Xamarin.Forms Push Notifications Push notifications for Android with Azure

Example

Implementation on Android is a bit more work and requires a specific Service to be implemented.

First lets check if our device is capable of receiving push notifications, and if so, register it with Google. This can be done with this code in our MainActivity.cs file.

protected override void OnCreate(Bundle bundle)
{
    base.OnCreate(bundle);

    global::Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Init(this, bundle);

    // Check to ensure everything's setup right for push
    GcmClient.CheckDevice(this);
    GcmClient.CheckManifest(this);
    GcmClient.Register(this, NotificationsBroadcastReceiver.SenderIDs);

    LoadApplication(new App());
}

The SenderIDs can be found in the code underneath and is the project number that you get from the Google developer dashboard in order to be able to send push messages.

using Android.App;
using Android.Content;
using Gcm.Client;
using Java.Lang;
using System;
using WindowsAzure.Messaging;
using XamarinNotifications.Helpers;

// These attributes are to register the right permissions for our app concerning push messages
[assembly: Permission(Name = "com.versluisit.xamarinnotifications.permission.C2D_MESSAGE")]
[assembly: UsesPermission(Name = "com.versluisit.xamarinnotifications.permission.C2D_MESSAGE")]
[assembly: UsesPermission(Name = "com.google.android.c2dm.permission.RECEIVE")]

//GET_ACCOUNTS is only needed for android versions 4.0.3 and below
[assembly: UsesPermission(Name = "android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS")]
[assembly: UsesPermission(Name = "android.permission.INTERNET")]
[assembly: UsesPermission(Name = "android.permission.WAKE_LOCK")]

namespace XamarinNotifications.Droid.PlatformSpecifics
{
    // These attributes belong to the BroadcastReceiver, they register for the right intents
    [BroadcastReceiver(Permission = Constants.PERMISSION_GCM_INTENTS)]
    [IntentFilter(new[] { Constants.INTENT_FROM_GCM_MESSAGE },
    Categories = new[] { "com.versluisit.xamarinnotifications" })]
    [IntentFilter(new[] { Constants.INTENT_FROM_GCM_REGISTRATION_CALLBACK },
    Categories = new[] { "com.versluisit.xamarinnotifications" })]
    [IntentFilter(new[] { Constants.INTENT_FROM_GCM_LIBRARY_RETRY },
    Categories = new[] { "com.versluisit.xamarinnotifications" })]

    // This is the bradcast reciever
    public class NotificationsBroadcastReceiver : GcmBroadcastReceiverBase<PushHandlerService>
    {
        // TODO add your project number here
        public static string[] SenderIDs = { "96688------" };
    }

    [Service] // Don't forget this one! This tells Xamarin that this class is a Android Service
    public class PushHandlerService : GcmServiceBase
    {
        // TODO add your own access key
        private string _connectionString = ConnectionString.CreateUsingSharedAccessKeyWithListenAccess(
            new Java.Net.URI("sb://xamarinnotifications-ns.servicebus.windows.net/"), "<your key here>");

        // TODO add your own hub name
        private string _hubName = "xamarinnotifications";

        public static string RegistrationID { get; private set; }

        public PushHandlerService() : base(NotificationsBroadcastReceiver.SenderIDs)
        {
        }

        // This is the entry point for when a notification is received
        protected override void OnMessage(Context context, Intent intent)
        {
            var title = "XamarinNotifications";

            if (intent.Extras.ContainsKey("title"))
                title = intent.Extras.GetString("title");

            var messageText = intent.Extras.GetString("message");

            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(messageText))
                CreateNotification(title, messageText);
        }

        // The method we use to compose our notification
        private void CreateNotification(string title, string desc)
        {
            // First we make sure our app will start when the notification is pressed
            const int pendingIntentId = 0;
            const int notificationId = 0;

            var startupIntent = new Intent(this, typeof(MainActivity));
            var stackBuilder = TaskStackBuilder.Create(this);

            stackBuilder.AddParentStack(Class.FromType(typeof(MainActivity)));
            stackBuilder.AddNextIntent(startupIntent);

            var pendingIntent =
                stackBuilder.GetPendingIntent(pendingIntentId, PendingIntentFlags.OneShot);

            // Here we start building our actual notification, this has some more
            // interesting customization options!
            var builder = new Notification.Builder(this)
                .SetContentIntent(pendingIntent)
                .SetContentTitle(title)
                .SetContentText(desc)
                .SetSmallIcon(Resource.Drawable.icon);

            // Build the notification
            var notification = builder.Build();
            notification.Flags = NotificationFlags.AutoCancel;

            // Get the notification manager
            var notificationManager =
                GetSystemService(NotificationService) as NotificationManager;

            // Publish the notification to the notification manager
            notificationManager.Notify(notificationId, notification);
        }

        // Whenever an error occurs in regard to push registering, this fires
        protected override void OnError(Context context, string errorId)
        {
            Console.Out.WriteLine(errorId);
        }

        // This handles the successful registration of our device to Google
        // We need to register with Azure here ourselves
        protected override void OnRegistered(Context context, string registrationId)
        {
            var hub = new NotificationHub(_hubName, _connectionString, context);

            Settings.DeviceToken = registrationId;

            // TODO set some tags here if you want and supply them to the Register method
            var tags = new string[] { };

            hub.Register(registrationId, tags);
        }

        // This handles when our device unregisters at Google
        // We need to unregister with Azure
        protected override void OnUnRegistered(Context context, string registrationId)
        {
            var hub = new NotificationHub(_hubName, _connectionString, context);

            hub.UnregisterAll(registrationId);
        }
    }
}

A sample notification on Android looks like this.