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I have an Android app that is used by many enterprises, each one has their own Server Address and Port.

When each enterprise downloads my app I want them to be able to configure the Server Address and the Port number. Maybe the IT administrator of that company can change the values in a configuration file so that the user would not worry about the Server Address and port number and just has to to enter the UserId & Password.

I found one document in Android Developer website: https://developer.android.com/work/managed-configurations

I can understand the code from the above link but I am not sure how an IT administrator can push the configuration file to the app (in an EMM console or something). Any idea would be highly appreciated.

Fred
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Abhijit Chakra
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    Hi, i'm working on project that have to deal with exactly same scenario, the solution we made for this is we created simple server who have `GET/` endpoint the user send `companyID` and this server based on companyID return the real server `URL` and port for current customer. Maybe it something that you can use – Maksim Novikov Jan 29 '19 at 10:28
  • This is a good solution but have tried to use Android Management API / Restriction ApI any sorts i. I mean have you tried that? – Abhijit Chakra Jan 29 '19 at 11:42
  • No i haven't tried to use this tool – Maksim Novikov Jan 29 '19 at 11:47

2 Answers2

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Yes, you would push the configuration from an EMM console. An admin would either:

  1. use the Play Store - they would approve your app from the Play Store using their Android Enterprise admin account and import it into their EMM console. Then, they will assign it to Android devices with the appropriate app configurations.
  2. use the EMM's internal app store (if supported): some EMMs have their own internal app store and they may support pushing Managed Configurations for Android apps.

Your respective EMM should have documentation or a video on how to do this. Here's a link for 42Gears.

Below is a screenshot from Airwatch showing Dropbox's single Managed Configuration item. enter image description here

Steve Miskovetz
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  • Thanks for you nicely explained answer .. I have a small question regarding the Emm console do we have to use any third party emm console or google providing some emm console. – Abhijit Chakra Jan 31 '19 at 04:06
  • You can use just about any third party EMM that you want, most support Managed Configurations. To see a list that supports Android Enterprise APIs and Google Play EMM APIs, a good place to visit is appconfig.org. I haven't used WSO2, but that EMM is open source and might worth a try. Google's G Suite service is it's own EMM, but not free. – Steve Miskovetz Jan 31 '19 at 04:42
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    The Android Management APIs that Fred mentions in his answer is free to demo and looks pretty great (replaces an EMM, is an EMM itself), but I haven't gotten a chance to try it yet. The last time I checked, there was a limit of 10 devices. I'm not sure how to use your own implementation in a production environment. The only production solution I've see using it is Microsoft's Intune EMM which is another option to use. – Steve Miskovetz Jan 31 '19 at 04:46
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When you expose managed configurations for your app, organizations using your app can configure it from their device management console. The console is different depending on the device management solution they use.

For example, G Suite customers can configure apps from admin.google.com (see the help center, section "Create managed configurations").

If you don't have a G Suite subscription you can use the Android Management Experience, which is a free demo of Android management capabilities. Once you've signed up go to "Choose & manage apps", add your app, and click the setting ison next to it in order to configure managed configurations.

Note that the settings organizations see in the console are the ones exposed by the latest production version of your app in Google Play.

Fred
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