Showing unread notification count through web manifest - html

I recently added a web manifest to my webapp following this guide. It works perfectly fine. I have also implemented push notifications. I want to know if there is a way to add an unread notification count like any other android app does indicating number of unread notifications on the launcher icon on the homescreen.

The WICG Badging API will most likely solve this, but it will take some time before browser implement it.
See https://github.com/WICG/badging/blob/master/explainer.md

Related

Best way to send push notifications from the server to a chrome extension?

I'm making a chrome extension for a classified ads website. With the chrome extension users will be able to get latest lists from their watched categories/search query.
I am already working on a websocket server to send notifications to users, but this way I have to always have a socket connection open to every user.
My second approach was to use Firebase, but this will run the notification only when a user clicks the icon (as I've read), and I would rather have this done from my server
__
Are there any other possible solutions to send notifications to a chrome extension without the user clicking on the icon?
You can use Google's push infrastructure ― the very same that powers Android push notifications ― Google Cloud Messaging.
Note: Firebase Cloud Messaging is presented as an upgraded version of GCM; while true, it's not natively supported by Chrome in a way that GCM is.
chrome.gcm API is the one that works with it. See its documentation, as well as GCM documentation, for details.
There's even a tutorial: Implementing GCM Client on Chrome
But in a nutshell, your extension will register as a subscriber with GCM, pass the subscription ID to the server, and then the application server posts messages to GCM using those IDs.
You should also be able to use Firebase, if you're willing to implement it using the generic JS SDK; "this will run the notification only when a user clicks the icon" sounds pretty nonsensical ― a background page should be able to keep a listener alive and react, which is probably how your system works now. I would still recommend a native API, which should be compatible with Event pages.
Have you looked at the chrome.notifications API? It allows you to create rich notifications using templates and show these notifications to users in the system tray.
https://developer.chrome.com/apps/notifications
You can have a connection to your socket server in the background script, listen for messages from your socket server and trigger an event that shows the notification.

Get Firebase Web Notification Even Close Chrome

I am currently working on a video web application. We rely on notification to notify provider there is call in.
Firebase works well even when I close the tab. I found that if there is any chrome's thread running in background, I will get notification.
Is there any way that I can make a background thread active even the user click close button on chrome? how about chrome extension? does it approach the goal?
Firebase Cloud Messaging for web relies on a service worker to receive messages when the web app is not active/visible. This requires that Chrome is active.
If the user completely quits Chrome, all tabs, service workers and extensions are stopped. There is no way to still receive web push notifications in that case.

Is there a way to display desktop notifications even when Chrome or Firefox is closed?

We're developing a website which sends push notifications to end users using GCM. We've gone through Service Worker and all. We have developed a prototype using this codelab tutorial. It is working so far, but the only issue is the notifications are displayed only when Chrome is opened. When Chrome is closed, the notifications don't reach the users.
I want to know is there any way we can overcome this and display the notifications even when the browser is closed, similar to Safari Push Notification. Thanks in advance!
If you have a "background" permission in manifest.json, your background page will be able to show notifications even when Chrome window is closed.
"permissions": [
"background"
],
As stated in the documentation:
When any installed hosted app, packaged app, or extension has "background" permission, Chrome runs (invisibly) as soon as the user logs into their computer—before the user launches Chrome. The "background" permission also makes Chrome continue running (even after its last window is closed) until the user explicitly quits Chrome.
You need to use the "background" permission with a background page, event page or a background window for hosted apps.
For web, use Push API for Chrome and other browsers. The advantage of using push messages is that even if your page is closed, your service worker will be woken up and be able to show a notification. Web Sockets and EventSource have their connection closed when the page or browser is closed so it's not recommended. Here is the documentation and example.
In Chrome. Only those users that happen to have an extension installed that requires background mode, like hangouts, will be able to receive push notifications when chrome is not "running". It does not seem like a good idea to rely on it.
The chrome team seems to be considering it for web push too but so far there is no ETA.
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=402456
Showing notification when the browser or tab is closed requires the service worker and a third party service (like google firebase)to trigger the service worker.
https://github.com/web-push-libs/ - Check these list of libraries to implement this in different platforms.
https://github.com/rijoshrc/php-service-worker-push-notification - Clone this git repository to see the simple implementation in PHP.

Meebo Me replacement

With the recent Meebo acquiring by Google Meebo Me widget is also gone.
I would like to have similar functionality. Something which I can put on my web site and allow guest users to chat to me on my MSN (Live) or Gtalk messenger I have on my computer. It may also be Skype if it has something like that.
Up until now I was using Google TalkBack badge which stopped functioning (it just loads http://support.google.com page). Then I used MeeboMe widget which had similar functionality athough I had to run MeeboMe notifier. Now that is gone too. I tried Plugoo which also works, but sometime buddy_plugoo which I added as contact is offline and then the web widget also shows me as "offline" even though I am not so it is not really reliable.
I also have 2 gmail accounts and tried to connect to one via XMPP.php and send a message to other one - but it won't even connect. Tried various examples. I could use one "dump" gmail account to chat with my main account if this would be able to connect and create a web-interface.
So do you know of some alternative widget for websites? Something that I could connect to my desktop messengers and chat to website visitors so that when visitor writes a message it pops up in my messenger. I could also write my own app given that it is not something too time consuming - I need only basic notification when visitor writes a message and chat with him/her. Preferably free one.

In-app sms sending in as3

How to send sms within an iphone and android app using as3. I found this code while googling:
var callURL:String="sms:0-123-456-7890";
var targetURL:URLRequest = new URLRequest(callURL);
navigateToURL(targetURL);
Its working, but it is navigating the app to sms window controller. Can it be done without opening the sms controller window. Is there anything that opens a window within the app itself. Is there any air native extenson which perform this for android and iphone?
Yeah, using navigateToURL is going to pop you over to the phones default SMS app. To get around this you're going to need to use a native extension.
I know of one for Android:
https://github.com/mr-archano/Android-AIR-Extensions
If you have an Android phone you can check out a demo of this ANE inside of the AIRexplorer app. Select the SMS ANE version from the list (the app includes an extension as well as navigateToURL)
I don't know of one for iOS right now so you may have to do a little bit of digging
Oh Also, wanted to add a comment because I'm not really sure of your intent here.
If your goal is to send a sms without any user interaction that is not going to be possible. ANE or not
I very much doubt that either ios or android (maybe if you root your device?) would allow sending a SMS without the users explicit consent.