Suppressing key mapping on Zebra tablet using Intune

I've been doing a lot of work with Zebra devices recently. In this blog post, I showed how to use Zebra StageNow to create an XML file which could be deployed by Intune. I used the same technique to solve this latest problem.

I've developed an Android Enterprise dedicated device solution to turn Zebra ET40 rugged tablets into kiosk devices running Chrome only. Everything was working correctly except for one minor detail. I could press the top left button on the device which displayed the settings menu for the device. That's not what you want on a kiosk.

The button is labelled number 3 in the graphic above. The Zebra documentation tells me that this is a programmable button (or a key that supports key mapping) called P1. I carried out a lot of testing and I discovered that pressing P1 on the ET40 defaults to the settings app. I needed to suppress this key mapping on P1.

I was able to do that by creating a StageNow Xpertmode profile.

I added the KeyMappingMgr CSP.

I selected the following settings and saved the profile:

• “Remap Key” button
• "The key to modify" :  Select “P1 button” from drop down
• "Key behaviour": Suppress Key

 Then I exported the settings to xml.

<wap-provisioningdoc>

  <characteristic version="9.2" type="KeyMappingMgr">

    <parm name="Action" value="1" />

    <characteristic type="KeyMapping">

      <parm name="KeyIdentifier" value="P1" />

      <characteristic type="BaseTable">

        <parm name="BaseBehavior" value="5" />

      </characteristic>

    </characteristic>

  </characteristic>

</wap-provisioningdoc>

This XML file was then use to create an Intune configuration profile based on the Zebra OEMConfig app. 

Select Configure > select the three dots next to Transaction Steps > and then select Add setting.

 

From the list of settings select, Device Administration Configuration.

Under Device Administration Configuration only two settings are required.

• Action = Submit XML
• Submit XML = the .xml data we copied above. Paste it into this field.

Complete the wizard to create the device configuration profile and assign it to a group of your devices. Now pressing the P1 button now has no effect and the kiosk is secure.

Until next time......