Send a notification by Lambda function with AWS Pinpoint

Question

I have an iOS app with a backend build by MobileHub with API Gateway, Lambda, and DynamoDB. I noticed that the SNS function of MobileHub has been replaced by Pinpoint, and I would like to create a notification system using this new service.

When a user creates a new post through API Gateway, a lambda function will be triggered and I suppose I can send a notification to the subscribers by Pinpoint. But I cannot find any example or reference doc in the official website of Pinpoint.

Do you have any resource for this scenario or any idea? Thank you very much!

Answer 1

Depends what you mean by notification, I assume you would like to send a push notification to a particular user (Pinpoint endpoint).

Pinpoint stores each device associated with a user as an "endpoint", generally created by the AWS client side analytics library (e.g. amplify analytics).

The client

With the amplify analytics library, I call updateEndpoint so I can specify a userId that is available to Lambda, as well as the device token and remove optOut so user can receive the push notification:

1. Address - The token generated from user accepting push notification permission (iOS)
2. optOut - NONE so they can receive push notifications
3. userId - unique id for user (Cognito's sub)

Lambda (node.js)

Now you can send a push notification, using the userId and the Pinpoint SDK.

Example:

const sendMessagesParams = {
    ApplicationId: process.env.PINPOINT_APP_ID,
    SendUsersMessageRequest: {
        Users: {
            [receiverUserId]: {}
        },
        MessageConfiguration: {
            APNSMessage: {
                Action: 'OPEN_APP',
                Title: 'Message received',
                SilentPush: false,
                Body: `You have a new message`
            },
            GCMMessage: {
                Action: 'OPEN_APP',
                Title: 'Message received',
                SilentPush: false,
                Body: `You have a new message`
            }
        }
    }
};

console.log('sendMessagesParams', JSON.stringify(sendMessagesParams));

pinpoint.sendUsersMessages(sendMessagesParams, (sendMessagesErr, sendMessagesData) => console.log('push sent')

For your particular scenario, I set up a DynamoDB stream and trigger a Lambda when a record changes within the table. You may need to add the IAM permissions manually once the lambda is created.

Sources

• Full list of pinpoint methods you can use in lambda (Node.JS)
• Update endpoint using Amplify Analytics (JS)
• Dynamodb streams - trigger a lambda