- Ease of use, no sign-up forms
- Battery efficiency
- Statistics available through the Developer Console
- Rich set of new APIs
While C2DM was a really cool technology, it was somewhat complicated to get implemented correctly. GCM have improved this by providing a much simpler API. Let me show a few examples.
These two lines of code provides verification for the device (that it supports push messaging) and the Manifest-file:
GCMRegistrar.checkDevice(context);
GCMRegistrar.checkManifest(context);
To get the registration id, code similar to this example can be used:
String regId = GCMRegistrar.getRegistrationId(context);
if ("".equals(regId)) {
GCMRegistrar.register(context, SENDER_ID);
} else {
Log.i("Already registered, regId:" + regId);
}
For more information, go to the official GCM page.
As shown above, the GCMRegistrar-class contains several useful methods. However, there are aspects that the standard GCM-library does not support.
GCMUtils (https://code.google.com/p/gcmutils)
This is why my new open source project, GCMUtils, was created. This library is a collection of helpful utility classes and methods, built on top of the standard GCM API. It is created to be used in combination with GCM.It provides features such as:
- Registration id handling
GCMUtils.getAndSendRegistrationId(this);
- Extended verification
GCMUtils.checkExtended(this);
- Simple configuration
# Required
receiver-url=
sender-id=
# optional
# values: enabled/disabled
check-extended=enabled
- Alternative base intent service with more functionality
public class GCMIntentService extends GCMUtilsBaseIntentService {
@Override
protected void onMessage(Context context, String msg) {
Log.i(TAG, "Message received: " + msg);
}
@Override
protected void onError(Context context, String error) {
Log.e(TAG, "onError: " + error);
}
}
Adding it to your project is easy (copy 2 jar files) and it is created to make to development of GCM apps simpler and more efficient. In my own project this has been a big help, and hopefully this will be useful for others as well.
For more information, go to the features page and the quick start guide.
It is still early in the development of this project, so all feedback is appreciated. There are more features planned to get implemented before a final release is ready.
