab, choose your application and scroll down to the Certificate section.
Click Replace Certificate
In the dialog window:
- Enter the app Bundle ID
- Choose File to browse and select the p12 certificate file.
- Next, enter the Certificate Password and click Update.

Validate that if the app is configured on Appoxee as “Production” on the App setting, the app is compiled as production.

Or, if the app is configured on Appoxee as “Development” on the App setting, the app is compiled as development.

7.

Manage your provisioning profile in Xcode.
The process to create a p12 certificate might cause invalidation of the provisioning profile. As such, please verify that the provisioning profile is still valid.
iOS documentation, Maintaining Identifiers, Devices, and Profiles