Web Push (Nextcloud App)

General

⚠️ This is only a Proof of Concept, use at your own risk ⚠️

ℹ️ What WebPush is: Video (0:00 - 1:15 minutes)

🚧 At this stage you can use this App only to..

• send WebPush with occ CLI tool ✅
• or integrate it yourself into your other Nextcloud App Sourcecode
• or extend this app yourself to serve as kind of (REST) API

🚫 It is not..

• able to send out every usual Notification as WebPush, therefore the Nextcloud/Notifications App or Pushproxy would have to be altered (perhaps see here)

Requirements

• Clientside:
  • Apple:
    • iOS 16.4+ needed
    • The web app must be installed on the iOS home screen
  • ...
• Server:
  • Official SSL Certificate for Nextcloud!
  • PHP Version + Modules according to: https://github.com/web-push-libs/web-push-php#requirements

Installation

Place this app in .../apps/ like so:

• .../apps/$ git clone https://github.com/githubkoma/webpush.git
• Adjust permissions to match the other folders+files in .../apps/*
• Enable the App in Nextcloud
• Set Your Admin E-Mail Adress in Nextcloud Personal Settings
• Go To Nextcloud Admin Settings -> Web Push -> "Generate new Vapid Keys"
  • CAUTION: Best Case is you only use this button once after Installation. Because after using this button again, EVERY User has to re-subscribe!
• Test from CLI: sudo -u www-data php occ webpush:generate admin "hello"
• Proceed with Usage (below)

Usage

0. Make sure REQUIREMENTS are met and INSTALLATION is finished (both see above ⬆️)
1. As a User you visit your Nextcloud Settings
2. On the Left side choose the Section "Web Push"
3. Click on "Subscribe to Webpush" twice (and be patient)
4. "My WebPush Subscription:" changes from "empty" to something like "...fy3R3F"
5. You will get a test Notification, that states your success
   • (if not, contact your nextcloud admin)

Dev Info

• High Level Info:
  • Apple Developer VIDEO that introduced the Feature for macOS Safari last year
  • https://webkit.org/blog/12945/meet-web-push/
• Lower Level Info:
  • Apple Sending web push notifications in web apps, Safari, and other browsers
  • Great Detail Articles
    • General: https://web.dev/push-notifications-web-push-protocol
    • Send https://web.dev/sending-messages-with-web-push-libraries/
    • Receive https://web.dev/push-notifications-handling-messages/
    • ...

Test WebPush with Python

• Create VAPID + Keys + Headers + Claims upfront and test it on CLI
  • Multiple Platforms: https://github.com/web-push-libs/
  • create VAPID: https://github.com/web-push-libs/vapid
    • run bin/vapid ...
    • as well as creating header.json, data.json, claims.json, subscription.json, ...
• send via Python: https://github.com/web-push-libs/pywebpush
  • it handles authorization, encryption, ...
  • bin/python pywebpush --data data.json --info subscription.json --key private_key.pem --head header.json --v --claims claims.json

Keypair:

openssl ecparam -genkey -name prime256v1 -out private_key.pem
openssl ec -in private_key.pem -pubout -outform DER|tail -c 65|base64|tr -d '=' |tr '/+' '_-' >> public_key.txt
openssl ec -in private_key.pem -outform DER|tail -c +8|head -c 32|base64|tr -d '=' |tr '/+' '_-' >> private_key.txt

data.json:

{
    "title": "This is the title",
    "body": "This is the body"
}

claims.json:

{
    "sub": "mailto:[email protected]",
    "aud": "https://fcm.googleapis.com/",
    "exp": 1683101017
}

header.json

{"Authorization": "vapid t=eyJ0eXAiOiJKVjoibWFpbHRvOmFkbWluQHdl1QiLCJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9.eyJhdWQiOiJodHRwczovL3B1c2guc2VydmljZXMubW96aWxsYS5jb20iLCJleHAiOiIxNjgzMTAxMDEitgznbPCiPXMNEwO93Iiwic3ViIeWNsb3VkL0Tfd6bSlJlMYiz9Jv97hPIzjLU6GySAMmRlIn0.NzgCOvNKY_9CL5hbQj9LsLOEvGjmocxFMkSrabnDUVBJFYgfNX8j2w-HzRQzItEIfXas7_8CqC8cPpJncGXfQ4w,k=BPsGDOSf9gwgVQm0JJiozSnzCkcWQYwN7D1uo"}

subscription.json

 {"endpoint":"https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send/enlz59YzXHB4q:APA91bFx-q7SaVPa8tEpLUvccKNfF4TrbaLbMwQlMx4FajGnwPWZMuje6TQsqAsqTevezMTCX0WeoUKZNqTCStgJCqsLb_Tgji9sKCuQ_fP0ayPFtP7mmeleWm8EP0RinQ2Wa4wPjl","expirationTime":null,"keys":{"p256dh":"BAOw-9bykz2_c00jsWEYifX5sonXho8NJy0EyuD96XQSVrVlrVYCziJVD3KRQV_oY70kk-fqSwGLB7ZFBJO-1lM","auth":"6XW0HmBwjUFseX2xIIryKQ"}}

private_key.pem

-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
MCCqGSM49AIGHyqGSM49AgEGwEHBG0wawIBAAgEAMBMGBQQglCHlId7ZBI75bKj2
eTsROmEHqM0p8wpwaFve4TyM4y1DtBUwBp8CrvAxN1gBgzkn/YMIAjrzSmP/Qi+YW0I/S7F
UJtCSYHNE3GhRANCAAT73em0pSZTGIs/SbwDOhskkGMDew9bq
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----