Is there a way to manipulate settings in a chrome app (on a chromebook) at install from the chrome admin console?

[Thor Tallmon]

We have an app that is going to be disseminated to potentially thousands of devices.  This app needs to be able to connect to a server of their choosing, but because of the number of devices and environments that this will take place, it is impractical for the device administrators to have to manually enter a URL each time.  Also, there may be situations where there is not outside network access, so we can't have a maintained central server which has all the connection information available.

So my question is this:  is there a way to set settings/variables when an app is installed onto a managed chromebook via admin.google.com or something similar?

[Ben Wells]

+xiyuan, +joshwoodward who might know something about this, or who else to add to the thread.

On Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 2:02 AM, Thor Tallmon <nick.eastw...@gmail.com> wrote:

We have an app that is going to be disseminated to potentially thousands of devices.  This app needs to be able to connect to a server of their choosing, but because of the number of devices and environments that this will take place, it is impractical for the device administrators to have to manually enter a URL each time.  Also, there may be situations where there is not outside network access, so we can't have a maintained central server which has all the connection information available.

So my question is this:  is there a way to set settings/variables when an app is installed onto a managed chromebook via admin.google.com or something similar?

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[Xiyuan Xia]

+Mattias

I don't think this is currently supported to set settings/parameter when pushing an app from admin.google.com.

How do you plan to install the app on thousands of devices? via admin.googoe.com? The device must have access to the Internet in this case. Could the app handle chrome.runtime.onInstalled and fetch the URL from a central server at that time?

[Thor Tallmon]

In theory it could use chrome.runtime.onInstalled, but because we don't know the specifics to each deployment, its unlikely that we'll have access to all the urls - basically the way the app will work is thus:

Web side <==> LAN Network <=(FIREWALL)=> Local Server <== Chrome Application.

Basically, the chrome app, in most instances, will need to point to a server instance set up by the end user, and we might not be aware of it, so we need to find a way for them to set it easily on install.

On Thursday, November 6, 2014 4:37:35 PM UTC-6, Xiyuan Xia wrote:

+Mattias

I don't think this is currently supported to set settings/parameter when pushing an app from admin.google.com.

How do you plan to install the app on thousands of devices? via admin.googoe.com? The device must have access to the Internet in this case. Could the app handle chrome.runtime.onInstalled and fetch the URL from a central server at that time?

On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 12:59 PM, Ben Wells <benw...@chromium.org> wrote:

+xiyuan, +joshwoodward who might know something about this, or who else to add to the thread.

On Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 2:02 AM, Thor Tallmon <nick.eastw...@gmail.com> wrote:

We have an app that is going to be disseminated to potentially thousands of devices.  This app needs to be able to connect to a server of their choosing, but because of the number of devices and environments that this will take place, it is impractical for the device administrators to have to manually enter a URL each time.  Also, there may be situations where there is not outside network access, so we can't have a maintained central server which has all the connection information available.

So my question is this:  is there a way to set settings/variables when an app is installed onto a managed chromebook via admin.google.com or something similar?

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[Mattias Nissler]

The managed storage API was designed for this exact use case. It gives you a Javascript API to obtain settings configured by the admin via remote management, On Chrome OS, you can set app configuration via admin.google.com, there's an "Upload configuration file" button in the app config panel at Device Management > Chrome > App Management > {pick your app} > User Settings > {pick your org unit}. Note that the button only shows for apps that declare their use of the managed storage API, you can try the test app at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/show-managed-storage/ongnjlefhnoajpbodoldndkbkdgfomlp to get the button.

More information here:

https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/storage

http://www.chromium.org/administrators/configuring-policy-for-extensions

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[Thor Tallmon]

Awesome, hopefully I can suss it out then, however I've installed the extension but I can't find "App Management" at all, I have Device Management > Chrome > (User Settings | Public Session Settings | Device Settings | Network | Devices | Advanced), in user settings I see 'pre-installed apps and extensions', 'allowed apps and extensions', 'app / extension install sources'... harrumph

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