Messenger Setup

Last update: 2022/11/5

Bringing users back to you application is an important part of the modern user experience. This guide will show you how to add email, sms, and push notification support to your application.

Email

REQUIREMENTS: A gmail account, a twilio account

The messaging service is currently configured to use gmail servers. If you would like to use a different service, the script can be modified

To set up the emailing service with your gmail account, you first need to create an app password using this link: https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords To generate the password, select Other and set the name to something memorable (ex: Website Backend)

Then, you will need to set the following environment variables in the .env file: SITE_EMAIL_USERNAME - What you login as (ex: personalaccount@gmail.ccom) SITE_EMAIL_ALIAS - What sender address the user sees. Can be the same as SITE_EMAIL_USERNAME, or can be an alias you've set up SITE_EMAIL_FROM - What sender name the user sees SITE_EMAIL_PASSWORD - The app password generated in the previous step

SMS

REQUIREMENTS: A twilio account

You will need to set the following environment variables in the .env file: TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID - Can be found at twilio.com/console TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN - Can be found at twilio.com/console

Push Notifications

You will need to set the following environment variables in the .env file:

VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY - The public key sent to the client VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY - The private key used to sign the push notifications

Both of these keys - which are called VAPID keys - can be generated by running the following command from the root of the project: ./node_modules/.bin/web-push generate-vapid-keys