How to handle notification when app in background

Question

Here is my manifest

    <service android:name=".fcm.PshycoFirebaseMessagingServices">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="com.google.firebase.MESSAGING_EVENT" />
        </intent-filter>
    </service>

    <service android:name=".fcm.PshycoFirebaseInstanceIDService">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="com.google.firebase.INSTANCE_ID_EVENT" />
        </intent-filter>
    </service>

When the app is in background and notification arrives then the default notification comes and doesn't run my code of onMessageReceived.

Here is my onMessageReceived code. This invokes if my app is running on foreground, not when app in background. How to run this code when the app is in background too?

// [START receive_message]
@Override
public void onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) {
    // TODO(developer): Handle FCM messages here.
    // If the application is in the foreground handle both data and notification messages here.
    // Also if you intend on generating your own notifications as a result of a received FCM
    // message, here is where that should be initiated. See sendNotification method below.
    data = remoteMessage.getData();
    String title = remoteMessage.getNotification().getTitle();
    String message = remoteMessage.getNotification().getBody();
    String imageUrl = (String) data.get("image");
    String action = (String) data.get("action");
    Log.i(TAG, "onMessageReceived: title : "+title);
    Log.i(TAG, "onMessageReceived: message : "+message);
    Log.i(TAG, "onMessageReceived: imageUrl : "+imageUrl);
    Log.i(TAG, "onMessageReceived: action : "+action);

    if (imageUrl == null) {
        sendNotification(title,message,action);
    } else {
        new BigPictureNotification(this,title,message,imageUrl,action);
    }
}
// [END receive_message]

Answer 1

1. Why is this happening?

There are two types of messages in FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging):

1. Display Messages: These messages trigger the onMessageReceived() callback only when your app is in foreground
2. Data Messages: Theses messages trigger the onMessageReceived() callback even if your app is in foreground/background/killed

Firebase team have not developed a UI to send data-messages to your devices, yet.

2. How to?

To achieve this, you have to perform a POST request to the following URL:

POST https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send

Headers

• Key: Content-Type, Value: application/json
• Key: Authorization, Value: key=<your-server-key>

Body using topics

{
    "to": "/topics/my_topic",
    "data": {
        "my_custom_key": "my_custom_value",
        "my_custom_key2": true
     }
}

Or if you want to send it to specific devices

{
    "data": {
        "my_custom_key": "my_custom_value",
        "my_custom_key2": true
     },
    "registration_ids": ["{device-token}","{device2-token}","{device3-token}"]
}

NOTE: Be sure you're not adding JSON key notification
NOTE: To get your server key, you can find it in the firebase console: Your project -> settings -> Project settings -> Cloud messaging -> Server Key

3. How to handle the push notification message?

This is how you handle the received message:

@Override
public void onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) { 
     Map<String, String> data = remoteMessage.getData();
     String myCustomKey = data.get("my_custom_key");

     // Manage data
}

Answer 2

I feel like all the responses are incomplete but all of them have something that you need to process a notification that have data when your app is in background.

Follow these steps and you will be able to process your notifications when your app is in background.

1.Add an intent-filter like this:

<activity android:name=".MainActivity">
      <intent-filter>
           <action android:name=".MainActivity" />
           <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
      </intent-filter>
</activity>

to an activity that you want to process the notification data.

2. Send notifications with the next format:

   { 
    "notification" : {
           "click_action" : ".MainActivity", 
           "body" : "new Symulti update !", 
           "title" : "new Symulti update !", 
           "icon" : "ic_notif_symulti" }, 
    "data": { ... },
    "to" : "c9Vaa3ReGdk:APA91bH-AuXgg3lDN2WMcBrNhJZoFtYF9" }
   

The key here is add

"click_action" : ".MainActivity"

where .MainActivity is the activity with the intent-filter that you added in step 1.

3. Get "data" info from notification in the onCreate of ".MainActivity":

   protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
       super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
       setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
       //get notification data info
       Bundle bundle = getIntent().getExtras();
       if (bundle != null) {
          //bundle must contain all info sent in "data" field of the notification
       }
   }
   

And that should be all you need to do. I hope this helps somebody :)

Answer 3

@Override
public void onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) {

}

is not called every time it is called only when app is in forground

there is one override method this method is called every time , no matter what app is in foreground or in background or killed but this method is available with this firebase api version

this is the version u have to import from gradle

compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-messaging:10.2.1'

this is the method

@Override
public void handleIntent(Intent intent) {
    super.handleIntent(intent);

    // you can get ur data here 
    //intent.getExtras().get("your_data_key") 


}

with previous firebase api this method was not there so in that case fire base handle itself when app is in background .... now u have this method what ever u want to do ... u can do it here in this method .....

if you are using previous version than default activity will start in that case u can get data same way

if(getIntent().getExtras() != null && getIntent().getExtras().get("your_data_key") != null) {
String strNotificaiton = getIntent().getExtras().get("your_data_key").toString();

// do what ever u want .... }

generally this is the structure from server we get in notification

{
    "notification": {
        "body": "Cool offers. Get them before expiring!",
        "title": "Flat 80% discount",
        "icon": "appicon",
        "click_action": "activity name" //optional if required.....
    },
    "data": {
        "product_id": 11,
        "product_details": "details.....",
        "other_info": "......."
    }
}

it's up to u how u want to give that data key or u want give notification anything u can give ....... what ever u will give here with same key u will get that data .........

there are few cases if u r not sending click action in that case when u will click on notification default activity will open , but if u want to open your specific activity when app is in background u can call your activity from this on handleIntent method because this is called every time

Answer 4

I figured out the scenarios,

When app is in foreground, onMessageReceived() method is called from the FirebaseService.So the pendingIntent defined in the service class will be called.

And when app is in background, first activity is called.

Now, if you use a splash activity, then must keep in mind the splashactivity will be called, else if there is no splashActivity, then whatever the first activity is, will be called.

Then you need to check getIntent() of the firstActivity to see if it has any bundle .if everything is alright you will see bundle is there with values filled in. If the value in data tag sent from server looks like this,

"data": {
    "user_name": "arefin sajib",
    "value": "user name notification"
  }

Then in the first activity, you will see, there is a valid intent( getIntent() is not null) , valid bundle and inside bundle , there will the whole JSON mentioned above with data as key.

For this scenario, code for extraction of value will look like this,

    if(getIntent()!=null){
            Bundle bundle = getIntent().getExtras();
            if (bundle != null) {
                try {
                   JSONObject object = new JSONObject(bundle.getStringExtra("data"));
String user_name = object.optString("user_name");

                } catch (JSONException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }


            }
        }

Answer 5

To make firebase library to call your onMessageReceived() in the following cases

1. App in foreground
2. App in background
3. App has been killed

you must not put JSON key 'notification' in your request to firebase API but instead use 'data', see below.

The following message will not call your onMessageReceived() when your app is in the background or killed, and you can't customize your notification.

{
   "to": "/topics/journal",
   "notification": {
   "title" : "title",
   "text": "data!",
   "icon": "ic_notification"
    }
}

but instead using this will work

{
  "to": "/topics/dev_journal",
   "data": {
       "text":"text",
       "title":"",
       "line1":"Journal",
       "line2":"刊物"
   }
} 

Basically, the message is sent in the argument RemoteMessage along with your data object as Map, then you can manage the notification in onMessageReceived as in the snippet here

@Override
public void onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) { 
     Map<String, String> data = remoteMessage.getData();

     //you can get your text message here.
     String text= data.get("text");


     NotificationCompat.Builder notificationBuilder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
        // optional, this is to make beautiful icon
             .setLargeIcon(BitmapFactory.decodeResource(
                                    getResources(), R.mipmap.ic_launcher))  
        .setSmallIcon(smallIcon)  //mandatory
      .......
    /*You can read more on notification here:
    https://developer.android.com/training/notify-user/build-notification.html
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iog_fmm6mE
    */
}

Answer 6

According to the firebase documentation in send downstream using firebase, there is 2 type of payload :

1. data

   This parameter specifies the custom key-value pairs of the message's payload. Client app is responsible for processing data messages. Data messages have only custom key-value pairs.

2. notification

   This parameter specifies the predefined, user-visible key-value pairs of the notification payload. FCM automatically displays the message to end-user devices on behalf of the client app. Notification messages have a predefined set of user-visible keys.

When you are in the foreground you can get the data inside FCM using onMessageReceived(), you can get your data from data payload.

data = remoteMessage.getData();
String customData = (String) data.get("customData");

When you are in background, FCM will showing notification in system tray based on the info from notification payload. Title, message, and icon which used for the notification on system tray are get from the notification payload.

{
  "notification": {
        "title" : "title",
        "body"  : "body text",
        "icon"  : "ic_notification",
        "click_action" : "OPEN_ACTIVITY_1"
       }
}

This notification payload are used when you want to automactically showing notification on the system tray when your app is in the background. To get notification data when your app in the background, you should add click_action inside notification payload.

If you want to open your app and perform a specific action [while backgrounded], set click_action in the notification payload and map it to an intent filter in the Activity you want to launch. For example, set click_action to OPEN_ACTIVITY_1 to trigger an intent filter like the following:

<intent-filter>
  <action android:name="OPEN_ACTIVITY_1" />
  <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>

Put that intent-filter on your manifest, inside application tag. When you click the notification, it will open the app and go straight to activity that you define in click_action, in this case "OPEN_ACTIVTY_1". And inside that activity you can get the data by :

Bundle b = getIntent().getExtras();
String someData = b.getString("someData");

I'm using FCM for my android app and use both of the payload. Here is the example JSON i'm using :

{
  "to": "FCM registration ID",
  "notification": {
    "title" : "title",
    "body"  : "body text",
    "icon"  : "ic_notification"
   },
   "data": {
     "someData"  : "This is some data",
     "someData2" : "etc"
   }
}