Hey there, fellow developers! Today, I'll guide you through each step on how to make your Laravel app send Expo push notifications. I'll break it down into simple, easy-to-understand explanations. Let's make your app shout out with Expo push notifications!

In this example I will use the following package:
https://github.com/Alymosul/laravel-exponent-push-notifications

Before we begin, make sure you've got Laravel installed and know a bit about notifications in Laravel. Also, have a working React or React Native app ready to roll.

• Install package:

composer require alymosul/laravel-exponent-push-notifications

• In your .env file add this variables:

EXPONENT_PUSH_NOTIFICATION_INTERESTS_STORAGE_DRIVER=database
EXPONENT_PUSH_NOTIFICATION_DEBUG=true

• Next, step is to publish the migration files:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="NotificationChannels\ExpoPushNotifications\ExpoPushNotificationsServiceProvider" --tag="migrations"

• Run the migrations:

php artisan migrate

• This step is optional, you may use it if you want to customize the configuration

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="NotificationChannels\ExpoPushNotifications\ExpoPushNotificationsServiceProvider" --tag="config"

• Add following lines in your routes/api.php file:

Route::group(['prefix' => 'api/exponent/devices', 'middleware' => 'expo.middleware'], function () {
    Route::post('subscribe', [
        'as'    =>  'register-interest',
        'uses'  =>  'NotificationChannels\ExpoPushNotifications\Http\ExpoController@subscribe',
    ]);

    Route::post('unsubscribe', [
        'as'    =>  'remove-interest',
        'uses'  =>  'NotificationChannels\ExpoPushNotifications\Http\ExpoController@unsubscribe',
    ]);
});

Feel free to change things up as per your requirements

• Create notification class:

php artisan make:notification ExpoNotification

• In your notification class you will need to add following lines of code:

 public function via($notifiable)
    {
        return [ExpoChannel::class];
    }

    public function toExpoPush($notifiable)
    {
        return ExpoMessage::create()
            ->badge(1)
            ->enableSound()
            ->title("Congratulations!")
            ->body("Your {$notifiable->service} account was approved!");
    }

• In order to send notification:

$user->notify(new ExpoNotification());

Just a heads up – feel free to change any initial files as you see fit. The migration files set up a new table with two columns: key and value. When a user logs into the app, you'll need to use the subscribe API with the expo_token in the body. And when a user logs out, just use the unsubscribe API. Keep it simple and make it work for you!

{
    "expo_token" : "the value of your token"
}

This article shows you how to integrate Expo push notifications into your Laravel app. I hope you find this guide helpful! 🚀📲