[Appointment Information] Implement Push Notifications and User Permissions

[akanshyabhat]

Use Case

This feature will be used by all users throughout the process as the connection between their in-app activities and actually attending in-person for their appointments. It will be globally used in the app and is one of the primary functions.

Problem

One of the primary desired functions of the app is alerting the patients about when/where their appointment is and ensuring that they've completed the necessary tasks and have the required documents for the actual in-person appointment to proceed smoothly. Currently, we have no such method of informing the patients about their upcoming appointment and we need to implement this into the app. One of the key steps for this task entails requesting the user for permission to send these notifications to them.

Solution

This issue pertains to the very specific set-up of integrating and setting up APNs in the app so that they can be used to alert for the actual appointments using the backend information(which would come in a future issue/PR).
The key tasks are

• Obtain the certificates for APNs (unique device token)
• Request user permissions for notifications
• Begin considering how to handle events/responses and notifications
• Create and schedule notifications

Alternatives considered

A potential alternative is to put these events into the user's digital calendar on another application. However, since most of these patients are elderly, I believe the simplest solution would be to use a push notification that will just show up on their phone with the appropriate reminders and without the additional heavy lifting. It may be true that many of them don't even use digital calendars.

Additional context

N/A

Code of Conduct

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