Using Profile Manager

EMDK For Xamarin 6.0

Profile Manager is an exclusive EMDK technology offered within your IDE, providing a GUI based development tool. This allows you to write fewer lines of code resulting in reduced development time, effort and errors.

Accessing the Profile Manager

  1. Inside your IDE, select an open Xamarin.Android project.

    NOTE: Profile manager will create a profile xml file and add it to your project. Selecting and open project will tell profile manager which project you want the profile added to.

  2. Select "EMDK" -> "Profile Manager" on the tool bar.

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Creating a Profile

  1. Open the "EMDK Profile Manager".

  2. Click "Create".

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  3. Enter a name for your new Profile. This name is how the profile will be identified by the EMDK.

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  4. Select the MX version you would like to use in your profile.

    Use the Choosing a MX Version Guide as an aid to decide which MX version to use.

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  5. Select the features you would like to enable by selecting the item from the list of "Available Features" and clicking the right arrow button.

    Note:

    You must enable both a Data Capture Delivery Feature and a Data Capture Input Feature for the profile to send data to your application. For example "Barcode" and "Intent".

    You can remove a feature from the "Selected Features" list by clicking the left arrow button.

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  6. Select a "Selected Features" and the list of parameters will populate on the right hand side of the dialog. When you click on a parameter a description with populate on the lower left hand corner of the dialog.

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  7. When complete click "Finish".

  8. Click "Close".

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    Note:
    The profile XML will be generated and saved to "EMDKConfig.XML" inside your projects "assets" folder.

Editing a Profile

  1. Open the EMDK Profile Manager.

  2. Select a Profile to modify and click "Edit".

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  3. Edit the profile using the Profile Manager in the same way you would when creating a new profile.

  4. When complete click "Finish".

  5. Click "Close".

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    Note:
    The profile XML will be updated and saved to "EMDKConfig.XML" inside your projects "assets" folder.

Renaming a Profile

  1. Open the EMDK Profile Manager.

  2. Select a Profile to rename and click "Rename".

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  3. Enter the new name and click "Rename";

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  4. Click "Close".

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    Note:
    The profile XML will be updated and saved to "EMDKConfig.XML" inside your projects "assets" folder.

Copying a Profile

  1. Open the EMDK Profile Manager.

  2. Select a Profile to copy and click "Copy".

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  3. Enter the a name profile name to uses and click "Copy";

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  4. Click "Close".

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    Note:
    The profile XML will be updated and saved to "EMDKConfig.XML" inside your projects "assets" folder.

Upgrading a Profile

Note: The Profile Manager does not provide a method to downgrade a profile, so the upgrade process is not reversible. It is advised that you make a copy of your profile before upgrading.

  1. Open the EMDK Profile Manager.

  2. Select a Profile to upgrade and click "Upgrade".

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  3. Select the MX version you would like to upgrade to and click "Upgrade";
    Use the Choosing a MX Version Guide as an aid to decide which MX version to use.

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  4. Edit the profile using the Profile Manager in the same way you would when creating a new profile.

  5. When complete click "Finish".

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Deleting a Profile

  1. Open the EMDK Profile Manager.

  2. Select a Profile to delete and click "Delete".

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  3. Confirm delete by clicking "Delete";

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  4. Click "Close".

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    Note:
    The profile XML will be updated and saved to "EMDKConfig.XML" inside your projects "assets" folder.

Using the Profile Manager API

Once you create your profiles using the Profile Manager, they will be bundled with your application and available to access using the Profile Manager APIs. These profiles will NOT be applied on the device until it is processed using these APIs.

Multiple Ways to Access

In the ProfileManager API, you will see methods for ProcessProfile and ProcessProfileAsync. Essentially the last parameter, extraData, is one of two types:

  • Document - data will be handled as a XML Document.
  • String - data will be handled as a raw string.

Creating or Activating a Profile

A profile is created or activated with using the PROFILE_FLAG.SET option. If the profileFlag is set to SET, and if the given profile is not available, it will look for a valid profile in the extraData argument and if present, the profile will be added to the internal XML volatile repository and also applied to the device. If the profile is present, then it will be applied to the device.


// Call processPrfoileAsync with profile name, 'Set' flag and modify data to update the profile
EMDKResults results = profileManager.ProcessProfileAsync(profileName, ProfileManager.PROFILE_FLAG.Set, modifyData);

Usage Notes

Get Started with a Tutorial

Be sure to follow step by step instructions for using the Profile Manager and the associated API's in the Getting Started Tutorial

Multiple Instance of Features

There should only be one instance of the DataCapture feature. The EMDK Profile Manager will not allow you to add multiple DataCapture features, but may happen if you are manually editing the EMDKConfig.xml. Other profile features can have multiple instances and may be required in some cases. For example, you may need two 'Certificate Manager' features. The first one to initialize the certificate store and the second one to install a new certificate.

Order of Features

The profile features will be applied synchronously in the order they appear. For example, you may want to set the clock before you attempt to connect to a Wi-Fi network.

extraData as XML String

The processProfile method has an overload method that allows sending XML content in the extraData parameter as a String.

Method Signature:


// Pass in a string in XML form
ProcessProfileAsync(String profileName, ProfileManager.PROFILE_FLAG profileFlag, String[] extraData)

profileName can be:

  1. [Name of Profile] - to reference the entire profile. ex: 'EMDKProfile1'
  2. [profileName]/[featureType]/[feature friendly name in profile parameters] to just edit part of the profile. For example, if my profile is called 'Profile1' and the name I gave to the Clock feature is 'ckEST'. Passing 'profileName' as 'Profile1/Clock/ckEST' will just process this part of the profile.
    • Valid [featureType]: ActivitySelection, Barcode, MSR, Intent, Keystroke, IP, Clock, PowerMgr, PersistMgr, CertMgr, AppMgr, AccessMgr, Wi-Fi, GprsMgr

XML String Structure

One way you can see how this XML string should be structured is to use the Profile Manager and inspect the XML file that is created:

  1. Open any project in either Visual Studio or Xamarin Studio that does not have a EMDK profile defined already (so you get just the parameters you want to change).
  2. Select EMDK / Profile Manager from the menu.
  3. Add the Profile features you want and selection the options you wish to use.
  4. Click Finish when you are done with your selections.
  5. Look in the assets folder and open EMDKConfig.xml
  6. Notice the XML structure that is shown. This complete structure is to be passed in the extraData parameter as a string. You can choose to copy and paste this into your code to be used.

WARNING!: XML parm names and values may not be the same as what is presented in the Profile Manager wizard. Pay close attention to the fields of interest. It is not recommended to manually edit this XML, use the Profile Manager Wizard to ensure proper formation of the XML structure and values.

Profile Name Usage Notes

If the ProfileName node is given in extraData and the ProfileFlag is SET, ProfileName in ExtraData should match with the first parameter passed to processProfile.

Example:


string[] extraData = new string[1];
extraData[0]=
"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" +
"<characteristic type=\"Profile\">" +
"<parm name=\"ProfileName\" value=\" EMDKProfile1\"/>" +
"<characteristic type=\"Clock\">" +
"<parm name=\"emdk_name\" value=\"ck1\"/>" +
"<parm name=\"Date\" value=\"2013-05-23\" />" +
"<parm name=\"Time\" value=\"6:59:00\" />" +
"<parm name=\"TimeZone\" value=\"America/Los_Angeles\" />" +
"</characteristic>"+
"</characteristic>";

emdkStatus = mProfileManager.ProcessProfileAsync("EMDKProfile1", ProfileManager.PROFILE_FLAG.SET, extraData);

  • If the ProfileName node is NOT given in extraData and the ProfileFlag is SET, the content will be merged with the profile given in the first parameter passed to processProfile.

  • If the ProfileFlag is SET and the profile given in the first parameter passed to processProfile does not exist in EMDKConfig.xml, the profile will be appended to the internal repository.

  • DataCapture content (Activity Selection, Barcode, MSR, Intent, Keystroke, IP) is considered as a whole and setting any individual feature will set as a whole. In other words, setting "EmdkSampleProfile-1/Keystroke" will push all the DataCapture features to the device.

Feature Name Usage Notes

Each specific profile feature can be named so that only that portion of the profile can be referenced. This can be accomplished by:

  1. Specifying a name for the specific feature within a profile.
  2. Using the fully qualified name as the first parameter of the processProfile method.
  • If the ProfileFlag is SET, the emdk_name given in ExtraData should match the third part of the profileName passed to the processProfile method (first parameter).

In the following example, we created a profile called EMDKProfile1 and added the Clock feature with a name of ck2. Now we can modify that profile using the processProfile method, making sure we specify the emdk_name parameter as ck2 and use a profileName of EMDKProfile1/Clock/ck2 in the processProfile method:


string[] extraData = new string[1];
extraData[0]=
"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" +
"<characteristic type=\"Profile\">" +
"<parm name=\"ProfileName\" value=\" EMDKProfile1\"/>" +
"<characteristic type=\"Clock\">" +
"<parm name=\"emdk_name\" value=\"ck2\"/>" +
"<parm name=\"Date\" value=\"2013-05-23\" />" +
"<parm name=\"Time\" value=\"6:59:00\" />" +
"<parm name=\"TimeZone\" value=\"America/Los_Angeles\" />" +
"</characteristic>"+
"</characteristic>";

emdkStatus = mProfileManager.ProcessProfileAsync("EMDKProfile1/Clock/ck2", ProfileManager.PROFILE_FLAG.SET, extraData);
  • If the ProfileFlag is SET, the emdk_name is NOT given in ExtraData and if the first parameter passed to processProfileis has the fully qualified name (ex: EMDKProfile1/Clock/ck2) , content will be appended to the profile (this only applicable for non-DataCapture features).

Example: 


string[] extraData = new string[1];
extraData[0]=
"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" +
"<characteristic type=\"Profile\">" +
"<parm name=\"ProfileName\" value=\" EMDKProfile1\"/>" +
"<characteristic type=\"Clock\">" +
"<parm name=\"Date\" value=\"2013-05-23\" />" +
"<parm name=\"Time\" value=\"6:59:00\" />" +
"<parm name=\"TimeZone\" value=\"America/Los_Angeles\" />" +
"</characteristic>"+
"</characteristic>";

emdkStatus = mProfileManager.ProcessProfile("EMDKProfile1/Clock", ProfileManager.PROFILE_FLAG.SET, extraData);

PROFILE_FLAG.SET Usage Summary

Here is a summary of the above scenarios when using PROFILE_FLAG.SET and XML in the extraData parameter:

profileName EMDKConfig.XML extraData Behavior
Profile1 Contains all features in xml No Settings specified in XML will get applied to the device.
Profile1/Barcode Contains all features in xml No Settings specified in DataCapture nodes in XML will get applied to the device.
Profile1/Barcode/Bar1 Contains all features in xml No Settings specified in DataCapture nodes in XML will get applied to the device given that the emdk_name is set as “Bar1”.
Profile1/Clock Contains all features in xml(Clk1 and Clk2) No All the Clock feature nodes are applied to the device.
Profile1/Clock/Clk1 Contains all features in xml(Clk1 and Clk2) No Settings defined in the Clk1 node will be applied to the device.
Profile1/Clock/Clk2 Contains all features in xml(Clk1 and Clk2) No Settings defined in the Clk2 node will be applied to the device.
Profile1 Contains all features in xml Settings for Barcode and Clk2 Settings in XML and in extraData gets applied to the device
Profile1/Barcode Contains all features in xml Settings for Barcode and Clk2 FAILURE is returned
Profile1/Barcode/Bar1 Contains all features in xml Settings for Barcode and Clk1 FAILURE is returned
Profile1/Clock Contains all features in xml(Clk1 and Clk2) Settings for Barcode and Clk1 FAILURE is returned
Profile1/Clock Contains all features in xml(Clk1 and Clk2) Settings for Barcode and Clk2 FAILURE is returned
Profile1/Clock/Clk1 Contains all features in xml(Clk1 and Clk2) Settings for Barcode and Clk1 FAILURE is returned