Firebase Cloud Messaging is a free notification delivery service provided by Google Firebase.

To enable the FCM integration, you need to get your service account key from the Firebase Console.

Generating a Service Account Key JSON

To acquire the account key JSON file for your service account

  1. Select your project, and click the gear icon on the top of the sidebar.
  2. Head to project settings.
  3. Navigate to the service account tab.
  4. Click Generate New Private Key, then confirm by clicking Generate Key.
  5. Clicking Generate Key downloads the JSON file.

After that, paste the entire JSON file content in the Service Account field of the FCM provider in the integration store on Novu’s web dashboard.

Make sure your service account json content contains these fields

{
  "type": "service_account",
  "project_id": "PROJECT_ID",
  "private_key_id": "PRIVATE_KEY_ID",
  "private_key": "PRIVATE_KEY",
  "client_email": "FIREBASE_ADMIN_SDK_EMAIL",
  "client_id": "CLIENT_ID",
  "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
  "token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
  "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
  "client_x509_cert_url": "CLIENT_X509_CERT_URL"
}

FCM Overrides

The overrides field supports apns, android, webpush and fcmOptions overrides

Override FieldType / InterfaceLink
androidAndroidConfighttps://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/admin/node/firebase-admin.messaging.androidconfig
apnsApnsConfighttps://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/admin/node/firebase-admin.messaging.apnsconfig
webPushWebpushConfighttps://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/admin/node/firebase-admin.messaging.webpushconfig
fcmOptionsFcmOptionshttps://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/admin/node/firebase-admin.messaging.fcmoptions

Setting Device Token

Before triggering the notification to a subscriber(user) with push as a step in the workflow, make sure you have added the subscriber’s device token as follows:

import {
  Novu,
  PushProviderIdEnum
} from '@novu/node';

const novu = new Novu("<NOVU_API_KEY>");

await novu.subscribers.setCredentials(
'subscriberId',
PushProviderIdEnum.FCM,
{ deviceTokens: ['token1', 'token2'] },
'fcm-MnGLxp8uy'
);

Checkout the API reference for more details.

SDK Trigger Example

import { Novu } from "@novu/node";

const novu = new Novu("<NOVU_API_KEY>");

novu.trigger("<WORKFLOW_TRIGGER_IDENTIFIER>", {
  to: {
    subscriberId: "<SUBSCRIBER_ID>",
  },
  payload: {
    abc: "def", // If the notification is a data notification, the payload will be sent as the data
  },
  overrides: {
    fcm: {
      // type: 'data' => will turn this into an FCM data notification, where the payload is sent as a data notification. If the type is not set, you can use the "data" override to send notification messages with optional data payload
      type: "data",

      // URL of an image to be displayed in the notification.
      imageUrl: "https://domain.com/image.png",

      // If type is not set, you can use the "data" override to send notification messages with optional data payload
      data: {
        key: "value",
      },

      // Check FCM Overrides section above for these types
      android: {},
      apns: {},
      webPush: {},
      fcmOptions: {},
    },
  },
});

Device/notification identifiers can be set by using setCredentials or by using the deviceIdentifiers field in overrides.

Novu uses FCM version V1

Suppose you’re using the Firebase (FCM) provider to send push notifications to web browsers via Novu and want users to be returned to the website after clicking the notification.

In that case, you must use the link property with a relative URL.

import { Novu } from "@novu/node";

const novu = new Novu("<NOVU_API_KEY>");

novu.trigger("<WORKFLOW_TRIGGER_IDENTIFIER>", {
  to: {
    subscriberId: "<SUBSCRIBER_ID>",
  },
  payload: {
    abc: "def", // If the notification is a data notification, the payload will be sent as the data
  },
  overrides: {
    fcm: {
      webPush: {
        fcmOptions: {
          link: "/foo",
        },
      },
    },
  },
});

FCM Cost

As per Firebase pricing, Cloud Messaging product is free of cost to use. If other Firebase products are used, the cost will be charged as per the product.

FAQs