The Crux of Android 14 Utility Migration and Its Affect
First I wish to give an summary of the Meraki Programs Supervisor (SM) utility. Programs Supervisor is Meraki’s endpoint administration product. We assist administration for a lot of totally different platforms, together with iOS, Android, macOS, and Home windows. “Managing” a tool can imply monitoring its on-line standing, pushing profiles and apps to it, and/or implementing safety insurance policies, amongst different issues. With Programs Supervisor, this administration all occurs by means of Meraki’s on-line interface known as Dashboard. Examples and code snippets talked about on this weblog are extra particular to the Android SM utility.
Migration of functions to any SDK primarily consists of 2 duties from the developer’s perspective. One is – how the appliance behaves when put in on a tool with an Android model apart from the goal SDK of the app. And secondly, how the app will behave when the goal SDK is modified. Builders want to know what new options, or updates of any current function, and its affect on the appliance are.
This doc focuses on a few of the modifications impacting builders with Android 14 migration. It additionally covers migration of the Programs Supervisor app to Android 14, and challenges encountered in the course of the migration and testing.
Font Scaling
In earlier variations of Android i.e., 13 Non-linear font scaling was supported as much as 130% however in Android 14, it’s supported as much as 200% which may affect the UI of the appliance. Within the utility if font dimensions are declared utilizing sp (scaled pixel) items there are probabilities of minimal affect on the appliance as a result of Android framework would apply these scaling elements. Due to nonlinear scaling of font density scaling won’t be correct.
Key factors
- TypedValue.applyDimension() to transform from sp items to pixels.
- TypedValue.deriveDimension() to transform pixels to sp
- LineHeight items ought to be laid out in sp to handle proportion together with textual content measurement.
Background Course of Limitation
Android OS is self sustaining to handle the assets effectively by improvising efficiency as properly. One of many pointers to attain the identical is by caching functions within the background and solely when the system wants reminiscence these functions will probably be faraway from reminiscence. All functions ought to adjust to Google Play coverage and therefore killing of processes of different functions are strictly restricted in Android 14. Therefore killBackgroundProcessess() can kill solely the background processes of your personal utility.
Foreground Service Sorts
In Android 10, a brand new attribute was launched to specify service kind for foreground companies. When utilizing location info within the foreground service it was required to specify the sort as “location”. Whereas in Android 11, mentioning service kind for utilization of digital camera or microphone in foreground service was mandated. However in Android 14 or above, all foreground companies should be declared with their service varieties.
A number of the new service varieties had been additionally launched in Android 14 – well being, remoteMessaging, shortService, specialUse and systemExempted. If service isn’t related to any of the categories specified, then it is strongly recommended to alter logic to make use of Workmanager or user-initiated information switch jobs. MissingForegroundServiceTypeException will probably be thrown by the system in case service kind will not be specified.
Service kind permissions have to be declared together with specifying the sort in service.
<uses-permission
android:title="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SYSTEM_EXEMPTED" />
<service
android:title=".kiosk.v2.service.KioskBreakoutService"
android:title=".kiosk.v2.service.KioskBreakoutService"
android:foregroundServiceType="systemExempted"
android:exported="false" />
Limitations on Implicit Intent and Pending Intent
Implicit intents are solely delivered to exported elements. This restriction ensures the appliance’s implicit intents aren’t utilized by every other malicious apps. Additionally, all mutable pending intent should specify a part or package deal info to the intent, if not the system throws an exception.
Implicit intent ought to be export just like this:
<exercise
android:title=".AppActivity"
android:exported="true"> <!-- This should be TRUE in any other case it will throw
exception when beginning the activity-->
<intent-filter>
<motion android:title="com.instance.motion.APP_ACTION" />
<class android:title="android.intent.class.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
</exercise>
If pending intent ought to be mutable, then part data should be specified.
val flags = if (MerakiUtils.isApi31OrHigher()) {
PendingIntent.FLAG_MUTABLE
} else {
PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT
}
val pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(
this,
0,
Intent(context, KioskActivity::class.java).apply {
putExtra(ACTION, KioskActivity.BREAK_OUT_SINGLE_APP)
},
flags
)
Export conduct to be specified for Runtime-registered broadcasts
Previous to Android 13, there have been no restrictions on sending broadcasts to a dynamically registered receiver when it’s guarded by signature permission. Whereas in Android 13, aiming at making runtime receivers secure, an elective flag was launched to specify whether or not the receiver is exported and visual to different functions. To guard apps from safety vulnerabilities, in Android 14 or above context-registered receivers are required to specify a flag RECEIVER_EXPORTED or RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED to point whether or not receiver ought to be exported or to not all different apps on the gadget. That is exempted for system broadcasts.
ContextCompat.registerReceiver( requireContext(), receiver,intentFilter(), ContextCompat.RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED
Non-Dismissable foreground notifications
In Android 14 or increased, foreground notification might be dismissed by the person. However exceptions have been offered for Gadget coverage Controller (DPC) and supporting packages for enterprise.
JobScheduler reinforces callback and community conduct
Previous to Android 14, for any job working for too lengthy, it will cease and fail silently. When App targets Android 14 and if the job exceeds the assured time on the primary thread, the app triggers an ANR with an error message “No response to onStartJob” or “No response to onStopJob”. It’s instructed to make use of WorkManager for any asynchronous processing.
Adjustments particular to Android Enterprise
Android Enterprise is a Google-led initiative to allow using Android gadgets and apps within the office. It is usually termed as Android for Work. It helps to handle and distribute personal apps alongside public apps, offering a unified enterprise app retailer expertise for finish customers.
GET_PROVISIONING_MODE intent conduct
For signing in with a Google account, GET_PROVISIONING_MODE was launched in Android 12 or increased. In Android 14 or increased, DPC apps obtain this intent which may carry the data to assist both Absolutely managed mode or work profile mode.
wipeDevice – for resetting gadget
Scope of wipeData is now restricted to profile house owners solely. For apps focusing on Android 14 or increased, this methodology would throw system error when known as in gadget proprietor mode. New methodology wipeDevice for use for resetting the gadget together with USES_POLICY_WIPE_DATA permission.
Newly added fields and strategies
ContactsContract.Contacts#ENTERPRISE_CONTENT_URI
ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Cellphone#ENTERPRISE_CONTENT_URI
When cross-profile contacts coverage is allowed in DevicePolicyManager, these fields can be utilized for itemizing all work profile contacts and cellphone numbers from private apps together with READ_CONTACTS permission.
To assist setting contact entry coverage and callerID, beneath strategies are newly added;
setManagedProfileContactsAccessPolicy
getManagedProfileContactsAccessPolicy
setManagedProfileCallerIdAccessPolicy
getManagedProfileCallerIdAccessPolicy
Deprecated strategies
Beneath strategies are deprecated and as a substitute strategies specified within the earlier part ought to be used.
DevicePolicyManger#setCrossProfileContactsSearchDisabled
DevicePolicyManger#getCrossProfileContactsSearchDisabled
DevicePolicyManger#setCrossProfileCallerIdDisabled
DevicePolicyManger#getCrossProfileCallerIdDisabled
Challenges throughout Meraki Programs Supervisor App Migration
- To make sure there was no UI breakage, we needed to recheck all of the code base of xml recordsdata associated to all fragments, alert dialog and textual content measurement dimensions.
- Few APIs like wipeDevice(), weren’t talked about within the Android migration 14. Through the testing section it was discovered that wipeData() is deprecated in Android 14 and wipeDevice() was supposed for use for manufacturing facility resetting the gadget efficiently.
- Profile info which might be fetched together with intent GET_PROVISIONING_MODE was additionally missed within the migration information. This was discovered in the course of the regression testing section.
- requestSingleUpdate() of location supervisor all the time requires mutable pending for location updation. However nowhere within the documentation, it’s prescribed about it. Because of this there have been few utility crashes. Needed to determine this out throughout utility testing.
Helpful hyperlinks for reference
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