I'm beginning the design stages of a mobile application. I'm looking for knowledge about common practices for user notifications. I understand that the SDK for the device will expose methods which will allow me to notify a user how and when I need it to. What I'm not sure about is how my application gets notified from a external data source. Is it common practice to poll a web service for data periodically? Or is it more likely that my application will have the facility to receive data at any time?
For example: I have a website which asks users to fill out a contact form. I would like my mobile app to display a notification when one of these forms gets filled out. Should my app be polling my data server for updated records or should my site be notifying my app somehow of a new record?
Any opinions or advice are welcomed. Thanks.