🚀Building a Scalable Push Notification Service with Firebase, Azure Functions, and React

📢 Introduction

Push notifications are a great way to engage users, whether it's sending updates, order confirmations, or alerts. This guide will walk you through building a complete push notification system using:

✅ Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for sending web push notifications

✅ React (TypeScript) for handling push notifications in the frontend

✅ Azure Functions (C#) for backend notification processing

✅ Entity Framework Core (EF Core) & SQL Server for logging requests and sent messages

By the end of this guide, your system will:

✅ Send notifications based on events (e.g., order placed)

✅ Track notifications sent & received (great for analytics and debugging)

✅ Handle user interactions when notifications are clicked

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📌 Step 1: Setting Up Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)

💰 Firebase Pricing (2024)

Firebase provides a free Spark plan and a pay-as-you-go Blaze plan:

Feature	Spark (Free)	Blaze (Pay-as-you-go)
Cloud Messaging	Free	Free
Monthly Notifications	Unlimited	Unlimited
Stored Data	Free up to 1GB	$0.026/GB
Outbound Network	Free up to 1GB	$0.12/GB

💡 For most use cases, Firebase FCM is free unless you're sending millions of notifications!

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1️⃣ Create a Firebase Project

1. Visit the Firebase Console and create a new project.
2. Navigate to Project Settings (gear icon).
3. Under General → Your Apps, click Add App → Web App.
4. Register your app and save the Firebase configuration details.

2️⃣ Configure Firebase for Web Push

1. Go to Project Settings → Cloud Messaging.
2. Scroll to Web Configuration and click Generate Key Pair.
3. Save your Public VAPID Key (needed in React).

---

📌 Step 2: Integrating FCM in React (TypeScript)

Why Do We Need This?

We need to:

✅ Request user permission for notifications

✅ Retrieve the FCM token

✅ Handle push notifications when received

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1️⃣ Install Firebase SDK

npm install firebase

This installs Firebase libraries needed for messaging.

---

2️⃣ Create firebase.ts (Firebase Configuration)

import { initializeApp } from "firebase/app";
import { getMessaging, getToken, onMessage } from "firebase/messaging";

const firebaseConfig = { /* Add your Firebase config here */ };

const firebaseApp = initializeApp(firebaseConfig);
const messaging = getMessaging(firebaseApp);

export { messaging, getToken, onMessage };

This initializes Firebase and enables the FCM messaging service.

---

3️⃣ Handle User Opt-In (NotificationService.ts)

export const requestNotificationPermission = async (): Promise<string | null> => {
  const permission = await Notification.requestPermission();
  if (permission !== "granted") return null;

  const token = await getToken(messaging, { vapidKey: "YOUR_PUBLIC_VAPID_KEY" });
  return token;
};

📌 Why is this important?

• This function asks the user for permission.
• If granted, it retrieves the FCM token needed for push notifications.

---

4️⃣ Register the Service Worker (firebase-messaging-sw.js)

importScripts("https://www.gstatic.com/firebasejs/10.7.1/firebase-app.js");
importScripts("https://www.gstatic.com/firebasejs/10.7.1/firebase-messaging.js");

firebase.initializeApp({ /* Your Firebase Config */ });

const messaging = firebase.messaging();

self.addEventListener("notificationclick", (event) => {
    event.notification.close();
    clients.openWindow(event.notification.data?.url || "/");
});

📌 What does this do?

• Registers a background worker to handle notifications when the app is closed.
• Listens for clicks on notifications and redirects users to a specific page.

---

📌 Step 3: Setting Up an Azure Function to Send Notifications

Why Use Azure Functions?

• ✅ Scales automatically (serverless architecture).
• ✅ Event-driven notifications (e.g., send alerts when an order is placed).
• ✅ Works well with Firebase & React.

---

1️⃣ Install Firebase Admin SDK in C#

dotnet add package FirebaseAdmin
dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore
dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer

📌 Why?

• FirebaseAdmin → Sends push notifications.
• EF Core → Stores logs of sent notifications.

---

2️⃣ Initialize Firebase in C# (FirebaseService.cs)

using FirebaseAdmin;
using Google.Apis.Auth.OAuth2;

public static class FirebaseService
{
    public static void InitializeFirebase()
    {
        FirebaseApp.Create(new AppOptions()
        {
            Credential = GoogleCredential.FromFile("path/to/service-account.json")
        });
    }
}

📌 What does this do?

• Initializes Firebase Admin SDK in Azure Functions.

---

3️⃣ Store Notification Requests & Logs (AppDbContext.cs)

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

public class AppDbContext : DbContext
{
    public DbSet<NotificationRequest> NotificationRequests { get; set; }
    public DbSet<NotificationLog> NotificationLogs { get; set; }

    public AppDbContext(DbContextOptions<AppDbContext> options) : base(options) { }
}

📌 Why track notifications?

• Ensures messages are delivered (retry if failed).
• Tracks notification history for analytics.
• Debugging (e.g., logs missing notifications).

---

4️⃣ Send Notifications from Azure Queue (NotificationFunction.cs)

[Function("SendNotification")]
public async Task Run([QueueTrigger("notification-queue", Connection = "AzureWebJobsStorage")] string queueItem)
{
    var request = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<NotificationRequest>(queueItem);
    var tokens = await GetUserTokens(request.UserId);

    var message = new MulticastMessage()
    {
        Tokens = tokens,
        Notification = new Notification { Title = request.Title, Body = request.Message }
    };

    var response = await FirebaseMessaging.DefaultInstance.SendMulticastAsync(message);
}

📌 Why use Azure Queue?

• Queues notifications to avoid blocking requests.
• Ensures reliability even if Firebase is down.

---

📌 Step 4: Tracking Notification Clicks & Adding Buttons

Modify Service Worker to Handle Actions

self.addEventListener("notificationclick", (event) => {
    event.notification.close();
    if (event.action === "reply") {
        console.log("User clicked Reply");
    } else if (event.action === "view") {
        clients.openWindow("https://your-app.com/orders");
    }
});

📌 Why add buttons?

• Increases engagement (e.g., quick actions like "View Order").
• Saves user clicks (faster user flow).

---

📌 Step 5: Deploying to Azure

Deploy the Azure Function

az login
func azure functionapp publish YOUR_FUNCTION_APP_NAME

Deploy React App

npm run build
firebase deploy

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🎯 Final Summary

✅ Built a full push notification system using React, Firebase, and Azure.

✅ Stored requests & logs using EF Core.

✅ Tracked user clicks & actions in notifications.

✅ Deployed & automated notifications using Azure Functions.

🔹 Next Steps?

🚀 Send notifications to user segments (e.g., premium users only).

📊 Analyze engagement metrics (track open rates & interactions).

🔥 Now your app is ready to engage users with real-time notifications! 🚀