Notifications

Push notifications are handled by Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) - see background/service/FirebaseService.kt and background/notification/Notifications.kt in Architecture. This is a manually-operated channel: staff send a message directly from the Firebase Console, there’s no app-side “send” flow to build or test against.

Testing with the existing Firebase project

app/google-services.json is already checked into this repo, so a normal Installation build is already wired up to the shared Firebase project - you don’t need to do anything extra to receive a push.

To send yourself a test notification:

1. Run a debug build and let the app start once (this registers the device and generates an FCM token).
2. Check Logcat for the tag FCM_TOKEN - FirebaseService.onNewToken() logs it on debug builds only.
3. In the Firebase Console, open this project → Messaging → New campaign → Notifications.
4. Under Target, choose Send test message and paste in the token from step 2. This sends the notification to just your device instead of every install.
5. Send it. If the app is backgrounded or not running, Android displays it automatically using the manifest’s default icon/color/channel. If the app is in the foreground, FirebaseService.onMessageReceived() builds and shows it manually instead - both paths are worth testing.

Notification permission (Android 13+) is requested during the first-run setup flow (feature/setup/Permission.kt); if you skipped or denied it, re-enable it from the device’s app settings.

Using your own Firebase project instead

You’d want this if you’re working somewhere you don’t have access to the shared project, or want to send test pushes without touching the real one everyone else’s dev builds are wired to.

1. Create a project at the Firebase Console.
2. Add an Android app to it with the applicationId from app/build.gradle.kts (edu.rpi.shuttletracker) - or a different one if you also change applicationId, since it has to match exactly.
3. Download the generated google-services.json and replace app/google-services.json with it.
4. Rebuild. The com.google.gms.google-services Gradle plugin reads this file at build time, so nothing else in the code needs to change.

Don’t commit your own google-services.json over the shared one unless that’s an intentional, agreed-on switch - anyone else building from main would silently start using your project instead of the shared one.