Configuring Push Notifications for Mobile

Enable notifications to be sent to mobile users about Connections events.

Before you begin

Important: The following ports must be open on each node in the cluster where the Mobile Server application is installed:
Android
Port 443 (HTTPS only)
iOS
Ports 2195 and 2196
Important: If your organization has a firewall that restricts traffic to or from the internet, the following ports must be open so that the HCL Connections apps can receive push notifications:
Android
Ports 5228, 5229, and 5230
iOS
Ports 443 and 5223

For iOS, the Apple Push Notification Servers (APNS) use load balancing. So your devices won't always connect to the same public IP address for notifications. It's best to allow access to these ports on the entire 17.0.0.0/8 address block, which is assigned to Apple. For more information see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203609.

For Android, Google Cloud Management (GCM) doesn't provide specific IPs. So you should allow your firewall to accept outgoing connections to all IP addresses contained in the IP blocks listed in Google's ASN of 15169. For more information see https://developers.google.com/cloud-messaging/http

Note: If it is not possible to open the ports and IP address range on your firewall, you should consider our support for an HTTP Proxy. For more information see, Configuring HTTP Proxy support for Push Notifications for Mobile

About this task

The Push Notifications service sends information from the Connections server to a user's mobile device. Review the Push Notifications topic for a list notifications sent by the mobile app.

To enable and configure Push Notifications, complete the following steps:

Procedure

  1. Check out the mobile-config.xml file for editing. For more information about checking out the file, see the Changing Mobile configuration property values topic.
  2. Open the mobile-config.xml file in a text editor.
  3. To enable Push Notifications, specify true for the Push enabled property.
  4. Specify values for the remaining Push Notifications properties, based on the requirements of your organization. For more information, see the section about Push Notifications properties in the Mobile configuration properties topic.
  5. Save and check in the mobile-config.xml file.

What to do next

If your deployment uses IBM® Security Access Manager, you must add the /mobileAdmin context root to the WebSEAL junction. The Push Notifications log on the Connections server uses mobile administration support for registering devices, and therefore the mobile administration API must be accessible to devices through the WebSEAL junction. The default setting for the context root is /mobileAdmin.
Important: Push notifications for Connections mobile on an Apple iOS device requires the Connections mobile server code to use a certificate. This certificate is provided by default in the server code, but since it expires annually, an update must be provided by HCL that includes the new certificate. Typically this is provided in the form of an interim fix, but if you are upgrading to the most recent version, those versions should also have the latest certificates.

To check the expiration date of your certificate, check the logs directory on the Connections Mobile server for a file called APNSCertExpiry.log. This file will contain the expiration dates of the certificates.