Automated push

When setting up automated push there are two options:

1. Automated push from our system
2. Automated push through RSS

1) Automated push from our system

In this way a specific day of the week and time is set.

If the publication is processed and goes live on this day and time or is processed and goes live within the next hour a push message is sent out.

This must be on specific days of the week and this way of setting up automated push is therefore suitable when days and times do not vary too much.

We include a deep link to the latest issue in the push message so the user will be taken directly to the content when clicking it.

The push message must have a standardized format. Here are a few examples:

"Today's issue is here! We wish you a pleasant day."

"Ihre neue Ausgabe ist da! Wir wünschen Ihnen einen angenehmen Abend."

Push messages sent from our system can also be seen in the push overview in the hub (source = feed):

 2) Setup of RSS feed for automatic delivery of push notifications 

The RSS-feed is output as XML with an <rss> element as the root element, with a <channel> child element, containing an <item> element for each message you wish to send. Each <item> element must contain a <pubDate> consisting of a date and a time of day in the RFC822-format. This is used to determine when each message is to be sent.

Each <item> element must also contain a <description> element with the text message to display. In addition to this, an unique ID, by your own choosing, must be added in a <guid> element. This ID ensures that the same message is not sent out more than once.

An optional nonempty <link> element can be used to include a clickable URL in the push message.

All elements not mentioned above will be ignored. Also the element <title> which is mandatory in the RSS standard.

Example of an RSS feed containing two push messages. Also see the example file rss_push.xml at the end of this article:

<rss>

…

<channel>

…

<item>

<title>push</title> Will be ignored

<link>http://www.visiolink.com/</link>

<description>Read all about the election</description>

<pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2015 14:50:00 CET</pubDate>

<guid>1123</guid>

</item>

<item>

<description>Read even more about the election</description>

<pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2015 21:24:00 CET</pubDate>

<guid>1124</guid>

</item>

…

</channel>
</rss>

The feed is checked frequently depending on server load - between every minute and every 5 minutes. A push message is created and enqueued for delivery in the Visiolink push system, shortly after pubDate is passed. However, there is a default limit of one push message per hour. We can adjust this limit or your can circumvent it by using the Publishing Hub to send a message. If a push message has a pubDate which is more than one hour old, it will not be sent. If a push message, which has yet to be sent is removed from the feed, it will not be sent.

Push messages sent via an RSS feed can also be seen in the push overview in the hub (source = feed):

To ensure that the messages are always shown in their full length, the maximum length of the message+URL (<description>+<link>) is 2000 bytes. Note, that the effective limit measured in characters depends on which characters are in use, and therefore is <= 2000.