Q:

Android - GCM push notifications not appearing in notifications list

I'm working on my first Android app to use the Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) service for push notifications.  I've got to the point where I can successfully send a message from my server application, and log the content of the message in the onMessage event within my GCMIntentService class on the client app.  However I don't see any visual indication on the device that a message was received.  I was expecting the message to appear in the pull-down notifications list on the phone, as it does on the iPhone.  Does this have to be coded manually?  Also is there a common method for displaying the message regardless of which activity is currently active, and if the app is idle in the background?  Any help appreciated.

A:

This code will generate a notification in the android system bar at the top of the screen. This code will create a new intent that will direct the user to a "Home.class" after clicking on the notification in the top bar. If you would like it to do something specific based on the current activity you could send broadcast requests from the GCMIntentService to your other activities.
Intent notificationIntent=new Intent(context, Home.class);
generateNotification(context, message, notificationIntent);

private static void generateNotification(Context context, String message, Intent notificationIntent) {
    int icon = R.drawable.icon;
    long when = System.currentTimeMillis();
    NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager)
            context.getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
    Notification notification = new Notification(icon, message, when);
    String title = context.getString(R.string.app_name);

    // set intent so it does not start a new activity
    notificationIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP |
            Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
    PendingIntent intent =PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0, notificationIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
    notification.setLatestEventInfo(context, title, message, intent);
    notification.flags |= Notification.FLAG_AUTO_CANCEL;
    notificationManager.notify(0, notification);
}

Note that this example uses resources in R.drawable and R.String that will need to be present to work but it should give you the idea. See this for more information about status notifications http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/notifiers/index.html and this about broadcast recievers. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/BroadcastReceiver.html

