What is Apple Push Notification Service (APNS)?
The APNS is a mobile service created by Apple Inc. that was released with iPhone OS 3.0 on the 17 June 2009. It uses push technology through a constantly-open IP connection to forward notifications from the servers of third party applications to the iPhone or iPod Touch. Push notifications can be sent as one of three types: a custom text alert, an icon badge number, or a custom sound.
Can I build my own support for APNS services?
Yes, you can build this infrastructure on your own, but it requires that you have experience writing server applications, that you support your own server(s), and that you monitor the Apple Feedback service.
Do Push Notifications require SMS/MMS plans on my users’ phones?
No. Push notifications are sent to the iPhone via the Internet, which is covered by your data plan, and thus does not require an SMS or MMS plan.
Am I required to sign a service contract?
There are no commitments or contracts. You simply sign up and pay for what you use the previous month. See our pricing for details.
Can I evaluate your service at no cost?
Yes, you can push up to 25,000 alerts per month at no cost. Also, we have API documentation and a sample application available for you to use.
How secure is the code that you release?
Our API is secured using industry standard practices and our server environment is continuously analyzed for potential weaknesses.
What does iLime do to ensure scalability and high-availability?
Our service is hosted in Amazons Elastic Cloud Computing environment allowing us to increase and decrease capacity quickly as usage fluctuates. We are constantly monitoring our servers to determine where performance bottlenecks might occur
Is there someone I can contact with technical questions?
Please send support requests to support@ilime.com, or view the iLime forums at http://forums.ilime.com. Search the forum first, please, as someone may have already encountered the issue you are currently experiencing. If the solution to your issue is not on the forum, we are happy to provide you with email support.
Is the APNS certificate the same as the Application Certificate?
No, these are separate certificates.
To develop and deploy the provider side of a client-server application, you must get SSL certificates from the iPhone Developer Program portal. Each certificate is limited to a single application, identified by its bundle ID. Each certificate is also limited to one of two development environments, each with its own assigned IP address.
You must get separate certificates for the sandbox (development) environment and the production environment. The certificates are associated with an identifier of the application that is the recipient of push notifications; this identifier includes the application’s bundle ID. When you create a provisioning profile for one of the environments, the requisite entitlements are automatically added to the profile, including the entitlement specific to push notifications. The two provisioning profiles are called Development and Distribution. The Distribution provisioning profile is a requirement for submitting your application to the App Store.
Does iLime monitor the Apple Feedback service?
Yes. We regularly connect with the feedback web server and fetch the current list of those devices that have repeatedly reported failed-delivery attempts. We then mark these devices as inactive in our database to stop the sending of notifications.