Resonator

Resonator is a NodeJS microservice with built-in logic to send email, SMS and push notifications in an easy manner.

Install

1. Open a terminal window in your local machine
2. Clone the repository onto your directory of choice: git clone https://github.com/nick13jaremek/resonator.git
3. Enter the resonator directory
4. Install the npm modules: npm install
5. Run the CucumberJS and Mocha tests to verify everything is OK: npm test
6. Start using Resonator!

Involved data models

There exist two main data models that Resonator uses to send notifications.

Identity

The Identity schema models a user object which stores the relevant data for Resonator to be able to send the desired notifications.

The schema includes the following fields:

• id: a Mongoose ObjectId item to reference uniquely the Identity object in the MongoDB datastore.
• devices: a container built of several arrays, each one containing data associated to a unique transport mode. Arrays are:
  • email: an Array of email addresses.
  • sms: an Array of Twilio phone numbers.
  • gcm: an Array of GCM identifiers to send push notifications to Google Android devices.
  • apn: an Array of APN identifiers to send push notifications to Apple devices.
• channels: an Array of Mongoose ObjectId items referencing the Channel objects this Identity is subscribed to.

Channel

The Channel schema models a channel object that can be used to create filtered groups of target Identities. Instead of specifying an array of Identities, Resonator can specify a Channel object that the Identities belong to, and send notifications to the channel members.

The Channel schema includes the following fields:

• id: a Mongoose ObjectId item to reference the Channel object uniquely in the MongoDB datastore.
• name: the Channel object human-friendly identifier. It is used to specify the target channel for a notifications batch.
• identityRef: an Array of Mongoose ObjectId items referencing zero or more Identity objects. Each Identity is a member subscribed to this channel.

Available transport modules

Transport modules allow Resonator to send different notification types.

Email

Email notifications are sent on top of the mailgun npm module. In order to use it, two items need to be set in the Resonator configuration file:

• apiKey
• domain

You may obtain valid apiKey and domain items by creating an account in the Mailgun website. Alternatively, instead of hard-coding the credentials in the Resonator configuration file, you can export them as environmental variables in your local machines by using the names specified in the custom-env-variables configuration file.

SMS

SMS notifications are sent on top of the twilio npm module. Before using it, some credential items need to be added to the Resonator configuration file, namely:

• account_sid
• auth_token

You may obtain valid account_sid and auth_token values by creating an account in the Twilio website. Alternatively, you may export these items as environmental variables in your local machine by using the names specified in the custom-env-variables configuration file.

Push notifications

Push notifications are powered via the apn and node-gcm npm modules. Both modules require a set of credentials to be set in the Resonator configuration.

• In the case of the apn module, a private key, certificate and CA certs in PFX or PKCS12 format, or a Buffer containing the PFX data is needed. See the apn documentation for reference.
• In the case of the node-gcm module, a Google api key is needed in order to send push notifications to Android devices. You may export the GOOGLE_API_KEY environment variable on your local machine. Check the Resonator configuration files for more information.

Connecting Resonator to other modules

Resonator has been developed with the intention of reusing its services in different projects, each one requiring some of the available notification transports. Depending on the project, the complexity associated to integrating Resonator may be lower or higher. Here is a brief description of the steps to set up Resonator with some project of your own:

1. Communicate your project with Resonator: whenever a new user-like object is created in your project database, create an Identity object with the same id in the Resonator database by using the identity endpoint.
2. Optionally, create Channel objects in the Resonator database beforehand to filter notifications, and associate Users/Identities to a channel.
3. Send push notifications by calling the appropriate Resonator endpoints specifying the ids of the target Identities/Users and/or the names of the target channels, as well as the notifications' content in the request body.

Documentation

Please, check the Resonator Apiary file to check the available endpoints, request body formats and response cases.

Testing

Resonator includes integration tests via CucumberJS and unit tests via Mocha. You may run each set of tests by using the npm test-cucumber and npm test-mocha respectively. In order to run all tests, use the npm test command.

Contributing

If you spot any bug or missing functionality, feel free to open a new issue or a pull request.

New logic should include the corresponding tests to ensure the consistency of the project's code.

The Apiary documentation should reflect the changes performed on the existing endpoints or on the new ones.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2015 The Game of Code

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.