Testing Push Notifications

Once you’re all set up with push notifications, you can use the CLI to test how these notifications will look for your devices.

Pre-requirements :

• Your app has push notifications configured for at least one provider in your app settings

• You have a user that has at least one device associated

• To skip sending to devices but only to see the payload, pass skip_devices=true

The base command for testing push notifications is:

stream chat:push:test --user_id 'user_123'

await appClient.CheckPushAsync(new AppCheckPushRequest
{
  MessageId = message.Id,
  SkipDevices = true,
  UserId = user.Id,
});

App.checkPush()
  .messageId(message.getId())
  .skipDevices(true)
  .userId(userId)
  .request();

client.check_push(
  {
    "message_id": msg["id"],
    "skip_devices": True,
    "user_id": user["id"],
  }
)

client.check_push({ message_id: message_id, skip_devices: true, user_id: user[:id] })

skipDevices := true
req := &CheckPushRequest{MessageID: message.ID, SkipDevices: &skipDevices, UserID: user.ID}
client.CheckPush(ctx, req)

await client.testPushSettings(userId, {messageID: messageId, skipDevices: true});

$client->checkPush(["message_id" => $message["id"], "skip_devices" => true, "user_id" => $user["id"]]);

This command provides the following functionality for you:

1. Picks a random message from a channel that this user is part of

2. Uses the notification templates configured for your push provider to render the payload using this message

3. Sends this payload to all of the user’s devices

In some cases, you might want to test the new notification template that you configured on the dashboard.

For example, let’s say you want to test a new APN notification template:

stream chat:push:test --user_id 'user_123' --apn_notification_template '{"aps":{"alert":{"title":"{{ sender.name }} @ {{ channel.name }}","body":"testing out new stuff:{{ message.text }}"},"category":"NEW_MESSAGE_2"}}'

await appClient.CheckPushAsync(new AppCheckPushRequest
{
  MessageId = message.Id,
  SkipDevices = true,
  UserId = user.Id,
  ApnTemplate = "{\"aps\":{\"alert\":{\"title\":\"{{ sender.name }} @ {{ channel.name }}\",\"body\":\"testing out new stuff:{{ message.text }}\"},\"category\":\"NEW_MESSAGE_2\"}}",
});

App.checkPush()
  .messageId(message.getId())
  .skipDevices(true)
  .userId(userId)
  .apnTemplate("{\"aps\":{\"alert\":{\"title\":\"{{ sender.name }} @ {{ channel.name }}\",\"body\":\"testing out new stuff:{{ message.text }}\"},\"category\":\"NEW_MESSAGE_2\"}}")
  .request();

client.check_push(
  {
    "message_id": msg["id"],
    "skip_devices": True,
    "user_id": user["id"],
    "apn_template": "{\"aps\":{\"alert\":{\"title\":\"{{ sender.name }} @ {{ channel.name }}\",\"body\":\"testing out new stuff:{{ message.text }}\"},\"category\":\"NEW_MESSAGE_2\"}}",
  }
)

client.check_push({
 message_id: message_id,
 skip_devices: true,
 user_id: user[:id],
 apn_template: "{\"aps\":{\"alert\":{\"title\":\"{{ sender.name }} @ {{ channel.name }}\",\"body\":\"testing out new stuff:{{ message.text }}\"},\"category\":\"NEW_MESSAGE_2\"}}"
})

skipDevices := true
req := &CheckPushRequest{
 MessageID: message.ID,
 SkipDevices: &skipDevices,
 UserID: user.ID,
 ApnTemplate: "{\"aps\":{\"alert\":{\"title\":\"{{ sender.name }} @ {{ channel.name }}\",\"body\":\"testing out new stuff:{{ message.text }}\"},\"category\":\"NEW_MESSAGE_2\"}}",
}
client.CheckPush(ctx, req)

await client.testPushSettings(userId, {
  messageID: messageId, 
  skipDevices: true,
  apnTemplate: "{\"aps\":{\"alert\":{\"title\":\"{{ sender.name }} @ {{ channel.name }}\",\"body\":\"testing out new stuff:{{ message.text }}\"},\"category\":\"NEW_MESSAGE_2\"}}",
 });

$client->checkPush([
 "message_id" => $message["id"],
 "skip_devices" => true,
 "user_id" => $user["id"],
 "apn_template" => "{\"aps\":{\"alert\":{\"title\":\"{{ sender.name }} @ {{ channel.name }}\",\"body\":\"testing out new stuff:{{ message.text }}\"},\"category\":\"NEW_MESSAGE_2\"}}"
]);

As you can see below, the new template will be used for sending the push notification only this time. The existing clients will leverage the default configuration.

Here’s a full list of parameters that you can use with the test command:

Push Test Parameters

Push Test Payload