Really could use some guidance on how to debug / troubleshoot this issue I'm having.
I built my first app designed to be configured by an Enterprise MDM / EMM service. I created the app_restrictions.xml file, and I setup my Bundle for restrictions to be read in from that file.
When running in debug on a device connected to my computer, I can successfully read in all the values from the XML file
However the problem occurs once I roll it into production.
I've published the app to the play store, and added the app to the EMM/MDM.
I can see the managed configuration settings all appear inside the EMM/MDM - so I've got everything right up to this point.
However once the app is pushed with an alternate configuration to a device, the values being read in are not the custom values from the EMM/MDM - they are my default values inside of the XML that I developed.
I cannot find any good resources on troubleshooting this part of the process.
Anyone done this before have any ideas?
I've been creating a lot of B2B applications lately, and providing the customer with the ability to customize the app on a per-device or per-deployment basis is critical.
Here's my guide to adding App Config settings into your application for any MDM to be able to leverage these via the Managed Google Play Store:
Manifest: you must have this inside the section:
<meta-data android:name="android.content.APP_RESTRICTIONS"
android:resource="@xml/app_restrictions" />
app_restrictions.xml This file will hold your app restrictions. There are only a few options for app restrictions but you can make this work in all kinds of different creative ways. here's a basic set of restrictions:
<restrictions xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<restriction
android:key="LicenseKey"
android:title="@string/LicenseKey"
android:restrictionType="string"
android:description="@string/LicenseKey_Description"
android:defaultValue="" />
<restriction
android:key="Section1"
android:title="Settings"
android:restrictionType="bundle">
<restriction
android:key="Setting1"
android:title="Setting 1"
android:description="More descriptive description here"
android:restrictionType="choice"
android:entryValues="@array/setting_1_array_values"
android:entries="@array/setting_1_array_choices"
android:defaultValue="@string/setting_1"/>
<restriction
android:key="Setting2"
android:title="Setting 2"
android:description="More descriptive description here"
android:restrictionType="string"
android:defaultValue="Some default string value here" />
<restriction
android:key="Setting3"
android:title="Setting 3"
android:description="More descriptive description here"
android:restrictionType="integer"
android:defaultValue="20" />
</restriction>
<restriction
android:key="Section 2"
android:title="Group things in more sections to make it easier to manage if you have lots of settings"
android:restrictionType="bundle">
<restriction
android:key="Setting4"
android:title="Setting 4"
android:description="More descriptive description here"
android:restrictionType="integer"
android:defaultValue="20" />
<restriction
android:key="Setting5"
android:title="Setting 5"
android:description="More descriptive description here"
android:restrictionType="integer"
android:defaultValue="20" />
</restriction>
For some of your restrictions you may want a pre-defined list of items in a drop down style selector - as shown above you can use an array for this and put the following into your Strings.xml
Strings.xml:
<string-array name="setting_1_array_choices">
<item>"Choose This for Option A"</item>
<item>"Choose This for Option B"</item>
</string-array>
<string-array name="setting_1_array_values">
<item>option_a</item>
<item>option_b</item>
</string-array>
Now - loading these restrictions into your app:
RestrictionsManager manager = (RestrictionsManager) getSystemService(this.RESTRICTIONS_SERVICE);
Bundle restrictions = manager.getApplicationRestrictions();
loadRestrictions(restrictions);
To load them I created this loadRestrictions sample:
private void loadRestrictions (Bundle bundle) {
Set<String> keys = bundle.keySet();
if (keys.isEmpty()) {
//empty key set here
//nothing sent via MDM App Config
} else {
//we've got keys to process
for (String k : keys) {
Object value = bundle.get(k);
String valueString = "";
if (value != null) {
valueString = value.toString();
}
switch (k) {
case "Section1":
if (value != null) {
loadRestrictions((Bundle) value);
}
break;
case "Section2":
if (value != null) {
loadRestrictions((Bundle) value);
}
break;
case "Setting1":
//Setting 1
// this is an array of choices
String optionChoice = "";
if(valueString.equals("option_a")) {
optionChoice = "Option A Was Chosen";
} else if (valueString.equals("option_b")) {
optionChoice = "Option B Was Chosen";
} else {
//we should not ever get here?
optionChoice = "ERROR?";
}
break;
case "Setting2":
//Setting 1
// value for this key is in valueString
String setting2 = (String) valueString;
break;
case "Setting3":
//Setting 3
// INTEGER value for this key is in value
int setting3 = (int) value;
break;
case "Setting4":
//Setting 4
// INTEGER value for this key is in value
int setting4 = (int) value;
break;
case "Setting5":
//Setting 5
// INTEGER value for this key is in value
int setting5 = (int) value;
break;
default:
//another odd error occurred here
break;
} //switch
} //for keys
}
}//load restrictions
Enjoy!!!