FCM messaging for HCL Verse for Android clients

HCL Traveler server can use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for real time push notifications to keep your Mail, Calendar, Contact and To Do data on your HCL Verse for Android clients up to date. Google has deprecated GCM and replaced it with FCM.

Using FCM can greatly improve the battery life of Android devices using Verse, as Verse no longer needs to stay constantly connected through HTTPS to the HCL Traveler server for push notifications. If you currently use the HTTPS option for the Real-time sync type, then the existing Verse for Android application automatically starts using FCM once it detects that the server supports this capability and the device is logged into a Google account.

If you have chosen periodic sync as your sync type, you can use FCM by selecting Real-time as the sync type, and then choosing FCM as the Real-time option.

The HCL Traveler server attempts to communicate with the FCM service using the host fcm.googleapis.com (FCM) on port 443. Make sure that any internal firewalls between the HCL Traveler servers and this external host allow this connection. To verify that this connection is working, connect an HCL Traveler for Android client from a device that is also logged in with a Google account. The HCL Traveler server will not attempt to contact FCM until it has a reason to do so.

On the Traveler server, run the command:
tell traveler push cmstatus
In the output, check for a section that looks similar to the following text. FCM is the default as of 10.0.1 and later.
Traveler: ########## Connection Notification Sender FCM (Tue Nov 04 06:50:43 EST 2019) ##########
Traveler: Description: Details about the connections to the Google Firebased Cloud Messaging (FCM).
Traveler: Connection to Google Firebased Cloud Messaging is active

If this connection is not showing active, check your network connectivity by trying https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send in a web browser.