[Ovmsdev] C2DM is deprecated, no new sign-ups

[Mark Webb-Johnson]

Lee,

Google's habit of obsoleting APIs and services is incredibly frustrating. We just had to do this for the maps API, and it was a pita. While transition of c2dm->gcm is not hard, it is not backwards compatible so we have to support both until no one is left using c2dm (which could be a while as android users often can't update to the latest OS version). That said, gcm is API level 8 (Android 2.2) so not too bad.

The c2dm works by using the same account as used to sign binaries for the play store, so it has to be private. If you roll your own server, you need to also sign your own binaries (or re-sign the existing ones and side-load to the phone). That is the way c2dm works, and iOS is similar with its APNS.

One workaround I am very willing to do is that we already have a mechanism for servers to inter-connect to the root www.openvehicles.com server. I am willing to introduce a mechanism where push notifications, by configuration, could be sent over that inter-connect and then APNS/C2DM/GCM done from the root (using its credentials). It is quite simple to do - just hasn't been a priority.

Regards, Mark

> On 6 Jul, 2014, at 6:48 am, Lee Howard <lee.howard at mainpine.com> wrote:
> 
> I've got my own OVMS server going.  However, I wasn't seeing notifications on my phone (Android) since moving away from tmc.openvehicles.com.  Looking at the ovms_server.pl code it appears that ovms_server.conf requires this section:
> 
> [c2dm]
> email=<email>
> password=<password>
> accounttype=<unknown>
> 
> [This "c2dm" section, along with the "server", "master", and "log" sections are undocumented in the docs/HOWTO.server.txt file.]
> 
> Okay, so it would seem that I need to set-up a C2DM account with Google and put that info into the conf file.  But, Google has deprecated C2DM in favour of Google Cloud Messaging (GCM), and Google is not granting any new C2DM accounts...
> 
> http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/c2dm.html
> 
> Is the C2DM account used by tmc.openvehicles.com a generic account that can be used by other OVMS servers?  I suspect that it is a private account.  If so, then push notifications for Android users on independent servers will necessarily require a transition to GCM.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Lee.
> 
> -- 
> *Lee Howard*
> *Mainpine, Inc. Chief Technology Officer*
> Tel: +1 866 363 6680 | Fax: +1 360 462 8160
> lee.howard at mainpine.com | www.mainpine.com
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