Overview of Nokia Notifications API

Nokia Notifications API allows propagating information from application-specific Internet services (notifications services) to MIDlets on devices running on Nokia Asha software platform devices.

Notification is a message that is sent by the information publisher from an application-specific notifications service to a specific MIDlet installed on the device. The notifications service uses the Nokia Notifications Service API (REST API), and the MIDlet uses the Nokia Notifications Client API for sending notifications via the Nokia Notification Server.

Nokia Notifications API uses push technology, which is an optimal solution for handling intermittent connections from notification services to MIDlets on the device. A pull technology-based service requires initiating an information transaction from MIDlets on the device, whereas a push technology-based solution allows the information publisher to initiate the transaction. With push technology there is no need for periodic polling that often leads to gratuitous device battery consuming poll requests. All MIDlets that are running on the device and use the Nokia Notifications API share an optimized online connection to the Nokia Notification Server. The connection uses the dynamic keep-alive timer value that adapts to the current network and reduces the number of keep-alive messages that are sent from the device to the server minimum.