This article outlines how we use the MobiControl folders to give customers and partners easy access to multiple endpoints and configurations.
Standard Setup
Once we implement a new customer, we use a very simple standard setup looking like the following structure in MobiControl.
- Customer Name
- New Devices
- Production
- Test
The purpose of each sub folder is:
New Devices: Used as landing place when a new device is enrolled for the specific customer. Mobile WMS is not installed in this folder.
Test: Used to push out the Test configuration to the customers mobile devices including (configuration files, endpoint and Mobile WMS).
Production: Used to push out the Production configuration to the customers mobile devices including (configuration files, endpoint and Mobile WMS).
Moving a device between these folders in MobiControl will cause a change on the device, as it installs the files and Mobile WMS application that are setup for the given folder.
See here for how to move a device: How to move devices between folders in MobiControl
Managing Multiple Companies
In some cases the customer is managing multiple companies, we will handle this using the following blueprint.
Imaging the customer is operating in Company X and Company Y, in that case the proposed structure will look like the following:
- Customer Name
- New Devices
- Production
- Company X
- Company Y
- Test
The only difference is now that we have added two child folders under the Production folder, in order to allow the customer to have different Production Configurations.
Thus, the customer will either place their devices in the Company X or Company Y folder under Production depending on whether the device is used in one or the other company.
The Test folder will however not get any sub folders, we will instead simply add an additional endpoint to the configuration files for the Test folder in order to allow the end user to easily change company during testing.
Changing Company in Test will only require the user to select the right endpoint on the login page, see below:
We believe that this is a very simple way to manage this in Test, whereas the explicit sub folders provides a more safe process in Production where an end user should not by mistake be allowed to select the wrong endpoint.
FAQ
Q: Why do you have a different structure between Test and Production when managing multiple companies?
A: We want to make sure that the change of company is a very explicit action in Production, whereas we want to make this easily available during the testing process. Also, creating and maintaining multiple sub folders are more laborios and therefore we believe it is cheaper for the customer to only have this when needed.