For up-to-date product documentation, see the IBM MobileFirst Foundation Developer Center.
Configure push notifications for application updates
Configure the Application Center services to communicate with Google or Apple push notification servers.
Purpose
You must configure the credentials or certificates of Application Center services to be able to communicate with third-party push notification servers.
Configure the server scheduler of the Application Center
The server scheduler is a background service that automatically starts and stops with the server. This scheduler is used to empty at regular intervals a stack that is automatically filled by administrator actions with push update messages to be sent. The default interval between sending two batches of push update messages is twelve hours. If this default value does not suit you, we can modify it by using the ibm.appcenter.push.schedule.period.amount and ibm.appcenter.push.schedule.period.unit server environment variables.
The value of ibm.appcenter.push.schedule.period.amount is an integer. The value of ibm.appcenter.push.schedule.period.unit can be seconds, minutes, or hours. If the unit is not specified, the amount is an interval that is expressed in hours. These variables are used to define the elapsed time between two batches of push messages.
Use JNDI properties to define these variables.
Important: In production, avoid setting the unit to seconds. The shorter the elapsed time, the higher the load on the server. The unit expressed in seconds is implemented only for testing and evaluation purposes. For example, when the elapsed time is set to 10 seconds, push messages are sent almost immediately.
See JNDI properties for Application Center for a complete list of properties that we can set.
Example for Apache Tomcat server
Define these variables with JNDI properties in the server.xml file:<Environment name="ibm.appcenter.push.schedule.period.unit" override="false" type="java.lang.String" value="hours"/> <Environment name="ibm.appcenter.push.schedule.period.amount" override="false" type="java.lang.String" value="2"/>
- WebSphere® Application Server v8.5
To configure JNDI variables for WebSphere Application Server v8.5, proceed as follows:
- Click Applications > Application Types > Websphere enterprise applications.
- Select the Application Center Services application.
- Click Web Module Properties > Environment entries for Web modules.
- Edit the string in the Value column.
- WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile
For information about how to configure JNDI variables for WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile, see Using JNDI binding for constants from the server configuration files.
The remaining actions for setting up the push notification service depend on the vendor of the device where the target application is installed.
Parent topic: Push notifications of application updates