PART I: How to implement GCM PhP Push Server for android

In my previous post, GCM replaces C2DM, I was just expressing my happiness of what I think is the best of the new Google Cloud Messaging.

Now this is a small guide for those who would like to add push notifications to their applications:
This part will explain how to prepare your server to send push messages. In another post, preparing the android app will be discussed.

STEP 1: Get an access token to issue push requests to the android GCM server

First of all, go to the google APIs console page and create a new project by pressing the Create project button. If you already have a project created, just create a new one for our purpose.

You will probably be directed to the services page, just search for "Google Cloud Messaging for Android" and press the button next to it (turn it on). Once you accept the license, you are good to go. Btw, if you were not redirected to the services page, just search for it, its somewhere on the page you are in.

Just before leaving, open your favorite text editor and save the id of your project: This can be found upstairs in the url (address bar), it will probably contain something like "project:5664646216546". Yeah! save the green number.

We are almost done, we need the token: search for API Access and press it. At the time of this writing, it was somewhere in the left menu on the page. Ok, once your there, you will find some sort of button saying "Create new Server key...". press it and you will get small form with bla bla bla and downstairs a "Create" button which you have to press. PS do not press the "Cancel" button.

Refresh the page to get the API key: here is a small illustration just to make sure you got it all right:

Congratulations, you have your TOKEN :D

STEP 2: Use the access token to issue push messages to devices

Now we have an access token: Lets send the message (I will edit this code to handle errors asap)

Just to clarify $yourKey is the token that we have been working to get in STEP 1. $deviceToken is the token of the device which this message will be sent to. $collapseKey is a key used to override any previous messages with the same $collapseKey. I will post on getting this $deviceToken soon.

$yourKey = 'PUT_YOUR_KEY_HERE';
function sendMessageToPhone($deviceToken, $collapseKey, $messageText, $yourKey)  
{  
    $headers = array('Authorization:key=' . $yourKey);  
    $data = array(  
        'registration_id' => $deviceToken,  
        'collapse_key' => $collapseKey,  
        'data.message' => $messageText);
  
    $ch = curl_init();  
  
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://android.googleapis.com/gcm/send");  
    if ($headers)  
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);  
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);  
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);  
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);  
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);  
  
    $response = curl_exec($ch);  
    $httpCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);  
    if (curl_errno($ch)) {  
        //request failed  
        return false;//probably you want to return false  
    }  
    if ($httpCode != 200) {  
        //request failed  
        return false;//probably you want to return false  
    }  
    curl_close($ch);  
    return $response;  
}

This is tested and working! If you have any suggestions, leave a comment.

Advice: For all those who did not watch Ace Ventura Pet Detective, watch it!