Thanks for bringing up this supposedly new feature documented in the v14.1 documentation located at your mentioned URL.  I wasn't aware of this until I saw this post.

I just did some preliminary tests on several devices, but had no luck to make it work, but for a different reason.  Apparently, I could not grant the device agent the required  "Notification Receiver" permission anywhere from Settings.

I don't know what brand/model is your device.  If you just want to be able to access notification, you could try the following usually hidden Setting options  in your lockdown menu:

   Launch://com.android.settings/.Settings$NotificationStationActivity  

It might work for some device models.  However, depending on the UI design of your device/Android firmware version, using this might create a loophole for device end-user to go to other Settings' tabs.  Also, some might find the information provided there to be insufficient, or there is no provision to clear the notification item(s).

Good luck.

Raymond,

Thank you for your response. I tried the "Launch://com.android.settings/.Settings$NotificationStationActivity" option you suggested and while it does show notifications, when clicking on the notification it allows users to uninstall the application which is not what we are looking for. Thank you for the option though.

Hi WFeliberty, 

Can you elaborate on what you mean when you say "when clicking on the notification it allows users to uninstall the application"?  Where are they able to go to, to remove the application.   Perhaps you can provide a screenshot of the area that the user is able to access when the notifications are enable VIA this method.   

Also have you tried selecting any of the following status bar options?  I will include a screenshot for clarification.

Lastly try using identify_activity with the uninstall page open so that you can find the bundle ID of the application that they are able to get access to,  you should be able to see the bundle ID in the log window.  If this is the only thing that is preventing you from using this feature, try adding an blacklisted Application Run Control Profile to device to prevent this access and blacklist it.

Keep in mind that my suggestion would be to test these scenario's on a small set of devices before deploying them to all of the devices you intend to use them on in production.

Please let me know if any of these work for you as I have designated a tester for your situation to see if there are any other solutions I can suggest.

Regards, 

I've dealt with the same type of issue using Zebra TC56 and Zebra TC75x devices and found a solution to this by combining MobiControl Package Studio, MobiControl and Zebra's StageNow software application. The Zebra TC51 has MX extensions, which allow you to alter certain aspects of the device using StageNow. What I did:

• In StageNow, create a profile in which you include the UiMgr. Make sure the targeted MX extension version is the same as is being used on the device. Set the option for "Settings Icon on Notification Panel" to "Hide".
• When completing and publishing the StageNow profile, use "Export for MDM". An XML file will be created.
• Open MobiControl Package Studio and create a MobiControl Package which contains this XML. Have it push the file to a directory on the device and add a post-install script telling the MX extensions to process it.
• For example, as a post-install script: "mxconfig /internal/Download/Hiding_Settings_Icon.xml"
• Build the package, upload it to MobiControl and include it onto a profile which in turn distributes it onto the devices.
• In your MobiControl profile which contains the Lockdown, use SOTI's option "Disable Settings Changes" to prevent users from reaching the settings through incoming notifications. Combined with the hidden settings icon, you're good to go.

In my experience, there are more MobiControl options like 'Status Bar Options' that do not work as intended on all devices. Thankfully, Zebra has stepped up in recent years offering solutions to this. A StageNow XML can cover all kinds of device settings which can help out greatly in managing their devices. Contact your Zebra account manager for access to their portal where StageNow can be downloaded.

Great explanation of how to distribute StageNow Configurations through SOTI. This is a process I use constantly but have never seen summarized so succinctly. The MX layer can be a lifesaver and definitely distinguishes the Zebra devices from a manageability perspective if something is not exposed to SOTI as a default Android management API. 

Hi Feliberty, 

As this is a new feature clarification was needed to ensure that we have interpreted the instructions correctly.

I will post the suggested screenshots of our successful attempt to use this feature here in lieu of the section being updated, at which time we may remove these instructions and replace them with a link to the same.

Following the same instructions, I get the following image.

Same with if I use net.soti.mobicontrol.motorola. 

Hi WFeliberty, 

Has MobiControl been granted the notifications access? If so, I may suggest creating a case so I can have a Technician review your circumstances to see what is different from your setup and mine.

You can open a case by emailing us at support@soti.net or by selecting the following link.  Send me the case number and I will have someone contact you to troubleshoot this. 

Regards, 

Technical Support | SOTI Inc. |1.905.624.9828 | support@soti.net | soti.net |

Furthermore, I was unable to post the entire instructions set ,so I only applied the screenshots.  Here is some more from the improved instructions I have submitted to our help file team.

8. In the style section of the menu template, copy in the following CSS block:

.mc-notification-on

     {

     position: absolute;

     top: 5px;

     right: 25px;

     text-align: center;

     color: white;

     border-radius: 10px;

     background-color: red;

     width: 20px;

     font-weight: bold;

     }

9. In a div class="row"section, copy the following line as a new entry: <li><a href ="<MCLinkX>"><img src="<MCDispImgX>" /><div class="txt"><MCDISPX></div></a><MCNotificationX></li>

Where the X in MCLinkX, MCDispImgX, MCDISPX, and MCNotificationX represents the position of the menu item in the Lockdown menu item list. i.e. if the notifications menu item was third in the lockdown menu item list, replace MCLinkX with MCLink3.

Try adding this as we did and let me know if the results are same.

Sorry, thought clicking reply would put this under the message I was replying to.....

Can you elaborate on what you mean when you say "when clicking on the notification it allows users to uninstall the application"?  Where are they able to go to, to remove the application.   Perhaps you can provide a screenshot of the area that the user is able to access when the notifications are enable VIA this method.   

Hi,

I also tried this and got the same result in that you can basically access the app settings. 

and after clicking the notification, brings you to the app settings, where depending on the app, uninstall is there, and always the option to force stop