Server Side iPhone APNS Communication - php

Question

I have a quick question. For the apple push notification service, I need to have my own server, which will send out the push notifications to the apple servers, right?
Can I do this with a simple PHP script on a regular webhosting account, or do I need a dedicated server with full blown admin access for that?
If this is possible in PHP, can anyone point me to some samples that can help me get started on this? Right now, I am pretty confident I won't have trouble implementing the client-side part, but the server side is still somewhat of a mystery to me...
Thank you!
Florian

Answer 1

You probably will be able to do this on a limited hosting account, as long as you can leave the connection open to the server most of the time. Some sample code:
http://code.google.com/p/php-apns/
Note also that some companies are starting up services to help you specifically with push hosting (I'll keep the post neutral and not mention names, I'm not sure which services are running just yet).

Answer 2

The Main problem with APNS is ports
so many providers doesnt open 2195 port
so concentrate on that initially then go for the host provider
Here is the code what i tried, but one problem is not able to get device notification
Hi ,
i tried the following code (PHP)
$apnsHost = 'gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com';
$apnsPort = 2195;
$apnsCert = 'apple_push_notification_production.pem';
$streamContext = stream_context_create();
stream_context_set_option($streamContext, 'ssl', 'local_cert', $apnsCert);
$apns = stream_socket_client('ssl://' . $apnsHost . ':' . $apnsPort, $error, $errorString, 2, STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT, $streamContext);
if($apns)
{
echo "Connection Established<br/>";
$deviceToken = '**********';//masked
$body = array();
$body['aps'] = array(’alert’ => "test message");
//$body['aps']['badge'] = 1;
$payload = json_encode($body);
$apnsMessage = chr(0) . pack("n",32) . pack('H*', str_replace(' ', '', $deviceToken)) . pack("n",strlen($payload)) . $payload;
print "sending message :" . $apnsMessage . "<br/>";
print "sending payload :" . $payload . "<br/>";
fwrite($apns, $apnsMessage);
}
else
{
echo "Connection Failed";
echo $errorString;
echo $error;
}
socket_close($apns);
fclose($apns);
reply is Connection Established
sending message :�� d^÷Îå0ZCd%1ÄuwOOYš'ÊÈ}ârðm¾Í�,{"aps":{"\u2019alert\u2019":"test message"}}
sending payload :{"aps":{"\u2019alert\u2019":"test message"}}
But am not able to get the notification
any help?