[aerogear-dev] UPS: deviceType semantics

[Ron Smeral]

Hi Matthias, 

thanks for the explanation, let me clarify my intentions :)

All of what you describe is mostly clear to me. I was trying to point at the fact that it might not be clear to a new user.

I'll try to rephrase:
I see two major problems with the *design*:

1) We say "deviceType is the raw type of the device", but in reality, it currently is "a completely arbitrary string where you can stuff anything on registration and then filter by it when sending a notification". 

2) Since we do have the "deviceType" field as part of the model, it should be there for a reason. So then, what's its purpose - what is a "device type"? Is it the form factor - tablet, phone? Is it the OS - "Android Lollipop", "iOS 7"? Or is it the model - "iPhone", "iPod", "Nexus", "Galaxy"? Something else?

So again, I think we should either:
* decide on what the field actually means, and document an enumeration of possible values, and have the SDKs always set the value automatically (possibly overridable),
* OR just get rid of the field (and let the developer set some arbitrary array/object of values on registration, to use for filtering when sending).

On 3.11.2015 08:57, Matthias Wessendorf wrote:
> Hi Ron,
> 
> thanks for the mail - let me try to bring some light into the dark
> 
> On Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 8:38 PM, Ron Smeral <rsmeral at redhat.com <mailto:rsmeral at redhat.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi all,
> 
>     I noticed the "deviceType" field in UPS seems to be used inconsistently between Server and the SDKs, and is perhaps underspecified.
> 
>     The docs only say this much:
>     https://aerogear.org/docs/unifiedpush/client-registration/
>     * "deviceType: The device type of the device or the user agent."
>     - what does "device type of the device" mean? "Type" in what sense?
> 
> 
> 
> like here:
> https://github.com/aerogear/aerogear-push-ios-demo/blob/master/PushTest/AGAppDelegate.m#L82
> 
> the iOS API read the type of the device (eg. iPod, iPad, iPhone) etc.
> 
> It's stored on the server's metadata. Presented to the user, on the admin UI, when browsing the registered devices for a Variant. Below is an example from our users doc:
> https://aerogear.org/docs/unifiedpush/ups_userguide/index/#_importing_device_metadata
>  
> 
> 
>     https://aerogear.org/docs/unifiedpush/push-message-format/
>     * "deviceType: A list of raw device types that should receive the message (e.g. Coupon only for iPad and AndroidTablets). The deviceType needs to be stored when the device is registering itself with the server."
>     - what's a "raw device type"?
>     - "needs to be stored" - who needs to do that? Store where?
> 
> 
> This API is to actually sent the message to the registered devices - device type here is a filter.
> Example: you have a generic iOS variant, and have a few iPods, a few iPhone and a few iPads, this filter allows you to just sent messages to all iPhones, by specifiying iphone.
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
>     When trying to use the Sender API, the obvious question is: what's the list of possible values? The docs don't answer that.
> 
> 
> here is our current version of the doc:
> https://aerogear.org/docs/specs/aerogear-unifiedpush-rest/sender/index.html#POST
> 
> 
> but we have a new online in a few days (after the 1.1.0.Finall is out)
>  
> 
> 
>     Another missing piece of information:
>     * Is the deviceType an arbitrary string set by the user during registration?
> 
> 
> usually that's done by the application (develoiper), not the directly the end user of the phone
>  
> 
>     * Or, is it somehow automatically set by the client SDKs?
> 
> 
> yeah :-) but not enforced
>  
> 
> 
>     After a bit of digging through the SDKs and APIs, I can see this (not necessarily 100% correct):
> 
>     * The Sender API accepts arbitrary values
> 
>     * Android SDK - has deviceType in model, sets to "ANDROID" by default
>     * Windows SDK - doesn't even have deviceType in model
>     * iOS SDK - has deviceType in model, doesn't set to any default value
> 
>     * Cordova Android - doesn't set, so uses "ANDROID"
>     * Cordova WP8 - not in model, not set
>     * Cordova iOS - sets UIDevice.model (I can't really read ObjC, just a guess by looking at the code)
> 
> 
>     Can we come up with clearer semantics for the deviceType field?
> 
> 
> Looks like on Windows it is missing - perhaps we should add that.
> On Android, I agree the SDK should not set any default here - but I am not sure if there is an equivalent API around like UIDevice, which would the app developer allow to specifiy the actual device type.  
> 
> Mind filing a few JIRAs against: AGDROID, AGWIN to get the functionality baked into the native SDKs, and against AGCORDOVA to get this into there as well, once the native bits are done.
> 

I will happily file some JIRAs and make documentation PRs, *once we are clear on what the deviceType really is*.

> Great find, Ron!
>  
> 
> 
>     Thanks,
>     Ron
> 
>     --
>     Ron Smeral
>     Technical Writer, FeedHenry
>     Red Hat
>     Brno
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Matthias Wessendorf
> 
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-- 
Ron Smeral
Technical Writer, FeedHenry
Red Hat
Brno