Push Notifications without Azure service?

Question

We tried hard to manage using background services in WP8, but even with Location Tracking it has lot many limitations. So we chose to go for Push Notifications to work as background service.

I have gone through lots of resources talking about Push Notifications with Windows Azure Mobile Service, is there any way we can use Push Notifications using our own server?

Secondly, what is exactly MPNS (Microsoft Push Notification Service)? Is it some service running in my mobile? Is it free or paid? Where I can find all these information.

Regards

Answer 1

WiredPrairie seems to be mistaken. You can certainly send push notifications to a WP device without using Azure.

MPNS is Microsoft's own service that you can send a web request to (containing a SOAP envelope that has the subscribed device push URL and push data) and it delivers the push notification to the device (toast, tile, or raw). It is free to use. However, I believe there is a limitation (pretty high) to the amount of requests you may make in a certain period of time without having a certificate (still free).

Basic workflow:

1. Build handlers on the device that react to toast receipt, detects the unique device MPNS URL and when that URL changes.
2. Configure a server with an endpoint that stores the device URL, with any other user info you might want.
3. Whenever you want your server application to send a toast, package up a SOAP request to MPNS
4. Watch the push notification arrive on the device.

A pretty good tutorial:

http://matthiasshapiro.com/2011/04/18/windows-phone-7-push-notifications-for-beginners-now-with-testing/

There is even a helper library for your server application provided by MSFT: http://blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2011/01/14/windows-push-notification-server-side-helper-library.aspx