[BUG] No indication of notification for Group post or direct message for members

[nataliehelregel]

Describe the bug
A group post notification does not result in an in-app push notification or a red 1 on the bell for a group member with notifications turned on.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Clear all previous notifications

2. Under settings, check that all notification preferences are enabled

3. In the private group "Wassaja Hall Floor 3" check that notification preferences are turned on

4. Go to the home panel

5. Have a group admin post to the group

6. On the home panel for 5+ minutes, see that no notification appears - neither as a banner across the top of the home panel OR as a red notification icon alert.

7. Under notifications, see the post notification under both All Notifications and Unread Notifications

8. Repeat steps 1-7 except for Step 4, stay on your phones lock screen.

9. Get same results

Expected behavior
When a suer is not already in the Illinois app, they should receive a notification from the Illinois app on their iOS (if they have notifications enabled)
When a user is already in the Illinois app, they should receive a notification within the Illinois app both as a banner across the top of the screen and a red circle on the notification bell.

Screen Recording
The link provided includes a screen recording demonstrating steps 1-7.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19ob00Ym7UJ7DhP2iNkrWEwyhpFq1T_L1/view?usp=drive_link

@vburgett
@cdukeUX

[mihail-varbanov]

This has to be resolved now, the version number does not matter.

[nataliehelregel]

Hello, our team has reviewed the most recent updates for this ticket and there are still some tweaks to adjust.

Below are the actual and expected outcomes for group post notifications for group members as tested in the public/private group "Wassaja Hall Floor 3" using iPhones and the Illinois app version 6.0.36. All test posts were created via the app.

1. In-app banner notification for a group post does not appear in the app when the group member is in the Illinois app
   a. Expected behavior: Group member should see an in-app banner notification if a Group post notification comes through while they are in the app

2. The group post notification does not appear as a red number on the bell when the group member is in the Illinois app
   a. Expected behavior: Group member should see a red number appear/update on the bell if a Group post notification comes through while they are in the app

3. If the app is running in the background of the user's device, the group post notification does not appear as a red number on the bell when the group member returns to the app
   a. Expected behavior: Group member should see an updated red number on the notification bell upon returning to the Illinois app

@vburgett
@cdukeUX

[mihail-varbanov]

1. In general, I am unable to recreate these issues, neither on dev, nor on prod.

When the app is in foreground mode I get this notification, (presented by the operating system):

After I tap on it the operating system notifies the application about it. The application, in turn, again displays a toast notification:

After selecting "Show" the app loads the post detail page:

It looks like there is some global issue in your team. The Apple Push Notifications do not seem to come at all. Please check your notification settings:

• In the Settings app, the Illinois app notification settings:

• In Illinois app, the internal notification settings:

2. Regarding the red number with unread notifications, this is a direct consequence of push notifications absence. I noticed an issue in the backend that leads to incorrect processing of unread notifications count, that I opened a ticket for it: [BUG] message_id does not persist in push notification payload notifications-building-block#183

[nataliehelregel]

Thank you for the suggestions but the team confirmed that our iOS settings allowed Illinois app notifications before conducting the testing listed above. This resulted in notifications coming through our iOS but not within the app itself.
Secondly, we also confirmed that our in-app Illinois settings allowed for both Push Notifications and notifications for Groups before conducting the testing above. Which would not explain why we did not receive notifications within the app.

1. Do you still receive an in-app banner notification without tapping on the iOS banner notification?
2. Does the red number on the bell update if you do not interact with either in-app or iOS notifications by tapping on it or opening the notification?

[mihail-varbanov]

Hi @nataliehelregel,

Here are the answers of your questions:

Do you still receive an in-app banner notification without tapping on the iOS banner notification?

No, if you do not tap on the system (iOS) notification the app is not notified about this push notification. Please note that this is done by iOS (the operating system) by design, not by us who are next in line to process the push notification.

Does the red number on the bell update if you do not interact with either in-app or iOS notifications by tapping on it or opening the notification?

The red number is updated in the following cases:

1. On application launch (not awakening from background).
2. On user login/logout
3. On awakening from background after residing there for 2/10/30 mins depending on the environment (dev/test/prod).
4. When a message is "read" or all unread messages are marked as read.

When the app receives a push notification it should mark the notification as read, as it is presented to the user, even as an in-app toast message. However there is an issue on the backend that stops us from performing this. I created a GIT issue about this: #183.

Also, when you test the red number you should have in mind that there is an issue with unread messages counting on the backend. I have experienced the same problem personally. It is already registered in #4215 and the corresponding backend issue is created in #180.

My suggestion is hold on checking the red numbers until #180 and #183 get resolved, otherwise it would be just a waste of time.

Finally FYI, the initial problem that this issue described was that the push notifications did not come to the iOS devices at all. The reason for this was expired certificates that I renewed on Aug 21 and the notifications started to come again to their target devices.