Technical Guide

The Device Finder application allows managers to view all the devices assigned to one site or store. To best facilitate locating misplaced devices, BlueFletch provides several settings which can be configured to fit the needs particular to an individual store location.

Prerequisite Applications

Besides Device Finder, the following BlueFletch applications need to be installed:

• Launcher - Device Finder gets its settings from the Launcher configuration and shows the other devices for a site based on Launcher's site information service.

• Messaging - The Messaging app facilitates all applications or services communicating with the device.

• Support Agent - When Device Finder sends a ping to locate another device, the Support Agent app receives the ping on the device being located.

• Device ID - On devices running Android 10+, the Device ID app makes the device's serial number accessible to BlueFletch.

Configurations

Include the following settings in the deviceFinder object within the Launcher Configuration file:

Field	Value
pingDeviceEnabled	boolean Controls the capability to ping another device. If false, the message, "This feature has been disabled by your administrator", is displayed upon pressing Ping Device. Default is true.
pingCustomTextEnabled	boolean Controls if a custom text field is available when pinging a device. If true, the custom message will be included in the ping notification if utilized. Default is true. Only applied if pingDeviceEnabled is true.
mapViewEnabled	boolean Controls whether the Map View option, which provides an in-app map of last-known locations of devices, is displayed. If false, the option is hidden. Default is true.
beaconEnabled	boolean Controls whether Device Finder will transmit a beacon signal for location purposes. If false, the beacon signal will not be transmitted, and the Beacon Information section will be hidden in the application's Device Details screens. Default is true, whereby if two or more devices at one site have this value they can view each other's Beacon Information.
missingThresholdInHours	integer Number of hours that may pass without receiving data from a device before it is labeled "Not Responding" in Device Finder. Default is 12.
showCurrentDevice	boolean Controls whether Device Finder will display information about the current device at the top of the device list. Default is false. Introduced in version 2.9.0.

The deviceFinder object and all key-value pairs included in it were introduced in Device Finder 2.6.11 and Launcher 3.16.15.

Beacon Service

The Device Finder application contains a beacon service that is used to help a device locate other devices by proximity. The ability to start the beacon service without a logged-in user was added in the 2.6.16 release of Device Finder. To enable this feature, the Device Finder must be silently initialized by an intent.

The initialization action as a custom intent:

{
      "package": "com.bluefletch.ems.deviceinformation",
      "class": "com.bluefletch.ems.deviceinformation.SilentInitActivity",
      "flags" : 1,
      "typeIntent": "a"
}

Below are examples of one-time initialization commands:

Example ADB

adb shell am start -n com.bluefletch.ems.deviceinformation/com.bluefletch.ems.deviceinformation.SilentInitActivity

Example AirWatch Command

mode=explicit,package=com.bluefletch.ems.deviceinformation,class=com.bluefletch.ems.deviceinformation.SilentInitActivity,broadcast=false

Mapping Support

As of Device Finder version 2.8.0, the mapping feature is supported by OpenStreetView. The host URLS used are:

https://a.tile.openstreetmap.org https://b.tile.openstreetmap.org https://c.tile.openstreetmap.org