SOTI Pulse Logo

Gboard managed app config

MC
Melvin Cornelissen
coolblue

Hi all,

I'm deploying Gboard along with a managed app config and have the following challenge. Our devices have a scanner attached to them that's set as an HID which causes the on-screen keyboard to hide itself.

Within Gboard there's a separate setting from the physical keyboard setting that forces it to show itself. This however doest not seem to be a setting that we can push through the app config. Is that correct?

Also what are the options for the Keyboard Mode within the app config?

There does not seem to be a lot of documentation about the managed app config options.

This setting:

managed app config gboard
12 months ago
Android
ANSWERS
RS
Rafael Schäfer
12 months ago

I don't see this either in it's managed app config.

But maybe there's a different way to do this, what kind of device model/manufacturer are you using?

MC
Melvin Cornelissen
11 months ago

We are using Elo Touch Solutions devices. They got AOSP installed currently. I have found a workaround which does show the keyboard toolbar which allows the end users to open up the full on-screen keyboard so that's better than nothing. Also checking if we can get the barcode scanner to a serial connection rather than the HID USB that we currently push.

It's just sad that we can't push that specific setting :p 

Currently I got this one:

RS
Rafael Schäfer
11 months ago
MC
Melvin Cornelissen
11 months ago

We got all of those in place and even though it does have some settings to manage the keyboard it is the actual setting in Gboard that seems to overrule the state of the keyboard.

As stated before ELO pushes the AOSP version with corresponding keyboard but that one has its own challenges and then I prefer Gboard.

RS
Rafael Schäfer
11 months ago

Ok, then in this case you are correct to contact Google about it. Not sure if you should go the way through GBoard support (https://support.google.com/gboard/contact/gboard_dsa?sjid=12782897804639120723-EU) or maybe via Android Enterprise Community (https://www.androidenterprise.community/) as this is managed app config which is only used on managed devices.

MD
Matt Dermody Diamond Contributor
11 months ago

What version of Gboard is installed on the device? It should be honoring the OEMConfig administered setting to disable the virtual keyboard display when a physical keyboard is present assuming you've applied that setting through Elo's OEMConfig app. If it is not honoring the setting it could be an issue with the specific version of Gboard. There was an issue with version 14.4.07.646482735 where Gboard was still being displayed but that was then corrected in 14.5.04.655125648. My guess is that you're already on a higher version if the App Config settings for Gboard are being applied as Gboard is likely being upgraded by Play at the same time, but it's still worth checking since there were known issues with 14.4.x

MC
Melvin Cornelissen
11 months ago

We're running 14.8.05.686567880-release-arm64-v8a on all our devices. Still the OEMConfig app configuration is being ignored though. 

The Elo devices are kept up-to-date with EloCare but are mostly still on Android 10. I'll check if there's any difference with the Android 12 devices and if so plan to get the fleet to 12. Which needs to happen anytime soon anyways. 

Thanks for you message! 

RC
Raymond Chan Diamond Contributor
11 months ago

Hi Melvin,

Gboard is developed by Google.   Brief information on each managed configuration parameter shown in MDM app policy UI are actually information embedded inside the app apk file by the app developers.    For most detailed and authoritative information on how to configure and what are the expected behaviour, one should directly find on-line information or contact technical support team from the software vendor of the app ( Google in this case for your interested app "com.google.android.inputmethod.latin" ).   

MC
Melvin Cornelissen
11 months ago

Hi Raymond,

Yes I’m aware, I was just hoping someone here would’ve had the same challenge and gotten to some sort of solution 😄.

I’ll contact the lovely people at Google to see if they can help me out. 

Thanks for thinking along! 

A
ATMOD@SOTI
11 months ago

Hi Melvin,

Thanks for posting on SOTI Pulse.  Thanks Raymond, Matt and Rafael for responding to the post, your expertise and willingness to help are greatly appreciated!

Has your query been resolved? If this post did not assist you in resolving the issue completely and you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to reach out or you can contact SOTI Support (support@soti.net) to open a new case and one of our support engineer will be there to assist you.

 

Kind Regards,

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

Similar Discussions