iOS Notifications

Learn how to implement and handle push notifications in your Heapchat iOS application

Setup Steps

1. Enable Push Notification Capability

First, you need to enable push notifications in your Xcode project:

Open your project in Xcode
Select your target
Go to the "Signing & Capabilities" tab
Click the "+" button and add "Push Notifications"

2. Add Required Permissions

Add the following permission to your Info.plist:

Required Permissions

Privacy - Notifications Usage Description: Add a message explaining why your app needs notifications

<key>NSUserNotificationUsageDescription</key>
<string>We'll send you updates about new messages and important alerts</string>

3. Configure App Delegate

First, modify your @main struct to include the app delegate:

SampleApp.swift

@main
struct SampleApp: App {
    @UIApplicationDelegateAdaptor(AppDelegate.self) var appDelegate

    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup {
            ContentView()
        }
    }
}

Then, create or update your AppDelegate.swift with the following implementation:

AppDelegate.swift

import UIKit
import HeapchatSDK

class AppDelegate: NSObject, UIApplicationDelegate, UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate {
    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        // Set notification delegate
        UNUserNotificationCenter.current().delegate = self
        
        // Request notification permissions
        requestNotificationPermissions(application)
        
        return true
    }
    
    private func requestNotificationPermissions(_ application: UIApplication) {
        UNUserNotificationCenter.current().requestAuthorization(options: [.alert, .sound, .badge]) { success, error in
            if let error = error {
                print("Error requesting notification permissions: \(error)")
                return
            }
            
            guard success else {
                print("User denied notification permissions")
                return
            }
            
            DispatchQueue.main.async {
                application.registerForRemoteNotifications()
            }
        }
    }

    // Handle successful device token registration
    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken deviceToken: Data) {
        let tokenParts = deviceToken.map { data in String(format: "%02.2hhx", data) }
        let tokenString = tokenParts.joined()
        
        // Send token to Heapchat
        Heapchat.shared.setDeviceToken(tokenString)
    }

    // Handle registration errors
    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError error: Error) {
        print("Failed to register for remote notifications: \(error)")
    }
}

4. Handling Notifications

Create a new file called HeapchatNotificationHandler.swift to handle notification events:

HeapchatNotificationHandler.swift


import Foundation
import UIKit
import SwiftUI
import HeapchatSDK

extension AppDelegate {
    // Handles navigation to CustomerSupportScreen when a notification is tapped
    func userNotificationCenter(
        _ center: UNUserNotificationCenter,
        didReceive response: UNNotificationResponse,
        withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping () -> Void
    ) {
        let result = Heapchat.shared.handleNotification(response: response, withCompletionHandler: completionHandler)
        if result {
            navigateToCustomerSupportScreen()
        }
    }
    
    func userNotificationCenter(
        _ center: UNUserNotificationCenter,
        willPresent notification: UNNotification,
        withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationPresentationOptions) -> Void
    ) {
        Heapchat.shared.suppressNotification(withCompletionHandler: completionHandler)
    }
    
    private func navigateToCustomerSupportScreen() {
        DispatchQueue.main.async {
            // Your code to navigate to the customer support screen
        }
    }
}

Understanding Notification Handling

The notification handling implementation provides several key features:

Notification Taps: When a user taps a notification, the didReceive method is called:
- Processes the notification using Heapchat.shared.handleNotification
- Automatically navigates to the Customer Support screen if needed
Foreground Notifications: When a notification arrives while the app is in foreground:
- The willPresent method is called
- Uses suppressNotification to handle the notification according to Heapchat's logic
Navigation: The navigateToCustomerSupportScreen method:
- Ensures UI updates happen on the main thread
- Setup the navigation to the customer support screen