Add a bookmark to the home screen for an android d...

msweisberg · ‎01-03-2018

Anyone know how to use a profile to add a bookmark for a url to the home screen for an android device that is enrolled into AfW/Android Enterprise.

Normally we just use the standard bookmark profile and that has worked just fine. But any profile categorized as ' android' are not applied to devices in AfW. Only profiles categorized as ' Android - Work' are.

Boe_K · ‎01-22-2018

I'm not aware of any at this time Michael but hopefully they get this added soon as this also prevents the Privacy App/Web Clip from pushing out to Android Enterprise (aka AFW) devices. We opened a support ticket up for it awhile back and were told they are working on a fix but they did not give us any time frame as to when it would be enabled.

msweisberg · ‎01-22-2018

Yeah...been in contact with AW on this. Seems the google api for this doesn't exist. They have a feature enhancement request into google to create that api.

sam_newton · ‎03-06-2018

msweisberg · ‎03-13-2018

Sam - you put a post in here about using a custom xml settings to put a bookmark on the home screen. However, I don't see your post and I am very interested in your idea.

Can you share it again.

PeterAir · ‎03-13-2018

This is possible via custom XML.
And you can get the customer XML, by creating a standard/legacy profile for Android, adding the Bookmarks as needed and then saving the profile.
In the profile list view screen select the profile and click XML.

Copy the XML text, then create a new AfW profile.
Go to CUSTOM SETTINGS and paste the XML.

Remove the beginning and ending section of ' wap-provisioningdoc' , so that your custom payload starts and ends with the section ' characteristic' .

msweisberg · ‎03-13-2018

I tried that and while the custom xml profile deploys, it doesn't create any sort of bookmark anywhere.

PeterAir · ‎03-13-2018

Michael: I tested this on Work Managed enrolled Motorola Moto G5 and got the bookmark deployed as expected.
Possibly there is still some differences on different devices?

Technically the Privacy ' app' and catalog are also just webclips and they seem to work, too.

Would be nice, if somebody from AirWatch could shed some light into this discussion and clarify the payload that AirWatch is using for Privacy and Catalog clip.

msweisberg · ‎03-14-2018

So this is the code I am using:

' <characteristic type=' com.airwatch.android.bookmarks' uuid=' 94b40404-d3e3-4ca1-ba38-fe31c722105b' >

</characteristic>'

The profile deploys out to my device as expected but nothing else happens. No icon shows on the homescreen, nothing is added to the app catalog, nothing is added to chrome, nothing.

PeterAir · ‎03-14-2018

I've been testing this further now and the results are ' confusing' .

On my Motorola G5 with Android v7, I get the bookmark webclip deployed to the home screen without issues.
I have one custom payload with two bookmarks, where the first does not have an icon file and the second is the XML from Michaels post, including the icon and it deploys just fine: https://aerion.box.com/v/afw-bookmark

On my Nokia 6 with Android v8, enrolled to the same environment with the same account, the bookmark profile happily installs, but does not show anywhere.

Another thing I noticed on the Nokia 6, is, that the App Catalog webclip is visible, but the Privacy webclip is not.
Not sure, if it's the Android version difference or device vendor difference.

Michael, which kind of device with which OS are you using?

Anyway, it seems that this certainly needs some clarification from AirWatch and not just the XML, as it is not reliable.

msweisberg · ‎03-14-2018

So, we are a samsung galaxy shop. Right now a mix of galaxy s6-s8 devices and soon to be s9. Our OUS devices have started to get OS 8, but US devices are still on OS 7. Most of them run OS 7 but we still have some running OS 6. This has been tested on OS 6 and 7 with no successful result.

GerardSchutrups · ‎03-28-2018

Tried Peter G's solution (custom XML). Works like a charm!

msweisberg · ‎03-28-2018

Seems to work on any device except the galaxy S line.

DaveWhiteDaveWh · ‎04-20-2018

Tried this and doesn't display the shortcut on the desktop of a Nokia 3 or 5. I see it doesn't work on the Nokia 6 above either.

CRAIGJOHNSTONCR · ‎05-11-2018

I wanted to add my two cents to the discussion.
I've been using web shortcuts for years in AirWatch and they have been correctly appearing on all iOS and Android phones no matter what the brand and OS version.

In fact, just a few weeks ago, I provisioned a new Android test phone for myself, and the web shortcut deployed perfectly.

Now yesterday I created a new web shortcut, same as I always do, and this is what I'm seeing.

iOS devices - Profile deploys - icon appears on the Home screen (as expected)
Android - Profile deploys - icon never appears on the Home screen (not expected).

Being that this same test phone (its a Galaxy S7 edge) received an older web shortcut just a few weeks ago, and now it cannot show a new one, seems (to me at least) to indicate a bug in either the AW console, or the Android Agent.
Maybe when the web shortcut profile is being generated at the console, it messes up the XML. Just speculation.

Either way, this has been working for years on Android and iOS, and it is not a Google/Android issue as someone suggested earlier in the thread.

I'd like to know if anyone has found a solution, or can shed anymore light on the issue.

CRAIGJOHNSTONCR · ‎05-11-2018

Its amazing what a cup of coffee does for a problem.

It seems that the AW console defaults an Android web shortcut to NOT display on the Home screen. (silly).

Try this. Go back and edit the Android web shortcut, then click Edit app Info, then click the Advanced section. There you will see that under advanced, the default is to NOT show on the Home screen. Simply change that to Yes, save and publish, and even if it shows Unchanged for all devices, it will re-deploy the profile, and viola! Web shortcut appears on the Home screen.

VMWare I think, needs to change that default to YES for Android web shortcuts. Also, maybe automatically expand the Advanced section when creating a web shortcut so web can see that its set incorrectly.

Please let me know if you guys are able to fix the issue using my method.

DavidFink · ‎05-11-2018

Craig, would this work for the Catalog? I am on console 9.2 and using AFW limited to smartgroups. When I enroll a device not using the AFW workflow I don't get the catalog shortcut at all. So I've tried making a weblink to catalog.cn###ds.awmdm.com and that isn't working either.

PeterAir · ‎05-22-2018

I created a support ticket and got confirmation that web bookmarks are not officially supported on AFW.
AirWatch Agent 8.2 will have a custom payload option to deploy we bookmarks, but it will generate a one time permission request from users.
So let's see what happens, after agent v8.2 is out.

DavidFink · ‎05-23-2018

There is another change at play with Android 8.0 AirWatch will have to accommodate.

Android 8.0 (API level 26) includes the following changes to app shortcuts:
•The com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT broadcast no longer has any effect on your app, because it is now a private, implicit broadcast. Instead, you should create an app shortcut by using the requestPinShortcut() method from the ShortcutManager class.

I'm not sure if external links work, I found the above here

https://developer.android.com/about/versions/oreo/android-8.0-changes

CRAIGJOHNSTONCR · ‎05-23-2018

Peter G. We are not using Android for Work at all.

When AirWatch rebrands to Workspace ONE UEM (in a few weeks), they will also start defaulting to using AfW for all Android management, but support the older method which uses a Device Admin. I can understand then that if AfW doesn't support web clips that it wouldn't work, but if you are using a ' legacy Android' profile, it should.

The support rep you spoke to may have incorrectly made the assumption that you are already using Workspace ONE UEM which tries to force you into using AfW.

All

Add a bookmark to the home screen for an android device enrolled in AfW/Android Enterprise

Device Management