The document provides a tutorial on creating custom push notifications in Android applications, emphasizing the need for more engaging notifications than the standard format. It guides developers through the integration process using PushApps, including setting up the application class, handling push notification events, designing a custom view in XML, and linking it to notification data. Additionally, it covers sending notifications from the PushApps admin console and includes practical code examples for implementation.

1. Android - How To Create Push Notifications With
Custom View?
Today, most Android applications are integrated with the option to send push notifications.
Developers and app publishers consider this capability as one of the most important actions in
maintaining the relationship with their users and the ability to motivate them into performing
certain actions within the app. However, in most applications the display of push notification
message is quite basic - a miniature version of the app icon, a title (most of the time it will be the
app name), with a short description below it.
Push notification message can be much more interesting! One of the better examples for it, is
the way in which Groupon send their push messages - big and seductive picture, with important
details such as price and the amount of discount. They also display action buttons!

2. In this tutorial we will learn how to create a rich push notification message.
Integrating Push Notifications in your app
If your app doesn’t yet support in basic push notification, please refer to PushApps short tutorial:
https://wiki.pushapps.mobi/display/PUSHAPPS/Android+Getting+Started
This tutorial assumes you have completed the basic push notifications integration, and you are
able to receive notifications to your device. We will take you step by step from this phase and
show you how to code and design the notification.
Push Notification received event
After you register the device to PushApps with your private keys, we would like to “take control”
over the push notification received event. We would like to perform certain actions and display
our custom view. With PushApps it’s easy:
1. In you Application class (if you don’t have one, please create it) register to PushApps with
your Google API Project Number and PushApps Token.

3. @Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
// first we initialize the push manager, you can also initialize the
// PushManager in your main activity.
PushManager.init(getBaseContext(), GOOGLE_API_PROJECT_NUMBER,
PUSHAPPS_APP_TOKEN);
PushManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext())
.setShouldStartIntentAsNewTask(false);
// these methods are both optional and used for the notification
// customization
PushManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext()).setShouldStackNotifications(true);
}
2. We want PushApps to notify us when a new push notification received to the device. For that,
we need to implement the PushAppsMessageInterface.
@Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
// first we initialize the push manager, you can also initi alize the
// PushManager in your main activity.
PushManager.init(getBaseContext(), GOOGLE_API_PROJECT_NUMBER, PUSHAPPS_APP_TOKEN);
PushManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext()).setShouldStartIntentAsNewTask(false);
// these methods are both optional and used for the notification
// customization
PushManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext()).setShouldStackNotifications( true);
// register for message events
PushManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext()).registerForMessagesEvents(
new PushAppsMessageInterface() {
// This method will get called every time the device will receive a push message
@Override
public void onMessage(Context ctx, Intent intent) {

4. Log.d(“PushAppsDemo”, “We got a message!”);
}
}
Creating the custom view
The first step in building your own unique View, is writing the XML. There is nothing new in this
section - exactly as we build a new view for an Activity or a Fragment, same is here. Like all
other XMLs, this one will also should be placed inside the res / layout directory. In this tutorial,
we’re creating a similar view as the one as Groupon. However, you can create any view you
want, while the only limit is the view height - remember that this is not a full-screen view (but
only shown in the Notification Center).
1. Creating the XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="250dp"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:background="@android:color/black">
<RelativeLayout
android:id="@+id/notification_upper_layout"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
android:id="@+id/notification_icon"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="@drawable/small_pic"/>
<TextView
android:id="@+id/notification_title"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"

5. android:text="PushApps Custom Notification"
android:textColor="@android:color/white"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:textSize="16dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="8dp"
android:layout_toRightOf="@id/notification_icon"/>
<TextView
android:id="@+id/notification_subtitle"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Happy Holidays from PushApps! This is a special gift!"
android:textColor="@android:color/white"
android:textSize="14dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="8dp"
android:layout_toRightOf="@id/notification_icon"
android:layout_below="@id/notification_title"/>
</RelativeLayout>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="@+id/notification_main_layout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<ImageView
android:id="@+id/notification_main_image_view"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
<RelativeLayout
android:id="@+id/notification_bottom_layout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="40dp"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:background="@android:color/black"
android:alpha="0.2">
</RelativeLayout>
<TextView

6. android:id="@+id/notification_colored_text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#F4F420"
android:textSize="14dp"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:padding="6dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
android:background="@drawable/button_border"
android:textStyle="bold"/>
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
2. We would like to link our new XML with our code, and of course update the view values (such
as text and image) with those we received in the push notification JSON:
// register for message events
PushManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext()).registerForMessagesEvents(new
PushAppsMessageInterface() {
// This method will get called every time the device will receive a push message
@Override
public void onMessage(Context ctx, Intent intent) {
// Get the title string from the push notification message
String titleTxt = intent.getStringExtra(PushManager.NOTIFICATION_TITLE_KEY);
// Get the message string from the push notification message
String subTitleTxt = intent.getStringExtra(PushManager.NOTIFICATION_MESSAGE_KEY);
String extraData = intent.getStringExtra("info"); // Your Custom JSON key
String actionButton = "Click Me!"; // Some default string
String imageUrl = "";
try {
JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject(extraData);
// Extract the text for our action button, from the custom JSON
actionButton = jsonObject.getString("button_text");
imageUrl = jsonObject.getString("picture_url");

7. } catch (JSONException e) {}
// The intent to start, when the user clicks the notification
Intent resultIntent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), MainActivity.class);
TaskStackBuilder stackBuilder = TaskStackBuilder.create(getApplicationContext());
stackBuilder.addParentStack(MainActivity.class);
stackBuilder.addNextIntent(resultIntent);
PendingIntent resultPendingIntent = stackBuilder.getPendingIntent(
0, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
// The custom view
RemoteViews expandedView = new RemoteViews(
getApplicationContext().getPackageName(),R.layout.custom_notification);
expandedView.setTextViewText(R.id.notification_title, titleTxt);
expandedView.setTextViewText(R.id.notification_subtitle, subTitleTxt);
expandedView.setTextViewText(R.id.notification_colored_text, actionButton);
expandedView.setImageViewBitmap(
R.id.notification_main_image_view, drawableFromUrl(imageUrl));
// Building the notification that will show up in the notification center
Notification notification = new NotificationCompat.Builder(
getApplicationContext())
.setSmallIcon(R.drawable.small_pic)
.setSound(Settings.System.DEFAULT_NOTIFICATION_URI)
.setDefaults(Notification.DEFAULT_VIBRATE)
.setAutoCancel(true)
.setContentIntent(resultPendingIntent)
.setContentTitle(titleTxt)
.setContentText(subTitleTxt)
.build();
notification.bigContentView = expandedView;
NotificationManager mNotificationManager = (NotificationManager)
getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
mNotificationManager.notify(1, notification);
}
});

8. Sending a Push Notification from the PushApps
Admin Console
Sending a push notification from the PushApps Admin Console is very simple. You can learn a
lot about it from our WIKI - http://wiki.pushapps.mobi/display/PUSHAPPS/Admin+Console.
Please notice that the parameters keys that you provide in the Admin Console should match
those in your Android code.
Finally!

9. Some minor side notes:
* Notice that this code is compatible for Android devices running API 11 version or higher. There
are similar solutions for custom push notifications view for older devices - just google it.
* If you Notification Center in your device is full with other push notifications from other apps, the
push notification view will appear in its small and regular view (without the custom view). That’s
why it’s important to provide the parameters for the regular state (e.g. Small Icon, Content Title,
Content Text).

10. Checkout the entire source code from here.
Happy Coding!