Android Connection Service

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Firebase Project Setup

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Step 1: Create a new Firebase Project

1. You give a name to your project
2. Add Google Analytics to your project (Optional)
3. Configure Google Analytics account (Optional)

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Step 2: Add Firebase to your Android App

1. Click on the Android icon as shown on the screen below.

2. Register your Android app by providing the following details:
   1. Android Package name
   2. App nickname (optional)
   3. Debug signing certificate SHA-1 (optional)

3. Download the google-services.json file and place it in the required location in your project.

4. Add Firebase SDK by copying and pasting the snippets in the Project-level build.gradle file.

5. Add Firebase SDK by copying and pasting the snippets in the App-level build.gradle file.

6. Click on ‘Continue to Console’ to finish the setup.

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Step 3: Download the service account file

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Extension settings

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Step 1: Enable the extension

1. Login to CometChat and select your app.
2. Go to the Extensions section and Enable the Push Notifications extension.
3. Open the settings for this extension and save the following.

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Step 2: Save your settings

1. Set extension version

• If you are setting it for the first time, Select V2 to start using the token-based version of the Push Notification extension.
• If you already have an app using V1 and want to migrate your app to use V2, then Select V1 & V2 option. This ensures that the users viewing the older version of your app also receive Push Notifications.
• Eventually, when all your users are on the latest version of your app, you can change this option to V2, thus turning off V1 (Topic-based) Push Notifications completely.

2. Select the platforms that you want to support

• Select from Web, Android, Ionic, React Native, Flutter & iOS.

3. Notification payload settings

• You can control if the notification key should be in the Payload or not. Learn more about the FCM Messages here.

4. Push payload message options

• The message metadata includes the outputs of the Thumbnail Generation, Image Moderation, and Smart Replies extensions. You may want to retain this metadata if you need to customize the notification displayed to the end user based on these outputs.

5. Notification Triggers

• Select the triggers for sending Push Notifications. These triggers can be classified into 3 main categories:
  1. Message Notifications
  2. Call Notifications
  3. Group Notifications
• These are pretty self-explanatory and you can toggle them as per your requirement.

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Android App Setup

1. Added google-services.json file to the project.
2. Added the required Firebase SDK snippets to the Project-level build.grade file.
3. Added the required Firebase SDK snippets to the App-level build.gradle file.

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Step 1: Register the FCM Token on user login

1. Initialize CometChat and then login your user.
2. On successful login, you can register the obtained FCM Token using CometChat.registerTokenForPushNotification() function call. (You can see the process of getting the FCM Token in the next step)

CometChat.registerTokenForPushNotification(MyFirebaseMessagingService.token, new CometChat.CallbackListener<String>() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(String s) {
        Log.e( "onSuccessPN: ",s );
    }
    @Override
    public void onError(CometChatException e) {
        Log.e("onErrorPN: ",e.getMessage() );
    }
});

FirebaseInstanceId.getInstance().getInstanceId().addOnCompleteListener(
  new OnCompleteListener<InstanceIdResult>() {
    @Override
    public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<InstanceIdResult> task) {
      	if (!task.isSuccessful()) {
          return;
        }
      token = task.getResult().getToken();
      //CometChat.registerTokenForPushNotification(token, CometChat.CallbackListener<String>());
    }
});

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Step 2: Setup ConnectionService.

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Step 3: Receive notifications

1. The FCM Token can be received by overriding the onNewToken() method. This token is stored as a String variable. You can choose to store it in SharedPreferences as well.
2. To receive messages, you need to override the onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage).
3. PushNotificationService.java has the code that provides a way you can handle messages received from CometChat users and groups.
4. Since Android O, there have been certain restrictions added for background tasks and users cannot launch intent directly from the service. More details here.
5. You also need to add the above-mentioned MyFirebasMessagingService.java fil in your AndroidManifest.xml to make Push notification work in the background as well.

<service
    android:name=".MyFirebaseMessagingService"
    android:exported="true"
    android:enabled="true">
    <intent-filter>
         <action android:name="com.google.firebase.MESSAGING_EVENT" />
    </intent-filter>
</service>

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Converting Push Notification Payloads to Message Objects

CometChatHelper.processMessage(new JSONObject(remoteMessage.getData().get("message"));

{
  "alert": "Nancy Grace: Text Message",
  "sound": "default",
  "title": "CometChat",
  "message": {
    "receiver": "cometchat-uid-4",
    "data": {
      "entities": {
        "receiver": {
          "entityType": "user",
          "entity": {
            "uid": "cometchat-uid-4",
            "role": "default",
            "name": "Susan Marie",
            "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-4.webp",
            "status": "offline"
          }
        },
        "sender": {
          "entityType": "user",
          "entity": {
            "uid": "cometchat-uid-3",
            "role": "default",
            "name": "Nancy Grace",
            "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-3.webp",
            "status": "offline"
          }
        }
      },
      "text": "Text Message"
    },
    "sender": "cometchat-uid-3",
    "receiverType": "user",
    "id": "142",
    "sentAt": 1555668711,
    "category": "message",
    "type": "text"
  }
}