Is it possible to create Custom Push Notifications with a REST service backed server?

Question

I have an OpenEdge database, I have created a REST Service and am able to CRUD to it from the outside World. I have created a Nativescript app that can pull data from the REST service etc, but now i want Push notifications.

I know about the Progress Kinvey backend, and Firebase backend with their push notification features but i don't want to use them.

is there a way to create my own Push notifications on my REST server etc?

Answer 1

So first I would like you to understand how Push Notification works just to make sure we are on same page,

Once your app is installed, you can query for a unique token and save it in your backend for future use. Whenever you want to send a push notification, you have communicate with APNs (Apple Push Notification Server) / FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) in order to send a push notification to your iOS / Android device using the unique token you acquired earlier.

So now you must use Firebase as that is the only way you can communicate with Android, yet you may choose to communicate with APNs yourself. But in my opinion, it will be a overhead for you as both have their own protocols, you will have to distinguish your tokens between iOS & Android, use appropriate protocols etc.,

I would suggest you to go with just Firebase plugin (until you are super familiar with APNs already), so you don't have to worry which platform the token belongs to, update / revoke invalid tokens over time etc., FCM has pretty decent APIs & Documentation that can make your life easy here.