How to install PushBits on FreeBSD

PushBits is an open-source push notification server that allows you to send notifications to your mobile applications in a few steps. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps required to install PushBits on FreeBSD Latest.

Prerequisites

Before we start installing PushBits, you should have the following:

• Access to a FreeBSD Latest VPS or server
• A non-root user with sudo privileges

Step 1: Install Required Dependencies

The first step to installing PushBits is installing its dependencies. Please run the below command to update your system and install the required dependencies:

sudo pkg update && sudo pkg install --yes git make cmake boost mysql57-client gmp mcrypt autoconf automake protobuf libtool

Step 2: Clone the PushBits Repository

After installing the required dependencies, we will clone the PushBits repository using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/pushbits/server.git && cd server

Step 3: Configure the Server

After cloning the repository, we need to configure the server. Please run the following commands:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && make
cp ../pushbits.conf.sample ../pushbits.conf

As MySQL is the recommended database engine, we will configure the server to use MySQL. Please open the pushbits.conf file with your preferred text editor:

nano ../pushbits.conf

Then, edit the database settings section to match your MySQL database settings:

database.driver=mysql
database.host=localhost
database.database=pushbits
database.username=[mysql-username]
database.password=[mysql-password]
#The maximum number of database connections.
database.max-connections=50

Make sure to replace [mysql-username] and [mysql-password] with the actual MySQL username and password you will be using. Save the changes to the file and exit.

Step 4: Create the MySQL Database

Now, connect to your MySQL server and create a database named pushbits:

mysql -u [mysql-username] -p
CREATE DATABASE pushbits;
exit;

Step 5: Run the Server

We can now start the PushBits server by running the following command:

./pbserver

You should see the following message, indicating that the server is running:

[NOTICE ]  Starting server on port 8080
[NOTICE ]  Listening for connections on 0.0.0.0:8080

Step 6: Test the Server

To test if the PushBits server is working correctly, you can use a REST API client such as curl. Run the following command:

curl -X POST \
  http://localhost:8080/push/send \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
        "recipients": [
            {
                "token": "abcd1234",
                "platform": "ios"
            }
        ],
        "notification": {
            "title": "PushBits notification title",
            "message": "PushBits message"
        }
      }'

If the server is working fine, you should receive a success response with a message ID.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed PushBits on FreeBSD Latest. You can now use it to send push notifications to your mobile applications. Don't forget to create your certificates and configure your mobile applications to receive the notifications.