🚀 Send a notification

Prerequisite

• A NotificationAPI account - sign up for free
• A configured notification in the dashboard (new accounts already have a demo notification)

Overview

Your team, even non-technical members, can use our dashboard to configure and design your standard notifications without any coding knowledge. For example, they would configure an alert to go over email and completely design its content, subject, etc.

Then, through our SDKs or API, your back-end lets us know when to send this notification to a user. We then take care of the rest.

Let's learn...

Step 1: Setup the SDK

Node

Install the node package using one of the following package managers:

npm install notificationapi-node-server-sdk

yarn add notificationapi-node-server-sdk

pnpm add notificationapi-node-server-sdk

Python

pip install notificationapi_python_server_sdk

PHP

composer require notificationapi/notificationapi-php-server-sdk

Go

go get github.com/notificationapi-com/notificationapi-go-server-sdk

C#

Install the package:

dotnet add package NotificationAPI --version 0.5.0

Ruby

# Create the following class in your application

require 'net/http'
require 'json'
require 'base64'
require 'openssl'

class NotificationAPI
  def initialize(client_id, client_secret)
    @base_url = 'https://api.notificationapi.com'
    @client_id = client_id
    @auth_token = Base64.strict_encode64("#{client_id}:#{client_secret}")
    @http_client = Net::HTTP.new('api.notificationapi.com', 443)
    @http_client.use_ssl = true
  end

  def send(request)
    payload = request.to_json
    response = @http_client.post(
      "/#{@client_id}/sender",
      payload,
      {
        'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
        'Authorization' => "Basic #{@auth_token}"
      }
    )
    response.body
  end

  def retract(request)
    payload = request.to_json
    response = @http_client.post(
      "/#{@client_id}/sender/retract",
      payload,
      {
        'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
        'Authorization' => "Basic #{@auth_token}"
      }
    )
    response.body
  end

  def identify_user(user_id, user_data)
    digest = OpenSSL::Digest::SHA256.new
    hmac = OpenSSL::HMAC.digest(digest, @client_secret, user_id)
    hashed_user_id = Base64.strict_encode64(hmac)
    custom_auth = Base64.strict_encode64("#{@client_id}:#{user_id}:#{hashed_user_id}")

    send_request('POST', "users/#{URI.escape(user_id)}", user_data, custom_auth)
  end

  def create_sub_notification(notification_id, sub_notification_id, title)
    payload = { title: title }
    send_request('PUT', "notifications/#{notification_id}/subNotifications/#{sub_notification_id}", payload)
  end

  def delete_sub_notification(notification_id, sub_notification_id)
    send_request('DELETE', "notifications/#{notification_id}/subNotifications/#{sub_notification_id}")
  end

  def update_schedule(tracking_id, scheduleUpdate)
    send_request('PATCH', "notifications/#{tracking_id}", scheduleUpdate)
  end

  def delete_schedule(tracking_id)
    send_request('DELETE', "notifications/#{tracking_id}")
  end

  def set_user_preferences(user_id, user_preferences)
    send_request('POST', "user_preferences/#{user_id}", user_preferences)
  end

  private

  def send_request(method, uri, data = {}, auth = "Basic #{@auth_token}")
    payload = data.to_json
    response = @http_client.send_request(
      method,
      "/#{@client_id}/#{uri}",
      payload,
      {
        'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
        'Authorization' => auth
      }
    )
    response.body
  end

end

Step 2: Send the Notification

Our send function or POST /sender API call takes a JSON payload that specifies which notification to send and to whom. It also has a mergeTags field that you can use to personalize the notification.

Node

// import/require:
import notificationapi from 'notificationapi-node-server-sdk';
// const notificationapi = require('notificationapi-node-server-sdk').default

// init
notificationapi.init('CLIENT_ID', 'CLIENT_SECRET');

// send
notificationapi.send({
  // The ID of the notification you wish to send.
  // You can find this value from the dashboard.
  notificationId: 'order_tracking',
  // The user to send the notification to.
  user: {
    id: 'spongebob.squarepants',
    email: 'spongebob@squarepants.com' //required for email notifications
  },
  // mergeTags is to pass dynamic values into the notification design.
  mergeTags: {
    item: 'Krabby Patty Burger',
    address: '124 Conch Street',
    orderId: '1234567890'
  }
});

Python

# import
import asyncio
from notificationapi_python_server_sdk import (notificationapi)

# init
notificationapi.init("CLIENT_ID", "CLIENT_SECRET")

# send
async def send_notification():
  await notificationapi.send(
    {
      "notificationId": "order_tracking",
      "user": {
          "id": "spongebob.squarepants",
          "email": "spongebob@squarepants.com"
      },
      "mergeTags": {
          "item": "Krabby Patty Burger",
          "address": "124 Conch Street",
          "orderId": "1234567890"
      }
    }
  )

# Run the async function
asyncio.run(send_notification())

PHP

# import
use NotificationAPI\NotificationAPI;

# init
$notificationapi = new NotificationAPI('CLIENT_ID', 'CLIENT_SECRET');

# send
$notificationapi->send([
    #The ID of the notification you wish to send. You can find this
    #value from the dashboard.
    "notificationId" => "order_tracking",
    # The user to send the notification to.
    "user" => [
        "id" => "spongebob.squarepants",
        "email" => "spongebob@squarepants.com",   # required for email notifications
    ],
    # mergeTags is to pass dynamic values into the notification design.
    "mergeTags" => [
        "item" => "Krabby Patty Burger",
        "address" => "124 Conch Street",
        "orderId" => "1234567890"
    ]
]);

Go

package main

// import
import (
  notificationapi "github.com/notificationapi-com/notificationapi-go-server-sdk"
  "encoding/json"
)

func main() {
  // init
  notificationapi.Init("CLIENT_ID", "CLIENT_SECRET")

  //mergeTags is to pass dynamic values into the notification design.
  mergeTags := make(map[string]interface{}) // Change to map[string]interface{}
  mergeTags["item"] = "Krabby Patty Burger"
  mergeTags["address"] = "124 Conch Street"
  mergeTags["orderId"] = "1234567890"

  notificationapi.Send(
    notificationapi.SendRequest{
      //The ID of the notification you wish to send. You can find this
      //value from the dashboard.
      NotificationId: "order_tracking",
      //The user to send the notification to.
      User: notificationapi.User{
        Id:     "spongebob.squarepants",
        Email:  "spongebob@squarepants.com",
      },
      MergeTags: mergeTags,
    },
  )
}

C#

//import
using NotificationApi.Server;
using NotificationApi.Server.Models;

//initialize
var notificationApi = new NotificationApiServer("CLIENT_ID", "CLIENT_SECRET", false);

//send
var user = new NotificationUser("spongebob.squarepants")
{
    Email = "spongebob@squarepants.com",
    TelephoneNumber = "+15005550006"
};

var mergeTags = new Dictionary<string, object>
{
    { "item", "Krabby Patty Burger" },
    { "address", "124 Conch Street" },
    { "orderId", "1234567890" }
};

await notificationApi.Send(new SendNotificationData("order_tracking", user)
{
    MergeTags = mergeTags
});

Ruby

# require:
require './NotificationAPI'

# init
notificationapi = NotificationAPI.new("CLIENT_ID", "CLIENT_SECRET")

# send
notificationapi.send({
  #The ID of the notification you wish to send. You can find this
  #value from the dashboard.
  notificationId: 'order_tracking',
  # The user to send the notification to.
  user: {
    id: 'spongebob.squarepants',
    email: 'spongebob@squarepants.com', # required for email notifications
  },
  # mergeTags is to pass dynamic values into the notification design.
  mergeTags: {
    item: 'Krabby Patty Burger',
    address: '124 Conch Street',
    orderId: '1234567890'
  }
});

info

You can get your CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET from here.

Next Steps

You are now successfully sending notifications to any channel you wish. 🎉

Let's do a few more things:

• 🔔 Display In-App Notifications
• ⚙️ Manage User Notification Preferences
• 📱 Setup Mobile Push
• 🌐 Setup Web Push