README.md

electron-push-receiver

A module to bring Web Push support to Electron allowing it to receive notifications from Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM).

Why and how ?

See this blog post.

Install

npm i -S electron-push-receiver

Usage

• In main.js / in main process :

const { setup: setupPushReceiver } = require('electron-push-receiver');

// Call it before 'did-finish-load' with mainWindow a reference to your window
setupPushReceiver(mainWindow.webContents);

• In renderer process :

import { ipcRenderer } from 'electron';
import {
  START_NOTIFICATION_SERVICE,
  NOTIFICATION_SERVICE_STARTED,
  NOTIFICATION_SERVICE_ERROR,
  NOTIFICATION_RECEIVED as ON_NOTIFICATION_RECEIVED,
  TOKEN_UPDATED,
} from 'electron-push-receiver/src/constants';

// Listen for service successfully started
ipcRenderer.on(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE_STARTED, (_, token) => // do something);
// Handle notification errors
ipcRenderer.on(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE_ERROR, (_, error) => // do something);
// Send FCM token to backend
ipcRenderer.on(TOKEN_UPDATED, (_, token) => // Send token);
// Display notification
ipcRenderer.on(ON_NOTIFICATION_RECEIVED, (_, notification) => // display notification);
// Start service
ipcRenderer.send(START_NOTIFICATION_SERVICE, senderId);

Resetting the Push Receiver

There are cases where you may need to reset the push receiver to a state where it retrieves a new notification token from FCM. For instance, if your app is designed to support a sign-in screen and you only want push notifications for the person who signs in, you will need to have the push receiver delete the notification token when a different person signs in, otherwise the new sign-in may receive notifications that are only private to the person who signed in previously.

• In renderer process :

import { ipcRenderer } from 'electron';
import {
  DESTROY_NOTIFICATION_SERVICE
} from 'electron-push-receiver/src/constants';

// You can invoke it on user logout
ipcRenderer.send(DESTROY_NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

Example

Thanks to CydeSwype, you can find an example project here.