Introduction

To send Push notification to an application/device couple you need an unique device token (see the ) and a certificate.

Generate a Push Certificate

To generate a certificate on a Mac OS X:

1. Log-in to the
2. Choose App IDs from the menu on the right ()
3. Create an App ID without a wildcard. For example 3L223ZX9Y3.com.armiento.test
4. Click the Configure link next to this App ID and then click on the button to start the wizard to generate a new Development Push SSL Certificate ()
5. Download this certificate and double click on aps_developer_identity.cer to import it into your Keychain
6. Launch Keychain Assistant (located in Application, Utilities or search for it with Spotlight) and click on My Certificates on the left
7. Expand Apple Development Push Services and select Apple Development Push Services AND your private key (just under Apple Development Push Services)
8. Right-click and choose "Export 2 elements..." and save as server_certificates_bundle_sandbox.p12 (don't type a password).
9. Open Terminal and change directory to location used to save server_certificates_bundle_sandbox.p12 and convert the PKCS12 certificate bundle into PEM format using this command (press enter when asked for Import Password):

openssl pkcs12 -in server_certificates_bundle_sandbox.p12 -out server_certificates_bundle_sandbox.pem -nodes -clcerts

Now you can use this PEM file as your certificate in ApnsPHP!

Verify peer using Entrust Root Certification Authority

Download the Entrust Root Authority certificate directly from Entrust Inc. website:

Navigate to

Choose "Personal Use"

Download the Entrust CA (2048) file (entrust_2048_ca.cer) for the Sandbox environment; download the Entrust Secure Server CA file (entrust_ssl_ca.cer) for the Production environmentuntil December 22nd (after December 22nd, 2010 you have to use entrust_2048_ca.cer also for the Production Environment as Apple said: "To ensure you can continue to validate your server's connection to the Apple Push Notification service, you will need to update your push notification server with a copy of the 2048-bit root certificate from Entrust's website.").

If you want to use the same file for the Sandbox and the Production environment please concat the two certificates. For example:

wget https://www.entrust.net/downloads/binary/entrust_2048_ca.cer -O - > entrust_root_certification_authority.pemecho >> entrust_root_certification_authority.pemwget https://www.entrust.net/downloads/binary/entrust_ssl_ca.cer -O - >> entrust_root_certification_authority.pem

Otherwise (for use only in a Mac OS X environment), export the Entrust Root Authority certificate:

Launch Keychain Assistant (located in Application, Utilities or search for it with Spotlight) and click on System Root Certificate on top-left and Certificates on the bottom-left

Right-click on Entrust Root Certification Authority and export with entrust_root_certification_authority.pem file name and choose as document format Privacy Enhanced Mail (.pem).