Create Apple Push Notifications P12 File

In order to send push notifications to Apple devices, a certficate is needed to secure the communications between AppArmor and Apple. This certificate is generated through your Apple Developer account and provided to AppArmor as a password protected .P12 file.

Most AppArmor clients allow our team to create and manage the push notification certificates on their behalf. In some situations, clients prefer to create and manage the push notification certificates themselves and provide a new certificate to AppArmor each year.

Below are the steps to create a push notification certificate and submit to AppArmor.

Step 1: Certificate Signing Request

Create a certificate signing request file on your MacOS computer by first launching the “Keychain Access” app:

Open

From the “Keychain Access” menu on the menubar, choose “Certificate Assistant” → “Request Certificate from a Certificate Authority…”

Open

Enter your email address in the “User Email Address” field, and your organization name in the “Common Name” field. Choose the “Saved to Disk” option. Then click “Continue”.

You’ll then be prompted to save the Certificate Signing Request (sometimes called a CSR) to disk. Give the file a name like “OrgName.certSigningRequest” and place the file on your desktop.

You’ll see a confirmation that the CSR file has been created.

Step 2: Upload CSR to Apple Developer Account

In your web browser, visit https://developer.apple.com and click the “Account” menu item.

Sign into your Apple Developer account:

Once signed into your Apple Developer account, click on the “Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles” option:

On the Certificates page, click the blue plus sign icon to add a new certificate:

Next, you’ll be asked to choose the type of certificate you’d like to create. Under the “Services” heading, choose the “Apple Push Notification service SSL (Sandbox & Production)” option then click the “Continue” button at the top of the page.

Next, choose the appropriate App ID from the list. Typically AppArmor App IDs start with “com.cutcom.apparmor.”

Next, you’ll be prompted to upload the CSR file that you created previously. Typically the file is saved to your desktop. Please upload and click “Continue”.

Your certificate will be created, choose the “Download” button to save a copy of the certificate to your computer.

Step 3: Install the Certificate in Keychain Access

After downloading the certificate, you should have a file named “aps.cer” in your downloads folder. Double click the file to install it into Keychain Access.

Keychain Access will launch, and a new certificate will be listed with the name “Apple Push Services:…”.

Export the certificate by right-clicking and choosing the “Export…” option from the menu:

You’ll be prompted to save the certficate as a P12 file. Give the file an appropriate name and click “Save”.

You’ll then be prompted to protect the P12 file with a password. Please enter a unique password, and make a note of the password. You’ll need to provide both the P12 file and it’s password to AppArmor in a later step.

You might also be prompted to enter the password for your MacOS account to authorize the P12 file export. Enter your password and choose “Allow”.

Your P12 file should now be on the desktop of your computer:

Step 4: Securely Send P12 File and Password to AppArmor

AppArmor has a special secure upload form to send your P12 and password to our team. Append “/Tools/SubmitPushCert” to the end of your AppArmor Dashboard URL to access the page.

For instance, if your AppArmor Dashboard URL is “http://universitycollege.apparmor.com ” then visit

https://universitycollege.apparmor.com/Tools/SubmitPushCert to submit the P12 and Password.

The page will appear like below. Press “Submit Certificate” to complete the process.

Once the file has been submitted, our team will review and perform the necessary steps to configure for your app.

The process is now complete. Thank you for your assistance!