php code igniter using curl for ios push notifications - php

Question

I've made web-service to send push notifications to ios using curl,
i have the ck.pem file for development which contain both cert & RSA private key, and referring to it correctly.
but every time i call the web-service i get the same error
Curl failed: unable to use client certificate (no key found or wrong pass phrase?)
All related solutions not working, except alternatives using "stream_context_create", But I want to do it with curl and idk where's the problem is.
find below my code :
function test_push_to_ios() {
$url = 'https://gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195';
$cert = base_url() . 'backend_includes/ios_cert/ck.pem';
$gcm_ids = array("xxxxxx");
$passphrase = "passphrase";
$message = 'nbad_notification';
$aps = array('alert' => $message, 'sound' => 'default');
$fields = array('device_tokens' => $gcm_ids, 'data' => $message, 'aps' => $aps);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array("Content-Type: application/json"));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLCERT, $cert);
//curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLCERTPASSWD, $passphrase);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLKEY, $cert);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLKEYPASSWD, $passphrase);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CERTINFO, TRUE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($fields));
$result = curl_exec($ch);
if ($result === FALSE) {
die('Curl failed: ' . curl_error($ch));
}
curl_close($ch);
echo json_encode($result);
}

Answer 1

I didn't read your question carefully.
You are trying to send push notifications to Apple via an HTTPS request. That can't work. Apple Push Notifications only work with a specific binary format over TCP protocol.
As a provider you communicate with Apple Push Notification service over a binary interface. This interface is a high-speed, high-capacity interface for providers; it uses a streaming TCP socket design in conjunction with binary content. The binary interface is asynchronous.
There are many problems with your code :
You seem to mix GCM code with APNS code.
$fields = array('device_tokens' => $gcm_ids, 'data' => $message, 'aps' => $aps); looks similar to what you would do when sending a message to Google Cloud Messaging server. But GCM is completely different than APNS, so why did you think that would work?
You are sending a JSON body, which is what works with GCM, but APNS use a binary format. While the payload within the binary message to APNS contains an encoded JSON String (which looks similar to your $aps JSON), you can't package it within another JSON and expect it to work.
And adding https:// in front of the APNS server can't make it support HTTPS, since it wasn't implemented to support HTTPS (nor HTTP).
I suggest you use stream_context, which works.