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Feature Request | Maintenance Mode?

J
Joakim
Essity

I would like to know if there is a need of a "Maintenance Mode" to be set on devices via SOTI MobiControl?

I was working remotely on some devices (Android) the other day and suddenly someone was fiddling around with the device causing challenges to perform some needed activities. These activities were not time consuming however due to the user interaction on that specific site we couldn't finish a task to check an issue on the device.

- And I was thinking, why on earth can I not lock this device down for the end-user...

Other scenarios would be if we from an central perspective ask for a short change window in a certain site to e.g. deploy one or more application updates or an longer activity in terms of updating an operating system version on devices.

What do I mean by Maintenance Mode?

  • Displaying a message on the display saying that this device is undergoing "Maintenance" and that it should be put back docked/inserted to the Charging Station if not being there already
  • This mode shall present somewhat of a locked down state to the user in order to block the end-user to select or press any buttons to use applications that was present with or without a locked-down screen in order for the maintenance to be processed without any interruptions 
    •    It shall;
      • a) take over or be placed over a current locked-down screen
      • b) prohibit an end-user to interrupt an administrator
      • c) allow an Administrator remotely to check devices with the "Maintenance Mode" still being active for end-users

How shall we as administrators activate Maintenance Mode?

  • Possibility to right-click and set maintenance mode on;
    • a) single devices
    • b) selected several devices
    • c) on a folder

Maybe there is a solution for this already "out of the box" within Android. Then please let me know!

Feel free to add to this topic. If SOTI cannot resolve this I guess they have to work with Google to resolve it in a joint operation when it comes to the Android operating system.

android-enterprise lockdown device-maintenance maintenance service
5 years ago
SOTI MobiControl
ANSWERS
J
JVMOD@SOTI
5 years ago

Hello Joakim,

Thank you for your post, if you're looking to only notify the user to restrict them to use their devices, you send a pop-up message on the device.

showmessagebox

Displays a message box on the device screen.

Note: The Android Plus agent has the following limitations:
  • It does not support a complex showmessagebox that contains more than one command
  • It cannot return the user response
  • It does not support "if" and related keywords
 showmessagebox message [timer] [type] [default button] [action]

Where

  • message is the message displayed in the message box. Use quotation marks (" ") if there are spaces in the message.
  • [timer] is the number of seconds until the message box disappears automatically. If you omit a timer value or add the keyword NO_TIMER, the message box will persist until the device user dismisses it.
  • [type] is type of of message box. Options are:
    • 1 displays an information window with an OK button
    • 2 displays a question window with Yes and No buttons
    • 3 displays a warning window with an OK button
    • 4 displays a question window with OK and Cancel buttons
    • 5 displays an error window with an OK button
  • [default button] sets the default buttons for message box types 2 (YES | NO) or 4 (OK | CANCEL)
  • NOTIFY_DEVICE notifies the device user of the message, depending on the notification settings applied to the device. That is, devices set to ring, will ring, set to vibrate, will vibrate, and muted devices will have no notification. Only supported on Android Plus devices with agents 14.0.0 or later.

The return values for the showmessagebox are stored in a global variable, ShowMessageBoxReturn This variable can be used in scripts as %ShowMessageBoxReturn% to execute actions based on user response. Possible return values are IDYES, IDNO, IDOK, IDCANCEL. The value for this global variable does not change if the type is not 2 or 4.

Example

To show a simple message:

showmessagebox "This is a test message"

To provide device information using a macro:

showmessagebox "Your device's IP address is %IP%"

To set a 3 second timer to your message:

showmessagebox "This is a test message with a 3 second timer" 3

To add YES and NO buttons to your message box with no timer

showmessagebox "This is a test message with Yes/No button and no timer" NO_TIMER 2

To provide followup actions to a user response to message box:

showmessagebox "Abort the operation?" NO_TIMER 4 YES
if %ShowMessageBoxReturn% == IDYES goto Exit

You can send this script on device-level and group level as well.

Please let me know if this works for you.

Regards,

J
Joakim
5 years ago (edited 5 years ago)

No this doesn't do the trick. I'm fully aware of sending messages to devices on device or group level.

Please read my post carefully and you'll see that I'm not looking for a workaround but instead a particular set of needs when being set in "maintenance mode" in order to allow me as an administrator to work uninterrupted and keep an end-user locked out.

By using your suggestion "Sending a message" it will give the end user;

a) possibility to remove the messages sent

b) possibility to use their applications if still in lockdown screen

c) possibility to disturb an administrator if unlocked to "administrator mode" and access stuff they shouldn't 

I'm looking for a method to actually allow an administrator to work "uninterrupted" when being set in Maintenance mode. And I thought to post it it here in the forums in order to see if anyone or SOTI themselves has good input to suggest a good feature via MobiControl or coordinated with Android / iOS etc.

J
JVMOD@SOTI
5 years ago

Hello Joakim,

Thank you for your response, unfortunately, we do have this feature in current MobiControl version.

I would like you to create a support case(click here) or call SOTI Support team(click here) to raise a Feature Request. These feature requests should be created by customers via a Support case.

To provide you with a heads up, this would not be an instant resolution as SOTI Product Team have to work internally with different departments to get this added. So, this may take weeks to months to get it included in the new build. Please follow the release notes of SOTI MobiControl to get an update on the improvements done on the new release.

https://docs.soti.net/soti-mobicontrol/release-notes/

 

Also, if this post has helped you in solving your inquiry, I would request you to mark the particular comment as "is solution", so others may benefit from this information.

 

Regards,

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