Configuring push notifications for iOS apps

Keep the users up-to-date with various events in your business process by configuring push notification support in your mobile app for iOS devices. You configure push notification support for iOS apps by adding an Apple Push Notification service certificate to your iOS mobile certificate set in Pega Platform. The certificate is stored in a .p12 file that you can use to enable push notifications for your app.

Before you begin: Prepare the framework for enabling push notifications in your app:

Use a computer with the macOS operating system.
Set up an Apple Developer Portal account for generating a .p12 file with a push notification certificate. For more information, see the Apple developer documentation.
Create and configure an App ID, a signing certificate, and provisioning profile that supports push notifications. For more information, see Obtaining an App ID for iOS apps, Obtaining a signing certificate for iOS apps, and Obtaining a mobile provisioning profile for iOS apps.
Create a certificate set for your app. For more information, see Creating an iOS certificate set.

Create a push notification certificate for your app identifier

Go to https://developer.apple.com, and then sign in to your Apple Developer Portal account.
On your Apple Developer Portal account dashboard, navigate to the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles page, and then click Identifiers.
In the list of identifiers, click the one that you want to use in your app.
In the list of capabilities for the identifier, select the check box next to the push notifications capability, and then save the identifier.
In the list of identifiers, reopen the identifier that you edited, and then start the configuration workflow next to the push notifications capability.
In the push notification configuration window, choose and create a certificate type that matches your needs:
- Development SSL Certificate
- Production SLL Certificate

Generate and upload a certificate signing request from your macOS computer

On your macOS computer, open the Keychain Access application.
On the menu bar, click Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Request a Certificate from a Certificate Authority.
In the Certificate Assistant window, enter your email address and a common name for the certificate.
Choose the request type by clicking Saved to disk.
Click Continue, and then save the certificate signing request file on your hard drive.
In the Apple Developer Portal, on the certificate signing request upload page, upload the file that you generated in Keychain Access.
Generate a .cer file by completing the configuration process.

Generate a .p12 file from the .cer file

From the Apple Developer Portal, download the generated .cer file.
On your computer, double-click the .cer file, and then confirm its addition to Keychain Access.
In Keychain Access, find your certificate file.
Right-click the certificate, and then click Export "Apple Push Services: your certificate name".
In the export window, in the File Format list, select the Personal Information Exchange (.p12) format.
Click Save.
In the password protection window, protect the file from unauthorized use by encrypting the file with a password, and then click OK.
Enter your system password, and then click Allow.

Add the .p12 file to the certificate set that you want to use in your iOS app

In the navigation pane of App Studio, click Settings > Mobile certificates.
On the Mobile certificates page, click the iOS certificate set that you want to use in your mobile app.

Note: The mobile provisioning file that you use in the certificate set must support push notifications. Otherwise, the push notification certificate section is not available.
In the Push notification certificate section, click New.
In the Upload new certificate file window, enter the encryption credentials for the certificate, and then upload the .p12 file for push notifications.
Click OK, and then click Save.

What to do next: Ensure that your app receives automatic and manual push notifications by adding the certificate set that you updated to the mobile channel for your app. For more information, see Generating native mobile apps.