What is the difference between the various Xtify push API calls available?
The following discussion and comparison applies to the Xtify 2.0/2.1 API service. ?
As you review this information consider that the Push and Bulk Push APIs are very similar and are general use push APIs whereas the Scheduled Notification and the UI Push APIs serve a very specific purpose - scheduling push notifications for a single XID that are created in the console and may include dynamic content. ? The Scheduled Notification API is the only API that supports unscheduling a push notification.
It also warrants mentioning that as long as your JSON payload is valid and contains all required fields additional unsupported key:value pairs are simply ignored. ? Therefore it is possible to send a JSON structure that includes additional unsupported key:value pairs in a valid request and the request will be processed normally. ? Unsupported key:value pairs will simply be ignored.
All push notifications are sent immediately unless the API supports or requires time scheduled pushes. ? When using the Scheduled Notification and UI Push APIs the rules present in the console must also be resolved to true for the push to occur. ?
The Bulk Push API is our highest performance API service and it supports scheduling push notifications for future delivery. ? The service has been designed from the ground up to deliver push notifications to a very large number of devices very quickly. ? This performance does come with some limitations compared to our Push API however. ? The Bulk Push API doesn't support incrementing and decrementing the iOS badge value maintained within the Xtify service. ? If your app uses Xtify -maintained badging plan accordingly. ? You do have the option of maintaining badging within your app using custom logic. ?
Additionally if you send a rich message using the Bulk Push API the message is not stored in the channel and is only retrievable using the assigned mid provided in the push notification. ? Therefore you can't use the Rich Notification pend call to retrieve rich messages sent using the Bulk Push API. ? They are lost if the push is never processed by opening the app.
The Bulk API does offer an additional feature not found in the other APIs - sending the push based on an absolute or relative time. ? Using this feature you can send a push to a group of XIDs at a specific local time based on each individual XID/device time zone offset. ? The Bulk Push API also supports iOS localization.
The Push Point functionality of the console uses the Bulk Push API to send messages.
The Push API is useful when you want to send a push immediately. ? It doesn't support scheduling a push notification. ? It does however offer a few unique features. ? First it allows rich inbox messages to be sent without an accompanying notification. ? This is useful for staging content for delivery. ? Rich content can then be pulled from the Xtify service when a user starts the app. ? The Push API also supports full iOS badging . ? When using this API and opting to allow the SDK to handle app badging you can set the app badge or increment and decrement the app badge via push notifications. ?
Next the Push API allows the Content-Available flag to be set for iOS push notifications. ? This feature enables developers to build support for silent notifications that allow the app to execute background processing tasks for example. ? Finally this API allows for iOS localization support as well as sound file selection as part of the push notification payload.
When you send a rich message using the Push API the rich message is stored in the channel for future retrieval using the Rich Notification pend call.
The Scheduled Notification API allows pushes to be sent using content created under Target in the Xtify console. ? The Scheduled Notification API only supports sending a push to one XID per call. ? A common use of the Scheduled Notification API is to create a template communication utilizing dynamic placeholders and then call the API with dynamic variables to personalize the message for each user and schedule the push notification for delivery at a specific time. ?
The Scheduled Notification API allows a scheduled notification to be unscheduled as long as it has not been sent. ? Most of the features that are provided to this API are provided by virtue of the console Target campaign that the API references. ? The underlying API used by the Target functionality of the console is the Push API.
The UI Push API allows pushes to be sent using content created under Target in the Xtify console. ? The UI Push API only supports sending a push notification to one XID per call. ? A common use of the UI Push API is to create a template communication utilizing dynamic placeholders and then call the API with dynamic variables to personalize the message for each user. ? The UI Push API unlike the Scheduled Notification API sends the push notification immediately.
The UI Push API offers two validation options that aid in debugging API calls when using console content. ? The first option reportMissingFields will report if the console campaign has dynamic placeholders present that are not present in the UI Push payload. ? Missing dynamic data results in the placeholder simply being deleted from the content message. ? Therefore:
We enjoyed you visiting our website yesterday ::date. ? Please return soon.
with a UI Push dynamic payload consisting of:
. "date":"October 21 2014"