Prowler

This is a plugin/gem for integrating apps with the Prowl iPhone application.

To install as a plugin from your application root, run:

Rails 2.x:

script/plugin install git://github.com/pixeltrix/prowler.git

Rails 3.x:

script/rails plugin install git://github.com/pixeltrix/prowler.git

To install as a gem configure your config.gems or Gemfile:

Rails 2.x:

config.gems 'prowler', :version => '~> 1.2'

Rails 3.x:

gem 'prowler', '~> 1.2'

Prowler is not limited to Rails apps - it can be used in any situation where you need to send push notifications to your iPhone.

You should have something like this in config/initializers/prowler.rb.

Prowler.configure do |config|
  config.api_key = 'ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff'
  config.application = 'www.example.com'
end

You can test that Prowler is working in your production environment by using this rake task (from your application root):

rake prowler:test

If everything is configured properly the task will send a request to prowlapp.com which will be appear on your iPhone after a short delay.

To use Prowler within your application just call the notify method, e.g.

Prowler.notify "Event", "Description"

If you need to send to multiple accounts from within a single application you can create an instance of the Prowler class to override the global settings, e.g.

prowler = Prowler.new(:application => 'application', :api_key => 'apikey')
prowler.notify "Event", "Description"

If performance is a concern then there is built in support for Delayed::Job. This can done either on a global basis, e.g.

Prowler.configure do |config|
  config.delayed = true
end

or on a individual message basis, e.g.

Prowler.notify "Event", "Description", :delayed => true

Prowler relies upon the Prowl iPhone application which is advertised as a Growl notification forwarder from your Mac. However they provide an API which can be called by a generic script which allows you to use the application as a general push notification application for your iPhone.

For more about the Prowl application see: http://prowlapp.com/

Bug fixes and new feature patches are welcome. Please provide tests and documentation wherever possible - without them it is unlikely your patch will be accepted. If you're fixing a bug then a failing test for the bug is essential. Once you have completed your patch please open a GitHub pull request and I will review it and respond as quickly as possible.

Copyright (c) 2011 Andrew White, released under the MIT license