Push notifications

Push notifications are a convenient way to deliver short, actionable messages directly to your customers' devices. Unlike emails, push notifications are instantly available/accessible on a user's screen, ensuring they capture attention quickly.

For Orbit, you enable push notifications through a cloud messaging service like Google Firebase, which manages message delivery to app users. Once configured, you use Orbit to design and send push notification campaigns, with options for personalisation, images, and scheduling.

Key benefits:

  • Send messages instantly to engage users

  • Use FastStats to segment audiences based on device tokens and behaviours

  • Personalise messages with user-specific data and include images for enhanced engagement

Cloud messaging

To send push notifications to both Android and Apple devices with Orbit, you must first set up a cross-platform cloud messaging service. We recommend using a Google Firebase project, as Firebase efficiently handles the delivery of push notifications to users' devices.

Below is an overview of prerequisites for setting up Firebase. For comprehensive instructions on adding the Firebase Admin SDK to your system, refer to the Firebase Admin Setup Documentation. This guide covers project creation, enabling messaging services, and generating the necessary configuration files.

Setting up a Google Firebase project and service account

To set up a Google Firebase project and service account**:**

  1. Create a Firebase Project.

  2. Enable Cloud Messaging.

  3. Register your app.

  4. Save the configuration file (google-services.json or GoogleService-Info.plist) in a secure location accessible to your FastStats or Orbit configuration.

Ensuring device token collection

For Firebase to send messages to a user’s device, your app must generate and store device tokens:

Web or Mobile app integration:

  • Ensure your app integrates Firebase SDK to handle token generation.

  • Each device token uniquely identifies a user’s device or app session.

Token storage in FastStats:

  • Map tokens to user profiles in FastStats.

  • Use a dedicated variable in FastStats to store these tokens (e.g., Push Notification Token).

Configuring the push notification database in FastStats

The push notification database in FastStats acts as the link between Firebase and Orbit. It stores the configuration details and token mappings required todeliver notifications to the correct devices.

To configure the database:

  1. Open the FastStats Configurator.

  2. Click Database Management.

  3. Locate or create a Push Notification Database.

    If the database does not exist, create a new one. See FastStats system SQL databases.

  4. Insert a new row in the database’s Apps table:

    • Name: Enter a name for the app.

      Note: This doesn’t need to match your Firebase project name.

    • GoogleServiceSettingsPath: Specify the file path of the Firebase JSON file downloaded earlier.

    • GoogleProjectName: Enter the exact project name from Firebase, matching the case used in the project_id field in the .json file specified in the GoogleServiceSettingsPath column.

    • GoogleAPIKey: Ensure this field contains a non-blank, non-null value.

    • Other fields: Populate any mandatory fields (e.g., connection strings). Non-essential fields can be left blank or populated with placeholder values if required.

  5. Verify token storage. Ensure the FastStats system has a variable set up to store device tokens.

    This variable links users in FastStats to their devices.

  6. Create a new campaign and send a push notification to a record that has a Push Notification Device Token you control. Sending a test message from Firebase will not test your Apteco configuration.

You're now ready to set up your push notification channel.