chris moos's blog » push

Colloquy for iPhone — Push Notification Server

Chris Moos — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:04:42 +0000

Colloquy is a great IRC client for Mac, as well as the iPhone. Currently, to run Colloquy on the iPhone you must purchase the mobile version from the App Store. The other option is to download the source and build it yourself, but you must be a registered iPhone developer to run it on an actual iPhone. Also, if you intend to use push notifications (via the Colloquy ZNC plugin), you must have a push certificate as well.

Getting Started

I am going to assume that you have znc installed, and you know how to use it. Next, we need to install the Colloquy ZNC module, so that Colloquy can communicate with ZNC (and allow us to have push functionality). See this page for complete instructions.

The module for ZNC accepts commands from the Colloquy client, notably information on push notifications(device token, etc,.).

Modifying the Colloquy Mobile Source

Next, we need to download and build the source. Once you have downloaded the source and loaded up the Mobile Colloquy project in Xcode, we need to make a few modifications.

Certificates

To run any application on an actual iPhone device, it must be signed. Login to your Developer portal on Apple’s site and generate a certificate (and make sure to enable push). Download the certificate and install it. Next, assign that certificate to the Colloquy Mobile Project. Project…Edit Active Target. Make sure that under the Properties tab, you have the same Identifier name that you used when generating the certificate. Go to Build, and then Code Signing Identity and select the certificate.

Modifying the source

Next, find the CQConnectionsController.m file (Controllers/Connections) and change the following line from:

1	[self sendRawMessage:@"PUSH service colloquy.mobi 7906"];

and change it to:

1	[self sendRawMessage:@"PUSH service 127.0.0.1 7906"];

This will make the client tell the Colloquy ZNC module to send push notifications to our custom server.

Build the project and put it onto your device.

Push Server

I wrote a simple python script that waits on port 7906, receives a connection from the Colloquy ZNC module, and then pushes a notification to your phone (via Apple’s Push Service).

The script requires your push certificate and private key file so it can authenticate to Apple’s push service.

Export the push certificate and private key as a .p12 from Keychain Access. After that, we have to convert it to PEM format:

1	openssl pkcs12 -in key.p12 -out certs.pem -nodes

where key.p12 is the file exported from Keychain access.

After that, you may need to put that certs.pem file on your server that you are running ZNC on.

Installing the Colloquy Push Server

Run the following to install the Colloquy Push Server:

1	sudo easy_install http://www.tech9computers.com/ColloquyPushServer-0.1.tar.gz

Next, run the command colloquypushsrv.py to make sure installation was successful.

The usage looks like this:

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usage: /usr/local/bin/colloquypushsrv.py [-p listen_port] [--sandbox] [-b] certs_file
Command Summary:
certs_file PEM encoded Apple Push certificate and private key file(absolute path)
-p listen_port Default Listen Port: 7906
--sandbox Connect to Sandbox Service
-b Run in background

Now, let’s start the push server in the foreground. Make sure to specify the full path to the pem file we created.

1	colloquypushsrv.py ~/certs.pem

Conclusion

Finally, connect to your ZNC server with the custom built Colloquy Mobile. Your iPhone should register with the ZNC module. After, exit the Colloquy Mobile application and pull up Colloquy (or any other IRC client) on your desktop. Send yourself a message, and see if you get the push notification!

I realize this process may not be completely clear, so if you have any questions, I would be happy to walk you through the process.

Also, I just wrote this up today, so it may not be production ready .

Enjoy!

Apple Push Notification Library for Haskell

Chris Moos — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:40:29 +0000

I have been working with Apple’s Push Notification service recently and decided to make a library to send notifications with Haskell. It is very simple and has a few helpers to make notifications with an alert, sound, etc,.

ApplePush Hackage

ApplePush Documentation

When using the library, you must use an SSL tunnel, because Haskell’s SSL support is incomplete. I use stunnel4, which works great, and offloads the SSL processing as well. Here are some basic instructions on getting started with the library.

Stunnel setup

Download your certificate from Apple. If you are using a Mac, export the certificate (.cer) into a directory. Also, export your private key as a .p12 file. Stunnel needs the certificate/key in one file, in the following format:

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-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
YOUR KEY
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
YOUR CERTIFICATE
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Run the following commands to convert and concatenate your certificate/private key.

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openssl x509 -in cert.cer -inform DER -outform PEM -out cert.pem
openssl pkcs12 -in key.p12 -out key.pem -nodes
cat key.pem cert.pem > certs.pem

Create a file called tun.conf, which will configure stunnel.

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client=yes
debug=5
foreground=no
pid=tun.pid
[service]
accept=2195
connect=gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195
cert=certs.pem

This will bind stunnel to the local port 2195, and tunnel traffic via SSL to gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195.

Next run the following command to start stunnel.

1	stunnel tun.conf

ApplePush Haskell Library

Let’s update our cabal packages, and then install.

1 2	cabal update cabal install ApplePush

In addition to the library, an application, called applepushtest, is also installed so that you can test the library and your SSL tunnel setup. Let’s try it out.

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c10k:~ chris$ ~/.cabal/bin/applepushtest
Apple Push Test, Version 0.1
usage: applepushtest device_token(hex)

You must pass a parameter, device_token, to the application. This tells the library which device to send the notification to. This token must be retrieved in your client application using registerForRemoteNotificationTypes:. Once you have your token, run the following command.

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c10k:~ chris$ ~/.cabal/bin/applepushtest (yourtoken)
Device Token: (yourtoken)
Message> hey
Message> whats up?
Message> test!!
Message>

To use the library in your application, check out Main.hs for an example.

MoosTrax, iPhone, and Push Notifications

Chris Moos — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:39:01 +0000

I recently traded my T-Mobile G1, with Android, for an iPhone 3G. I am hoping to get MoosTrax running on the iPhone, but unfortunately, even with push notifications, it might not be the same as the BlackBerry and Android versions. Here are some reasons why.

No automatic location updates

The iPhone OS does not allow applications to run in the background, which means MoosTrax cannot check your location and send it to the server at a fixed interval.

Push Notifications aren’t the whole solution

MoosTrax could send a push notification to your phone, telling it to send a location update to the server, but unfortunately it requires user interaction. It wouldn’t be too convenient to have your phone vibrating every few minutes asking you to update your location.

Manual updates

Initially, MoosTrax for iPhone will have support for sending location updates to the server manually when you open the application.

Stay tuned

Hopefully, within time, Apple will make the push notification functionality more advanced so that MoosTrax can be as powerful as it is on other platforms, such as Android and BlackBerry. For now, stay tuned for the iPhone application. I am waiting to be approved in the iPhone developer program and then you should see the application in the iTunes store soon.